Bridgewater Review, Vol. 33, No. 2, November 2014

Bridgewater Review

Volume 33 | Issue 2 Article 1

Nov-2014 Bridgewater Review, Vol. 33, No. 2, November 2014

Recommended Citation Bridgewater State University. (2014). Bridgewater Review. 33(2). Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol33/iss2/1

This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Bridgewater Review

In this issue: ELLEN INGMANSON on Chimpanzee Behavior

Also in this issue: WILLIAM HANNA on POWs JAKARI GRIFFITH on the Faculty in Print: and ISUs at World War II-era Camp Business of Diversity Management KIMBERLY CHABOT DAVIS, Myles Standish Beyond the White Negro: Empathy and CHIEN WEN YU on the Anti-Racist Reading COLBY KING on Class Origins and Legacy of Marco Polo the Work of University Teaching Book Review of MARCIA DINNEEN on Russell Gold’s The Boom Photography by Miniature Books at Maxwell Library by STEPHEN KACZMAEK RONALD F. REYNOLDS LISA LITTERIO on Experiential Learning

VolumeNovember 332014 Number 2 November 2014 Bridgewater State University1 Mojave Desert (Photograph by Ronald F. Reynolds)

Credits for Author Photographs Andrew Holman (by Frank Gorga); Marcia Dinneen, William Hanna, Steven Kaczmarek, and Colby King (by Andrew Holman); Ellen Ingmanson (by Margaret Ingmanson); Ronald Reynolds (by Roberta Reynolds); Chien Wen Yu (by Weiwei Duanmu); Lisa Litterio (by Dan Vaillancourt); and Kimberly Chabot Davis (by Kimberly Chabot Davis).

2 Bridgewater Review Bridgewater Review Volume 33, Number 2 November 2014

2 Editor’s Notebook EDITOR Andrew C. Holman Andrew C. Holman History & Canadian Studies 4 Project Holly: Can Human-based Behavioral Therapy Help a Chimpanzee? ASSOCIATE EDITORS Ellen Ingmanson Ellen Scheible English 8 Friends and Enemies: Co-Belligerents and Prisoners Brian Payne of War at Camp Myles Standish, Taunton, Massachusetts History during World War II William F. Hanna EDITORS EMERITI Michael Kryzanek 12 Work to Do Political Science & Global Studies Colby R. King William C. Levin 15 PHOTO ESSAY Sociology The Other Las Vegas Barbara Apstein Ronald F. Reynolds English 24 The Business of Diversity Management DESIGN Jakari Griffith Philip McCormick’s Design 28 Marco Polo: Pioneer of East-West Communication, Works, Inc., North Easton, MA Transportation and Trade Chien Wen Yu

31 Miniature Books at Maxwell Library Marcia Dinneen

33 TEACHING NOTE The Classroom as the World: Understanding the Value of Experiential Learning Lisa M. Litterio

37 FACULTY IN PRINT On the Front Cover: Beyond the White Negro: Empathy and Anti-Racist Reading Holly, a 16-year-old female chimpanzee Kimberly Chabot Davis who lives at the Saint Louis Zoo. (Photo Credit: Saint Louis Zoo) 39 BOOK REVIEW Energy Futures Stephen E. Kaczmarek

Inside Back Cover: Poetry by Joseph LaCroix

Bridgewater Review is published twice a year by the faculty and librarians of Bridgewater State University. Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies of Bridgewater Review or Bridgewater State University. Letters to the Editor are encouraged and should be sent to: Editor, Bridgewater Review, [email protected]

