Just before the Thanksgiving break, I had to run an errand over at Santa Anita Mall. As I was fruitlessly looking for a parking spot, I noticed a sign in front of the entrance to Nordstrom that proclaimed (I’m paraphrasing here): “In order to respect the Thanksgiving holidays, Nordstrom will not put up its Christmas decorations until November 26th.” My initial reaction was: “It’s about time!” My second reaction was less enthusiastically idealistic, assuming that, maybe, the store’s Christmas displays had been sidetracked somewhere in Pasadena, Texas (as opposed to Pasadena, CA). This got me thinking about a common social conversation that crops up around this time of year that usually begins with: “Isn’t it awful that…” and ends with “how commercialized Christmas has become” or, if you are a Fox News devotee: “how the ‘Thought Police’ are trying to take ‘Christian’ out of Christmas.” Once again, my initial thought was along the lines of: “Isn’t it too bad that Christmas has to become an intellectual war zone?” Mind you, I’m one of those who thinks it’s crass and distasteful that some retail outlets put up their Christmas decorations before Halloween (imagine the confusion that would create over at Party City!). I must admit, however, that my irritation at the presence of Christmas decorations before the last piece of candy has been given out to a Trick-or-Treater has less to do with the hallowed traditions surrounding a central celebration of our Christian tradition than it does with what I have come to call “Jingle Exhaustion.” By Christmas day, I simply can’t take one more badly arranged Christmas Carol intended to sell I-Pods or skateboards or the latest ‘gotta have’ toy, much less the “fingernail on a blackboard” arrangement of piped-in music at the local mall (It’s even worse if I’ve recorded a TV show before Christmas and don’t get to watch it until well after Christmas!).
So it was something of a surprise to me when the Thanksgiving holidays found me actually looking forward to the chaotic, atonal, commercialized shopping period that ends with a resounding, silent thud on December 25th. Many of my friends know that I spend the Thanksgiving holidays in Hawai’i (you would too, if you grew up on the East Coast where Thanksgiving generally meant snow, cold, overheated homes packed with relatives you only see once a year, and an inordinate obsession with lumps in the gravy). I consider my annual trip to Honolulu as a much more efficient (and incredibly less expensive) option to therapy. There is an annual Christmas parade down Kalakaua Avenue that ends with Santa traveling down the street in an Outrigger Canoe. I’ve generally managed to miss the parade, but circumstances found me in attendance this year. And, I must confess that I was absolutely delighted to see a Pacific Islander Santa waving to the crowds of shoppers from an over decorated Outrigger Canoe!
As I attempted to deconstruct my reaction, I began to realize that my delight had its roots in what I considered to be the incongruity of a Pacific Islander Santa taking advantage of a culturally specific mode of transportation in order to promote the commonly accepted wisdom that we should all be joyous during this “happiest time of the year.” That apparent incongruity caused me to realize that there are commonly accepted cultural symbols of a world where children are happy and things can give us pleasure which can take the edge off our tendency to see the world as an ever more threatening place. I began to see that in a world that is increasingly more fragmented, where peace is ever more elusive, and where disagreements in the public square are rapidly transformed into “with us or against us” polarities, a little silliness, a good dose of crass commercialism, and the use of seasonal icons in unexpected culturally specific ways can take the edge off our communal cynicism. I’m coming to think that we take ourselves way too seriously most of the year and that we need a break from our grim sense that the world is spinning out of control. Whatever one thinks about the commercialization of Christmas or its homogenization, the ever-present Muzak and Jingles remind us that this is a time of year when our thoughts turn to family, friends, and acts of generosity that won’t likely get repeated until someone we love has a birthday. I have an idea that the Christmas Parade down Kalakaua Avenue is going to be on my annual “must do” list.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
The Mission Support Committee of the Board of Regents is charged with the task of determining the degree to which La Salle successfully implements its Mission on a daily basis. Committee members take their responsibilities seriously; interviewing faculty, administrators, students, and alumni as well as reviewing standardized test data and other metrics. One aspect of the Mission, however, that is more difficult to measure relates to our Lasallian heritage:
While there is a wide variety of strategies to “measure” the degree to which students embrace diversity, it is also true that this task is much more difficult to quantify than, say, academic excellence.
So, it was in search of ways to measure the diversity statement that caused me to bring my digital camera to the Freshman Retreat. I thought that a useful approach would be to photograph our newest students’ interactions during a highly organized activity. Then we could observe them over the course of the next twelve months to see if they organized themselves in homogenous or heterogeneous ways when they thought the adults weren’t noticing. The students were randomly assigned to small work groups, which insured that they would be interacting with a diverse set of peers (not difficult to do in a School where 50% of our students are non-white!). I proceeded to record their activities with my camera and, when I reviewed the day’s activities, found smiling, engaged, and enthusiastic teenagers happily interacting with their new classmates.
