Dear PEN-L, As an organizer with a welfare rights organization and a student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, I am trying to learn about strategies for helping people to think critically about economics. I am helping to organize a popular education project for the organization that I work with, and I am studying "popular economics" through an independent study project at my school. I've been researching several different kinds of projects that are designed to foster education about economics in non-academic settings and in ways that promote social justice. In addition, I've been reading and thinking a lot about popular education. Although my main goal is to learn about non-academic projects, I'm very interested in the work that leftist/progressive economics teachers are doing in colleges and high schools. I'm sure that you're all extremely busy, but I was hoping that some of the people on the list might have time to explain a little bit about their teaching practices. I have a few main questions. Please feel free to answer any one of them or just to send a general response--anything you have time for. If anyone has worked on educational projects in non-academic settings, I'd love to hear about those also. Thanks very much, Mitch Chanin --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Especially in introductory classes, how do you balance conveying information and helping students to think critically? 2. How do you evaluate the development of your students as critical thinkers? 3. How important is it to you that classes be structured democratically? 4. How much freedom do you have to plan your own syllabus, or to alter your syllabus so as to better meet the needs of students? 5. What relationship do you see between academic education in economics and social justice movements? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