November 2014 1 For more than a generation, scholars Editor’s Notebook have examined when and why societies choose to remember. It is no surprise Andrew C. Holman that war commemoration is the subject ore than others, the month of November of most of our collective remembering. The stories that war commemorations is one that western societies for the past tell (particularly the ones in which century have filled with rituals of collective our side won decisively) are a fertile M site for teaching broad-scoped civic memory. November’s gloomy weather and sometimes lessons about the things in which we dour mood contributes to this social function, but the are supposed to believe—honor, duty, anchor of these reflective practices is Veterans Day, or character, democracy, justice and the rule of law. The act of remembering is Remembrance Day, as it is called in much of the rest the attempt to graft useful meanings of the English-speaking world. Veterans Day gets its onto otherwise regrettable events and the chance to prescribe to others how place in the western calendar because it recognizes to behave in the wake of such awful the critical moment when, in 1918, after more than loss. Paul Fussell’s pathbreaking 1975 four years of intractable fighting among European and book The Great War and Modern Memory (newly reissued for the centennial by American armies, World War I came to its merciful Oxford University Press) examined the end: 11-11-11, at the eleventh hour on the eleventh subject first and best. In Britain (and day of the eleventh month. This year, 2014, marks elsewhere, as Fussell’s scholarly heirs in the U.S., France, Russia and Canada the centennial of the onset of that “Great War,” and have detailed), World War I bequeathed expectedly, our commemorative efforts ring louder. an “inherited myth” to a generation of writers and other symbol makers who We remember those whose lives were sacrificed to took on the task of remembering the protect our values and interests, not just in World “truth” about the war and convincing War I but in all wars in which our countrymen their compatriots of its meaning. Of course, societies remember together have fought and died before and since. assume is a natural, human tendency. If things non-martial as well. We remem- We remember them in granite and we don’t make the effort to remember, ber those great moments of fellow cement memorials, in cenotaphs and the past—our past—and its lessons will feeling that are triggered by national columns, in bronze statuary, in film, in by default be lost and any tutelary tragedies (such as a president’s assassina- songs and sermons, and in poetry, such benefit they have for us wasted. But tion or ethical fall, episodes of ethnic as John McCrae’s 1915 “In Flanders can it also work in reverse? That is, cleansing and acts of mass terrorism) Fields,” which scores of Canadian can collective forgetting be a deliberate or triumphs (such as the passage of schoolchildren of my generation were social act, one designed to counteract landmark civil rights legislation, unex- made to commit to memory and recite. the human tendency to remember? pected Olympic victories and symbolic We remember, as the oft-repeated Some recent scholarship has some inter- athletic feats). line in Rudyard Kipling’s 1897 poem esting things to say on this matter. Recessional instructs us, “lest we forget.” But we do forget. As a society, we forget often and we forget a lot. If we don’t make the effort to November’s collective remembering prompts us to think about how social remember, the past—our past— memory really functions and how the collective acts of remembering and for- and its lessons will by default be getting interact. Collective remembering is a deliberate act, one that is done lost and any tutelary benefit they as a corrective to forgetting, which we have for us wasted.

2 Bridgewater Review that Apartheid caused through a long and painful national reckoning that its Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) provided, 1996-2000. Japanese Americans interned during World War II were issued public apologies and reparations by the US Government in 1988, and again in 1992. And most recently, in Canada, the victims of that country’s often abusive Indian Residential Schools have found healing in providing testimony to its own six-year TRC. These are acts of collective healing that do the opposite of forgetting: they call attention to these awful chapters of racist segregation and systemic violence, and encourage us to remember. Cenotaph (Photograph by Duncan Walker) In all of this remembering, forgetting More recently, scholars have begun to Why do we forget? What do we forget? and forgiving, we are making impor- explore the circumstances that exist The answers to those two questions tant choices about who we are today. when whole societies willfully disre- are integrally related, if we are to These three social functions are each, member past events. Tearing a page believe Connerton. Societies can forget in their own ways, forward-looking, from those scholars who see remem- because they are coerced to do so by prescriptive acts that build community. bering as a contrived, deliberate act, authoritarian governments that wish to When we do them, we are imagining some see social forgetting in the same whitewash historical black marks—the who we want to be. This month, as way: as planned projects that have memories of Armenian extermination we begin to commemorate the centen- intended outcomes. As UCLA scholar in the Ottoman Empire, or famine in nial of a long-ago war in moments Russell Jacoby’s 1997 Social Amnesia the Soviet Ukraine. But forgetting need of silence, cannon and rifle fire, argues, societies forget on purpose; they not be so dark and repressive. Societies parades and prayer, we will do well “repress remembrance.” Moreover, just can choose to forget to achieve posi- to recognize the civic uses of our like collective remembrance, the way tive outcomes—to self-prescribe new, November rituals. we forget is subject to historical change. progressive economic behaviors, to Social amnesia has always affected constitute new collective national human societies and as technologi- identities, or to counteract competing Andrew Holman is Professor of History cal invention has provided more tools versions of a common past (Connerton, and Editor of Bridgewater Review. of remembering (i.e. printing press or “Some Functions of Collective the camera), collective forgetting has Forgetting,” 2010). “The essence of a become harder to do. Despite this, as nation,” French historian Ernest Renan British anthropologist Paul Connerton wrote famously in his 1882 book, What argues in a recent book (How Modernity is a Nation? “is that the people have Forgets, 2009), the conditions of moder many things in common, but have nity (the rise of an increasingly inte- also forgotten much together… Every grated capitalist world market since French citizen must have forgotten the the 1850s) make collective forgetting St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre and more socially useful. “Modernity is the [Albigensian] massacres in the Midi conditioned by a particular kind of in the 13th century.” forgetfulness,” he writes, and so the Of course, collective forgetting is not most modern places on earth (Europe collective forgiving. We have devel- and America) produce “structural oped other rituals and procedures to forgetting” more routinely than any- serve that function. South Africans where else. could only come to grips with the harm