It was because of this experience that I was surprised to learn about a new study published by Robert Putnam which concluded that the greater diversity there is in a community, the fewer people vote and the less often they volunteer, give to charity, or work on community projects. In fact, in the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. In short, the author found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.
Putman has spent the last twenty years conducting research on “social capital” – the concept that social networks – friendships, neighborhood associations, religious congregations, etc. – are key indicators of civic well-being. His best known work on the subject was the book Bowling Alone, published in 2000, in which he first observed a declining pattern of civic engagement (of which social capital is a by-product).
In becoming familiar with Putnam’s claim about an apparent inverse relationship between the diversity of a community and the civic engagement of its members, I realized that we here at La Salle take for granted the three underlying assumptions of our mission to encourage students to celebrate diversity:
o The heritage of the Christian Brothers is rooted in and built upon the notion that Lasallian schools must be accessible to all and treat everyone as brothers and sisters
o As a school located in one of the most diverse metropolitan areas in the United States, our students grow up in communities that are already heterogeneous
o We expect our students to become engaged in and give back to the communities they occupy, especially by leveraging individual and collective talents
And because we here at La Salle place a special emphasis on service learning and community service, I can’t imagine our students leaving us without a clear understanding of and appreciation for the gifts and talents of those around them - and of recognizing the importance of sharing them with each other.
As I looked through the pictures from the Freshman Retreat I realized that we are extraordinarily fortunate to draw students from families who share our communal values. And, after reading about Putnam’s conclusions regarding declining civic engagement in highly diverse communities, I also realize that there was never a more opportune moment for the students entrusted to our care to build the world of the future in which diverse individuals come together to strengthen their community. I think my little photography project may be more valuable than I initially believed.
Students are challenged to demonstrate respect and appreciation for people of different cultures, religions, genders and economic backgrounds.
While there is a wide variety of strategies to “measure” the degree to which students embrace diversity, it is also true that this task is much more difficult to quantify than, say, academic excellence.
So, it was in search of ways to measure the diversity statement that caused me to bring my digital camera to the Freshman Retreat. I thought that a useful approach would be to photograph our newest students’ interactions during a highly organized activity. Then we could observe them over the course of the next twelve months to see if they organized themselves in homogenous or heterogeneous ways when they thought the adults weren’t noticing. The students were randomly assigned to small work groups, which insured that they would be interacting with a diverse set of peers (not difficult to do in a School where 50% of our students are non-white!). I proceeded to record their activities with my camera and, when I reviewed the day’s activities, found smiling, engaged, and enthusiastic teenagers happily interacting with their new classmates.
It was because of this experience that I was surprised to learn about a new study published by Robert Putnam which concluded that the greater diversity there is in a community, the fewer people vote and the less often they volunteer, give to charity, or work on community projects. In fact, in the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. In short, the author found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.
Putman has spent the last twenty years conducting research on “social capital” – the concept that social networks – friendships, neighborhood associations, religious congregations, etc. – are key indicators of civic well-being. His best known work on the subject was the book Bowling Alone, published in 2000, in which he first observed a declining pattern of civic engagement (of which social capital is a by-product).
In becoming familiar with Putnam’s claim about an apparent inverse relationship between the diversity of a community and the civic engagement of its members, I realized that we here at La Salle take for granted the three underlying assumptions of our mission to encourage students to celebrate diversity:
o The heritage of the Christian Brothers is rooted in and built upon the notion that Lasallian schools must be accessible to all and treat everyone as brothers and sisters
o As a school located in one of the most diverse metropolitan areas in the United States, our students grow up in communities that are already heterogeneous
o We expect our students to become engaged in and give back to the communities they occupy, especially by leveraging individual and collective talents
And because we here at La Salle place a special emphasis on service learning and community service, I can’t imagine our students leaving us without a clear understanding of and appreciation for the gifts and talents of those around them - and of recognizing the importance of sharing them with each other.
As I looked through the pictures from the Freshman Retreat I realized that we are extraordinarily fortunate to draw students from families who share our communal values. And, after reading about Putnam’s conclusions regarding declining civic engagement in highly diverse communities, I also realize that there was never a more opportune moment for the students entrusted to our care to build the world of the future in which diverse individuals come together to strengthen their community. I think my little photography project may be more valuable than I initially believed.
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