Name of Learning Community: The Wisconsin Idea and Cerritos College
At the turn of the century, reformers in the Midwest sought to leverage the power of democracy to reconstruct state government into an agency more responsive to citizens’ daily needs. Called the Wisconsin Idea by progressive in Madison, progressives sought ultimately to meet the practical, daily needs of citizens in a society transforming under pressure of sweeping technological change. This change has made the traditional machinery of government, from election processes to government agencies, archaic. The heart of the Wisconsin idea lay in citizen participation and in the harnessing of new technologies, from the telegraph, to the large corporate railroads, into instruments which would empower average people.
The goal of the Wisconsin Idea learning community is much the same: In an era of sweeping technological change, our learning community seeks to involve students with each other, utilizing the tools of the twenty-first century to make learners’ education useful and empowering.
Benefits for Students at Cerritos College
The History Departments at UWSTOUT and Cerritos College are in the process of creating a class that would begin with Reconstruction and end with the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, essentially our 7.2 class at Cerritos. This unprecedented learning community, at least within the history dept., will bring with it many advantages to Cerritos College. First, students will have an opportunity firsthand to enroll and participate in a university-level history course. As you well know, entering a four year college for the first time can be a daunting prospect. Our project will help alleviate that anxiety. Students from Cerritos College will be able to acquaint themselves with the rigors of a university history class without worrying about making the grade yet. We like the concept: "Building Bridges for the Next Millennium." Students will be responsible to their instructor only. Each instructor will grade his students only. Second, this new class will feature the advanced technology which Cerritos is justly celebrated. Tentatively, the instructors decided to focus on five or six issues in modern U.S. history. Examples included "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," Excerpts from the Korematsu Decision," and the 1988 Congressional apology and the debate on Japanese-American internment. These topics would form the basics of a Picturetell video discussion between the colleges which would allow our students to see each other and talk in real time.
Additionally, we are in the process of creating online web discussion pages for students. Weekly E-Mail contact and journals will also be included. Third, the instructors are developing certain historical topics that are indigenous to their region. We hope to broaden the horizons of our students. The State of Wisconsin contributed much to "The Progressive Movement." Students in California will learn why this movement was important in Wisconsin. Students in Wisconsin will achieve a better understanding of how the Chinese in California contributed to the building of the Transcontinental provide Cerritos College with an opportunity to showcase its multi-cultural, multi-ethnic student body. (Please see paragraph 4 below)
Benefits for students at UW-Stout
"History," Henry Ford declared, "is bunk." Many professional historians would agree, insofar as history reflects the biases and perspectives of "winners" – kings, presidents, corporate executives and other who observe the past through the lens of their current, triumphant position. These "winners" have influenced greatly the writing and teaching of history.
Equally important to the perspective of the history "teacher" is the viewpoint of the student. At the University of Wisconsin-Stout, the outlook is constricted by homogeneity: Almost seventy-five percent of the institution’s 7,604 students are Wisconsin residents. Of the student population, only 1.7 percent are Asian Americans. African Americans and Hispanics are a mere 1.0 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
Dominant cultures tend to be those most unremarked; the prejudices and practices of the majority are the least self-conscious. Many students at Stout simply do not think of themselves as "white," the less do they consider how their race and surroundings may influence their thinking.
UW-Stout students will benefit by the Wisconsin Idea learning community by engaging with students from the west coast, whose racial and ethnic background brings a new perspective to the problems and policies of the American past.