November 2014 3 Project Holly: Can Human-based Behavioral Therapy Help a Chimpanzee? Ellen J. Ingmanson

f you have ever been the recipient of a vaccine for Holly (Photo credit: Saint Louis Zoo). hepatitis or meningitis, or numerous other medical as abnormal and not part of the typi- procedures, you have benefited from research cal chimpanzee behavioral repertoire. I These may be so common, in fact, that conducted on chimpanzees. It is rare, though, for they are often considered as “normal chimpanzees to have been the beneficiaries of medical for captive chimpanzees.” Many captive research using human subjects. But this is exactly facilities have introduced environmental and behavioral enrichment programs what took place with Holly, a 16-year old female in an attempt to improve conditions chimpanzee who lives at the Saint Louis Zoo, in for the chimpanzees and reduce the Missouri. Holly’s problem was a remarkably common incidence of atypical behaviors. In spite of this, these behaviors often persist one that humans often experience: she struggled to be and may result in health or manage- fully accepted by her social group. Holly’s dilemma ment issues. Holly’s behavior included rocking, self-plucking, clutching items inspired “Project Holly,” in which, since 2009, a team and tandem walking with a peer. These of chimpanzee and human behaviorists have worked to behaviors did not decrease when Holly help Holly socially integrate and to draw conclusions entered adulthood, as sometimes occurs with captive chimpanzees. Her care from her example. I am privileged to be on Holly’s takers felt that she did not respond well team. When Project Holly first began, I was somewhat to social signals and was often the “odd- skeptical that we could make a difference in her life. man out” in the social group. But I love chimpanzees, and the opportunity to do Holly was born in 1998 at a small zoo in Alabama. As is often the case with some research with a group and perhaps help them, captive animals, her mother lacked was irresistible. experience in taking care of infants and was considered “rough” with My first introduction to Holly was on and shared insights into what we saw Holly. Concerned for her well-being, a CD that Dr. Margaret Bauman, an on the video and the interdisciplinary Holly’s caretakers removed her from autism specialist from Harvard Medical collaboration that became Project her mother, and in her place substituted School, gave me to view. The Saint Holly began. care by the human staff. Research on Louis Zoo had contacted her with con- The behavioral and genetic similarities nonhuman primates dating back to cerns about some of Holly’s behavior, between humans and chimpanzees have the 1960s, such as the rhesus monkey and questions about their possible rela- been critical in our understanding of experiments in the Harlow laborato- tionship to autistic behavior in human the evolution and ontogeny of human ries, has shown that in the absence of children. Dr. Bauman has worked with behavior. However, it has been unclear a mother, it is better for an individual autistic children in the Boston area whether chimpanzees experience neu- captive primate to be raised with peers, for many years, but she did not know ral disturbances resulting in behavioral rather than alone. So, at 3 months old, chimpanzees. I do. I have studied their anomalies that parallel those seen more Holly was sent to the Saint Louis Zoo behavior since the early 1980s, both in human children (such as autism). to join another infant female chimpan- in captive situations and in the wild. Many captive chimpanzees display zee, Bakhari, who was also being cared Dr. Bauman and I traded information behaviors that are sometimes viewed for without a mother. The two were

