Day Six: Constructive Program
Earlier this month when I spoke with Dr. Anthony Parel, a Gandhian scholar, he gave me the “top five things one could do to be more like Gandhi.” His list (which has its own page on this site) has been a great reference point throughout the week. So today, I worked on the last item on his list “To build a more just and less violent society and polity through constructive program.”
The “constructive program” that I have worked on building is a new project for both my English and Social Justice classes. This new assignment is called “Life Lab: The Experimental Life & Search for Truth”. The essence of the assignment is to experiment with the way you live so that you can gain some understanding of the a subject that you previously knew little about. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock did this with his film “Supersize Me” and then with his FX television show “30 Days”. Author Barbara Ehrenreich did this and wrote about the experience in her work “Nickel and Dimed: On (not) getting by in America”.
Several other authors and journalists have done this as well.
My first blog, “One Dollar Diet Project” was also a Life Lab, as is this one. This experienced based model for learning seeks to give students the chance to experiment with how they live, in a sustained and reflective way. The project requires: changing the way you live, researching topics related to these changes, interviewing people, blogging every day about the experience, and building a multimedia presentation to share what you learned with a live audience. It is my hope that students will experiment with living (and ultimately truth) in order to deepen their thinking about a subject, transform their lives, and build character.
As Gandhi would say, “If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.”
- Chistopher
