...it hit the fan when I...
...asked the homeless guy, "How's it goin'?"
Issac Stolzenbach
Issue date: 2/11/05 Section: Opinions
- Page 1 of 3 next >
|
In Dr. Rachel Newcomb's anthropology class we were tasked with engaging in a service-learning project. I chose Valencia Community College's The Prometheus Project, a non-profit organization that teaches the humanities (art, literature, philosophy, etc.) to transient, underserved, and the working-poor citizens of the Orlando area. According to Dr. Newcomb's course curriculum, we are to utilize applied anthropology by engaging our service-learning project as participant-observers. As we are working, we are to develop an ethnography, and prepare recommendations on how anthropological principles might benefit the organization. The project I'm working with received the coveted Florida Humanities Council (FHC) grant last week, which runs from February 1 to January 31, 2006; the grant will be instrumental to the organization while it undergoes institutionalization. The real story lies in the question some have posed regarding the organization's utility (myself and the students included): Why would we teach the humanities to the homeless; couldn't those energies be better spent? Last Tuesday night I found out why the organization exists, and discovered that the energy generated exceeds the energy spent.
My first night on the bedraggled-side of downtown Orlando was the experience of a lifetime because I discovered that you learn a lot about yourself when you help others, which is a priceless education. What I've learned thus far from the Buddha holds true-you have to step-up to the challenge of surrendering your ego, stepping out from behind yourself, and truly engage the people you are trying to reach. During the course of working with others, you relive things from your own life that caused you to choose a particular project. I learned that I wanted to work with the project for a couple of reasons. One was because I had a feeling other people thought the same way I did, and the way I thought was wrong. When I actually looked at what my eyes were seeing, it made me sick to my stomach-there are people that fought for this country-veterans living in the streets! Yet another example of knowledge I sometimes wish I did not have access to. The other reason was much more personal.