4 Bridgewater Review raised together by the Saint Louis Zoo staff and docents until they could be Many captive chimpanzees display integrated with the other chimpanzees at the zoo. behaviors that are sometimes Upon her arrival at the Saint Louis viewed as abnormal and not Zoo, Holly was considered physically well-coordinated and very active, but part of the typical chimpanzee she did not seem fluid in her movements the way other young chimps are. behavioral repertoire. She did not want to be touched and would always play hard, even when it was not appropriate. In the wild, infant that set her apart from the rest of the behavior. She clearly engaged in many chimpanzees spend most of their first social group. She plucked her hair, behaviors that were abnormal and per- year clinging to their mothers and cud- rocked side to side, clutched items or haps deleterious to her health and the dled in their arms. Holly’s caretakers a peer, and often had a glazed, staring group’s social functioning. However, considered her behavior to be “differ- expression on her face. She would react we ruled out a chimpanzee equiva- ent” early on, especially when com- inappropriately to social stimuli, and lent of autism as likely causing Holly’s pared to Bakhari, but they attributed was not well integrated with the group. behavior. The diagnosis of autism in it to hand-rearing or just personality Meanwhile, Bakhari was melding well humans is very complex, and often differences. By age 1, both Holly and with the others. centers on language difficulties. While Bakhari were gradually introduced chimpanzees have very rich commu- In June 2009, Dr. Bauman gathered to the larger social group. At age 6-7, nication behaviors, it is not language experts in chimpanzee caretaking and Holly was not outgrowing the infantile in the same sense that humans employ. behavior, along with human child rocking behavior, and began rocking in Thus, this human component of autism psychology and development specialists a side-to-side, “tick-tock” motion. She is simply not present for chimpanzees. in St. Louis to examine Holly’s situa- continued to be rough in her behavior, tion, and determine if we could provide During our discussions and observa- and struggled to fully socialize with the any help for her. Using rearing and tions, alternate explanations to autism group. As a young adult at age 11, Holly developmental history, video tapes and emerged emphasizing sensory integra- continued to display many behaviors direct observations, we assessed Holly’s tion and motor-planning difficulties. Key elements in Holly’s behavior that led in this direction included poor motor fluidity, posture rigidity, lack of restful postures, seeking tactile stimula- tion, and poor social awareness. The child development specialists, all of whom had no previous experience with chimpanzee behavior, were struck by how similar Holly’s behavior was to the human children with whom they worked. Following this preliminary diagnosis of sensory integration and processing disorder, I began a series of intensive behavioral observations to provide longitudinal data on Holly and her age-peers (Bakhari, Tammy and Utamu) in the group. Each individual’s behavior, social partners, proximity to others, and location within the enclosure were all recorded.

Holly eating an orange while sitting between Tammy and Mlinzi (Author’s photo).

