Paidea 1a
Fall 2009
We will weave together intentionally the strands of Paideia: academics, intercultural, collaborative, and
civic engagement. The Paideia Program seeks to assist the Paideia Scholars in their search for a life that is
connected, thoughtful, and authentic. Our seminar and tutorial sessions are designed to assist each seminar
member in the pursuit of such a life.
The following shared values, methods, and procedures continue to clarify our approach to learning in this
seminar:
 we will take a proactive approach to learning, one that requires personal goal setting, self-directed
study, and self-evaluation
 we will develop our goals and objectives with intentionality (that is, careful consideration and
planning).
 we will reflect on our experiences, and the experiences of others, in an attempt to evaluate our
own preconceived ideas and feelings; to challenge or reinforce our own values and beliefs; to
discover other ways of thinking about complicated issues; and to explore different attitudes and
viewpoints involving diverse perspectives.
 we will endeavor to maintain a supportive learning environment, one in which everyone’s
opinion is valued and ideas that differ from our own are welcome.
 we will seek out and establish connections between what we are learning in our academic studies
and the world at large.
 we will strive for personal growth and this will serve as a measure of our success.
Therefore, this seminar will require all of us to “stretch” beyond our established frames of reference, limits
of understanding, and levels of comfort. The end result will be the integration of diverse learning
experiences and progress toward the realization of our respective personal goals with regard to our
educations.
Requirements
 Civic engagement. Paideia Scholars will develop our group service project, in collaboration with
the Senior Paideia cohort.
 Intercultural. Scholars will develop a proposal for the anchoring intercultural experience.
Specific assignments appear in the Assignments tab. You must make an appointment with Sue
Mennicke, in charge of intercultural programs, BEFORE the end of November.
 One-on-one. Please schedule your first one-on-one meeting with Dr. Haskell before fall break.
 Paideia Plan. Please develop a written Paideia plan by the end of September (and in advance of
your one-on-one). This plan enables you to think about and express what you think that you might
get out of Paideia and what you might contribute. This is an organic document, one that can be
updated throughout the three year program. Please post this at the Paideia Plan tab. The plan will
not be visible to other student members of the cohort.
 Attendance Policy. Attendance in your Paideia Seminar and at your Paideia one-on-one
appointments is required. Because attendance and participation are such integral parts of this
program, students who miss either a seminar session or a one-on-one meeting with their Paideia
Professor due to an unexcused absence will receive a lower class participation grade (see below).
In addition, they will be placed on probation with the three-year Paideia Program. Any additional
unexcused absences during the duration of the Paideia Program will typically result in your
termination from the Program. All probationary cases will be reviewed by the group of ten Paideia
Professors.
Program Requirements are detailed in the Paideia Handbook.
Grading:
The class is offered on a P/D/F basis:
70%-100% = P
60%-69% = D
<60% = F
To give a sense of scale, normally reflective essays should run about 300-500 words. This is not a huge
amount of verbiage, and you are asked to reflect carefully and thoughtfully on the assigned readings.
Reflective essays will be graded according to the following scale:
 High Pass(95%). Such essays will contain a clearly, succinctly stated thesis and exemplary
supporting evidence; they will also be stylistically excellent (that is, be well organized, worded,
and presented).
 Pass (85%). Such essays will contain a clearly, succinctly stated thesis and good supporting
evidence; organization word choice, and argumentation will be good but not excellent.
 Low Pass(65%). Such essays will contain a thesis and supporting evidence but clearly lack clear
organization, word choices, and overall effect.
 F (50%). Such essays will either lack a clear thesis, supporting evidence, or be so stylistically
flawed as to make it impossible to determine the thesis.
 F- (0%). Written assignment not turned in
Semester Grade. The semester grade will be calculated as follows:
Class/Program participation 50% of final grade
Assignments: 50% of final grade
September 1: Meet with seniors to discuss civic engagement.
September 8: Please read The Vanity of Volunteerism, and post a short reflection (3-4 paragraphs). You
will be able to see each other's postings.
September 15: Common Site discussion: Please post, by Monday, September 14, a response to the prompts
regarding the program in San Antonio. There is no class meeting on September 15.
September 22: We need to develop an agenda / set of questions for a conference call with Dr. Kathy
Bussert-Webb, Director of the UT-Brownsville Center for Civic Engagament. Please post responses on our
common site: https://segue.southwestern.edu/index.php?&action=site&site=RGV090109f09&section=21125&page=101443
September 29: We will finalize our list of questions to send to civic engagement at UT-Brownsville in
advance of a conference call. Please see the questions that you have submitted on the common site.
October 20: See common site.
October 27: See common site.
November 3: One-on-one appointments
Week of November 9: Please read Penelope's Tapestry. Then, please post a first draft of your Paideia Plan
(unless you already have posted a plan this semester) at the "Paideia" tab above. The Paideia plan is an
aooprtunity to articulate your understanding of the Paideia program, what you expect to draw from it, what
you expect to contribute to it, what your hopes and aspirations are for Paideia, what hopes might already
have been met or disappointed, etc. Please post your draft by Friday, November 13.
November 17: Luis and I had a telephone conversation on Nov. 12 with Alicia Gomez, who directs an after
school program organization in Cameron Park. Dr. Bussert-Webb, the civic engagement director at UT-B,
had referred us to her.
The issues that Ms. Gomez brought up:
assurance that this is not a “parachute” program (like, e.g., certain very well-meaning but short-lived
missionary programs)
status of undocumented families re. financial aid
that we work with families for whom college is a realistic possibility
many of the parents cannot read
Ms. Gomez requests from us:
A description of activities that we propose, and rationale for those activities
timeline, including specific dates, follow-up, etc. (Saturdays do not work well for her)
I will say that, for my part, I will find it difficult to justify missing Friday classes. We need to think
carefully about scheduling.
The first thing that we need to do is establish precisely WHAT we propose to do; then we can move on to
the when and how.
We need to finalize what we propose to do during our class session on Tuesday, November 17 (11:00 am,
CB 36).
You are encouraged to post ('discuss") thoughts and observations in advance of our class.
Please go to the RGV-Paideia site. The direct url is:
https://segue.southwestern.edu/index.php?&site=RGV090109f09&section=21125&page=102899&action=site
December 1: Please see assignment on RGV site.