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"All inhabitants of the globe are now neighbors," King continued, predicting a time in which not only African Americans would be fully free, but peoples suffering discrimination everywhere. "Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever," he wrote. "The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself."
The challenge we face as responsible community workers, educators and other social providers is to build Dr. King's world house, where he proposed a revolution of values. That is why we must aspire to lift volunteerism towards the poignancy which it could have. That is one where the community and the volunteer work with intention in unity for the common good. That is where I want to live.
Resources
http://www.yp3.org. Activist Learning Online is a new website meant to help educators and young people plan powerful, purposeful learning through social change. The site includes guiding principles and resources for young people, educators and activists. A good read is http://www.bicyclingfish.com/illich.htm "To Hell With Good Intentions" by renown critical thinker Ivan Illich. This 1968 speech provides a strong critique of American volunteers working in Mexico, and when contextualized in the light of modern "service" work, offers a startling analysis of the volunteer movement in America. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0807005738/qid=1063133900/sr=11-1/ref=sr_11_1/002-2561783-4920008 "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?" by Dr. King offers a clear analysis of 1960s America casts a harrowing shadow on America today. The connections he drew between Black Power, affirmative action and American segregation provide a clear glimpse into modern American apartheid; his prescriptions for community building, nonviolence and unity offer a roadmap for a different America. A succinct opportunity for educators and community workers to connect historical purpose with modern action. Finally, the late Brazilian educator Paulo Freire wrote www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0820437980/002-2561783-4920008?v=glance "Mentoring the Mentor", in which he said, "The fundamental task of the mentor is a liberatory task. It is not to encourage the mentor's goals and aspirations and dreams to be reproduced in the mentees, the students, but to give rise to the possibility that the students become the owners of their own history. This is how I understand the need that teachers have to transcend their merely instructive task and to assume the ethical posture of a mentor who truly believes in the total autonomy, freedom, and development of those he or she mentors." (from Chapter Sixteen: "A Response" by Paulo Freire). He offers a critical dialogue between Freire and American educators concerned with applying the Pedagogy of the Oppressed to Western countries. One last excellent read is a paper called http://www.connectforkids.org/usr_doc/7759.pdf "In the Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning". All of these are excellent resources that inform, excite, and challenge volunteerism to become what it truly is...
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Adam Fletcher
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