November 2014 5 These observations supported the initial The oldest male in the group, Smoke, Foundation in Newton, Massachusetts diagnosis focusing on sensory integra- often tolerated Holly’s presence. took the lead for this part of the pro- tion and processing. Holly’s interac- However, Holly did not seem to read ject. She is an expert in occupational tions with the other group members subtle social cues from him. While therapy for both children and adults demonstrate some of the consequences Holly often sat near Smoke, he at times with sensory integration and processing of her difficulties. Bakhari was one attempted to increase the distance disorders. She used her experience with of her preferred partners, but unless between them. When Holly sat close humans to develop a series of activities distressed herself, Bakhari often to Smoke, she sometimes draped her that could be used with Holly by the avoided Holly. Holly’s second choice arm over his shoulders. Smoke was zoo keepers who provide the group’s for a social partner was the younger observed to gently lift her arm from his daily care. This was not easy. Many Tammy, who was 7 years of age at the shoulders and scoot a few inches away. of the therapeutic interventions used with humans involve close interac- tion and hands-on activities, such as The child development specialists, deep massage. This is not possible with chimpanzees because of safety proto- all with no previous experience in cols. While Holly’s relations with other members of her social group were not chimpanzee behavior, were struck ideal, separating her would have been extremely stressful, and more likely by how similar Holly’s behavior to exacerbate her problems than help. Thus, all therapy had to be adjusted to was to the human children with be chimpanzee-friendly. whom they worked. The kinds of activities that Dr. May- Benson developed for Holly focused on different aspects of sensory integration. Some addressed tactile sensory stimula- time of the observations. Holly was Holly again moved close to him and tion, while others targeted vestibular, able to dominate Tammy and to some put her arm on his shoulders. Smoke gross motor planning and coordination. extent control her behavior with forced then repeated the sequence. After At times, Holly had to be coaxed to tandem walking. However, I observed several minutes of this, Smoke would engage in an activity; if simply provided that Tammy was gradually beginning quietly stand up and walk away. This to avoid Holly, and spent considerable type of sequence was observed several amounts of time out of proximity to all times. Holly didn’t seem to get the hint. group members. This appeared to affect Her relationships with the other adult Tammy’s normal development within females in the group were also difficult. the group. As she avoided Holly, she Holly almost never interacted with was also limiting her interactions with Rosebud or Beauty, the older matri- all group members. archs. Only Mlinzi, who had sometimes mothered Holly when she was Holly also had unstable relationships younger, consistently associated with with the older adults in the group. She her. Holly was often near Mlinzi, and was very cautious of Hugo, the alpha would groom her. Mlinzi was the only male, and often avoided him. However, chimpanzee in the group who groomed she often visually monitored his behav- Holly. This was particularly telling, as ior from a distance and his movements grooming each other is among the most often precipitated her rocking and important chimpanzee social behaviors. tandem-walking behavior. While she seemed to be distressed by Hugo’s pres- After making these detailed observa- ence, Holly also sometimes approached tions, “Project Holly” team members him aggressively (not a good idea for a began to devise a plan for therapy. Dr. young female chimp), and did not seem Teresa May-Benson from the Spiral to learn how to interact appropriately Holly waits for a companion to catch up with him. (Author’s photo).

6 Bridgewater Review learned from their mothers, siblings, and social group during a long juvenile and adolescent period. A captive chimpanzee would otherwise have no idea of what to eat or where to build a safe nest to sleep each night. Chimpanzees originally came into captivity, though, for our benefit – either for medical research or the entertainment industry. Thus we are now morally obligated to provide these chimpanzees and their descendants with the best lives we can give them. Our work has just begun. Dr. May- Benson and I are extending the diagnostic and therapeutic protocols developed for Project Holly to other captive individuals, in hopes of helping them, too. Though she would not Holly tandem walks with Tammy (Photo credit: Saint Louis Zoo) know it, Holly has opened the door to a research agenda that has a very big the opportunity to do so, there was in frequency and her interactions with scope and holds significant promise for no guarantee that she actually would. the other chimpanzees had improved. benefitting both chimpanzees and us. The other group members also had She was spending more time grooming to be allowed to join in. Tactile activi- with them, and they seemed to avoid ties included providing increased her less. environmental enrichment such as Holly’s behavior in this group of chim- the use of brushes, electronic massagers, panzees, in addition to the concern for water play, corn or rice bins into which her well-being expressed by the Saint they could dip their hands, varied Louis Zoo staff and their initiative to textured materials, and rope pulls. seek help, presented an opportunity Vestibular activities included bungee to more fully understand the nature swings, hammock swings, and heavy of abnormal behavior in captivity, as crate pulls. well as its effects on the individual and Ellen J. Ingmanson is Associate Professor in The zoo staff and ape keepers worked the social group. It has also allowed us the Department of Anthropology. with Holly on these activities over to consider the relationship between several months. Almost immediately, these atypical chimpanzee behaviors my behavioral observations began to and some human neurological dys- Postscript: Dr. Ingmanson is not indicate changes in her behavior. Holly functions. The behaviors and pos- affiliated with the Saint Louis Zoo and displayed fewer abnormal behaviors, tures observed in Holly are common the opinions expressed above are not intended appeared calmer, rested more, and had in children diagnosed with sensory to represent the Zoo’s policies or practices. more positive interactions with the integration problems. This may be the She wishes to extend her thanks and other chimpanzees. More than two first time a human-based behavioral appreciation to Margaret Bauman MD, years after therapy was initiated, Holly therapy protocol has been utilized to Teresa May-Benson ScD, Ingrid Porton, was maintaining some of these positive aid a chimpanzee. Chimpanzees are Terri Hunnicutt, Stephanie Braccini PhD, results. While she still engaged in some an endangered species, and those in Martha Weber DVM, John Pruett MD of the abnormal behaviors that had captivity today cannot realistically be PhD, David Beversdorf MD, Karen originally drawn the chimpanzee and returned to the wild. Their native forest Bauman MA and the Saint Louis Zoo child specialists together in the Holly habitat in Africa has been decimated for their cooperation, input and help at Project, these behaviors had decreased by humans, so there is little “wild” left. different phases of the project. Much of chimpanzee behavior is also

November 2014 7 average stay at Standish lasted three to Friends and Enemies: five days during which GIs received physicals, inoculations, dental exams Co-Belligerents and Prisoners and last-minute training. Meanwhile, their equipment—everything from of War at Camp Myles Standish, typewriters to howitzers—was given a last check before being loaded onto Taunton, Massachusetts during trains bound for the ships waiting in World War II Boston Harbor. To accomplish all this, the camp had William F. Hanna a permanent military complement of more than 2,500 personnel, including n the late afternoon of March 29, 1944, a long segregated African-American column of United States military vehicles set out GIs who worked in service companies and women who served as nurses or Ifrom the Boston Army Base under heavy security members of the Women’s Army Corps. and headed south toward Taunton, Massachusetts. Its The camp also employed approxi- destination was Camp Myles Standish, the sprawling mately 750 civilian workers, most complex that served as the main staging area for the Boston Port of Embarkation (BPOE). By the end of World War II, this port, one of 10 nationwide and one of six on the Atlantic seaboard, ranked third after New York and San Francisco for the amount of men and materiel shipped overseas to the Allied armies. While the movement of military “co-belligerents.” When given the personnel had become commonplace opportunity to help the Allied cause by by 1944, this convoy was different. Its joining newly organized Italian Service trucks carried 500 former Italian sol- Units (ISU), Calamandrei reports that diers on their way from Camp Hereford more than 90 percent assented, and in Somerfield, Texas to southeastern that is what brought these 500 men to Massachusetts. Among the 600,000 Camp Myles Standish. enemy soldiers captured in North When the convoy reached its destina- Africa earlier in the war, these men tion, the newcomers found a bustling were some of the 51,000 Italians who military installation located in the had been shipped across the Atlantic as Cover, Instruction Booklet for Returning heart of southeastern Massachusetts. prisoners. Most had arrived in the U.S. Veterans, Camp Myles Standish, Boston Port of Thirty-five miles from Boston, the in 1943 and, according to filmmaker Embarkation, c. 1945. camp had opened there on October 7, Camilla Calamandrei’s 2000 web essay 1942. Records of the BPOE located in “Italian POWs held in America dur- living within a 30-mile radius of the the National Archives state that the base ing WWII,” were quickly assigned to base. Thousands of GIs passed through covered 1,620 acres and was traversed POW camps in the American heart- Standish every week. In fact, by the by 35 miles of paved roads and almost land, away from coastal and industrial first week of September 1944, BPOE 10 miles of railroad track connected areas. Legally, their status changed records show that a half million Allied to the main lines that reached every in September 1943, when the Italian personnel had been processed through corner of the nation. Its mission was government of Pietro Badoglio signed the camp. This included not only to receive military personnel from all an armistice with the Allies. Shortly Americans but also several thousand over the United States and make certain thereafter, when Italy declared war British, Canadian and Australian sol- that they and their equipment were on Germany, the Italians were no diers who were in the States for training ready for immediate shipment to the longer prisoners, or enemies, but rather or on special assignment. European Theater of Operations. The

8 Bridgewater Review Despite the magnitude of this around- the-clock operation, the Italians coming in as members of the ISUs found the camp well prepared for their arrival. A stockade fence had been erected while lights and sentry boxes were completed just days earlier. Additionally, a 10-bed section within the hospital was set aside for their medical needs. Immediately upon arrival at Standish, the ex-POWs were assigned to one of two ISUs. Each man earned 80 cents per day in non-negotiable coupons that could be redeemed at one of the camp’s many service canteens. Records on file in the National Archives state that 240 men were assigned to kitchen duties while 100 others were placed in maintenance details. Still others Main Gate, Camp Myles Standish (From the Collection of the Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton, Mass.) were assigned as mechanics, black- smiths, machinists and carpenters. men were hired out to local farms and the areas where they lived and worked, Often, the vocational skills of service businesses as day laborers while the rest and they were required to obtain passes unit members went unrecognized in were put to work inside the camp. for permission to leave the camp. the urgency of staging thousands of Violators received the same punish- The commanding officer of the ISUs at troops. Stonemasons became cooks, ments as delinquent GIs. Myles Standish was George J. Semler, while cooks became ditch diggers a 27-year-old lieutenant with a degree Like other members of ISUs who were and carpenters. Vigliam Verzola, for in English from Colgate University. distributed across the nation, the men example, was a bricklayer who was He found himself presiding over 4,000 who came to Camp Myles Standish set to work in the kitchen cracking Italian workers who had become an experienced a complicated relation- thousands of eggs a day. Skilled hands integral part of the camp’s operation. ship with the local population. Though were applied to whatever tasks needed Although these men were not prison- they were no longer the enemy, and doing. One thing was certain, however; ers of war, they were still subject to had been allies since October 1943, the the Italians helped fill a critical labor army discipline and, like the GIs who official records of the BPOE continued shortage at Standish. The first two ISUs belonged to the station complement, to refer to them as prisoners well into were so productive that Camp authori- they were often exasperated by the the summer of 1944, and the general ties immediately asked the Army for army’s seemingly endless rules and population, including the Daily Gazette, enough men to form two additional regulations. Like their American Taunton’s local newspaper, continued service units. This request was granted counterparts, for example, the Italians to speak of them in that way for many and the two new units were in place by did not have access to all parts of the years after the war ended. As the con- the end of July 1944. Some of these new base. Instead, they were restricted to flict in Europe raged, some residents found it difficult to reconcile the fact that while their former enemies were Thousands of GIs passed through well fed and housed, American boys were still overseas living in great danger Standish every week. In fact, by and privation. This resentment, however, was gen- the first week of September 1944, erally not felt in the region’s Italian- BPOE records show that a half American neighborhoods. From the Boston area southward through million Allied personnel had been Mansfield and into the Providence, Rhode Island suburbs, thousands of processed through the camp. first- and second-generation Italian

November 2014 9 Americans opened their hearts and homes to the ex-POWs. Initially, regulations stated that ISU members who could obtain passes would be allowed to accept invitations to visit Italo-American clubs, churches or homes only when traveling in groups of five and accompanied by a designated GI escort. However, the number and frequency of invitations combined with the overall success of the ISU program convinced camp officials to relax this rule so that within months many former prisoners were regular visitors in the homes of Italian Americans, and eventually the army acceded to requests for the camp’s ISU men’s choir to per- form in area churches. But the ease with which the ISU mem- Prisoner of War Stockade, Camp Myles Standish c. 1946 (From the Collection of the Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton, Mass.) bers became acclimated to their new surroundings did not sit well with many the conflict in Europe was decided and had arrived at the camp from overseas. outside of the Italian-American com- victory brought significant changes to These men were to be put to work on munity. At the end of the first week the BPOE. For two and a half years the construction and maintenance tasks as of July 1944, the BPOE Intelligence personnel at Camp Myles Standish had well as performing routine camp labor, Section, in its weekly briefing for the devoted all of their energies to prepar- and the public was reassured that when port commander, stated: “The con- ing GIs for shipment overseas, but now not at work the Germans were to be troversy over the ‘coddling’ of Italian the whole process had to be reversed. confined to the stockade. prisoners of war continues in the New Tens of thousands of servicemen and Arnold Krammer, in his excellent England press, with strong resentment women returned home. Some of the 1979 book Nazi Prisoners of War in expressed against favors granted them.” returnees were sent to other installa- America, writes that 360,000 German This resulted in a flurry of directives tions for discharge, but the rest of them POWs were brought to the United sent downward through the system began training for the invasion of Japan. States during the course of the war. ordering installation commanders to On May 10, 1945—just two days after Although most of their detention make certain that the Italians worked the official Victory in Europe celebra- camps were located in the Southwest, full days and that supervision of them tions—the Taunton Daily Gazette pub- some German prisoners were assigned remained tight. lished a statement issued by the public to New England bases in the months By the winter of 1945, following the relations officer at Standish saying that before the European war ended. For Rhineland campaign, the outcome of “several hundred” German POWs example, Camp Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts housed more than 1,000 German POWs in the final months of Every camp holding German the conflict. However, in the spring of 1945, with German soldiers in Europe POWs, including Myles Standish, surrendering by the thousands, more space had to be found for those arriving conducted a so-called Intellectual every week, and smaller camps, such as Standish, were utilized. Ultimately, Diversion Program, in which Lieutenant (later Lieutenant Colonel) Semler and his staff were called upon German prisoners were taught to supervise 3,000 German POWs in addition to the 4,000 Italian co-bellig- English as well as American civics erents already at the camp. and history.

10 Bridgewater Review Though formerly comrades in arms The American government, of course, swift. The last German POWs, includ- with the Italians, there were major realized that the POWs would go home ing 4,200 routed through Standish differences as to how the Germans some day and officials wasted no from Camp Forrest, Tennessee, left were regarded by the local populace. opportunity to influence the kind of Boston in November and December The Germans were the enemy and were nation the returnees would build. Every 1945. Just a few weeks later, Camp treated as such. Armed guards watched camp holding German POWs, includ- Myles Standish was deactivated and their every move and there were no ing Myles Standish, conducted a so- declared surplus property and with that passes issued for personal errands. A called Intellectual Diversion Program, this once critically important installa- POW’s off-duty hours were spent in in which German prisoners were taught tion passed into history. closely supervised activities. With the English as well as American civics and In May 1983, a ceremony was held on exception of approximately 35 prisoners history. The preeminence of demo- the grounds of the old camp to rededi- who were trucked under heavy guard cratic institutions was heavily empha- cate a religious grotto that had been each day to work in a Taunton tannery, sized, and no dissent was tolerated. built by Italian laborers during the the general public seldom saw Prisoners who resisted were segregated war. Former Lieutenant Colonel Semler the Germans. or moved to a camp for troublemakers. was an invited guest, as were Almost 50 years after the war, Walter Scherdel, a former POW at Standish, visited the site of the camp and spoke with a newspaper reporter and a No POW ever escaped from Taunton historian. In a July 1992 Standish and all seemed to interview published in the North Attleborough Sun Chronicle, Scherdel agree that the system Lieutenant recalled being captured in Belgium as a 17-year-old paratrooper. His Colonel Semler directed had been American incarceration began at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and ended at Camp a model for the humane treatment Myles Standish. He was well treated but so tight was the security that he had no of former adversaries. idea where he was being held. Scherdel was assigned to work in a mess hall where he served meals to GIs returning from Europe. Unlike the Italians, Japan’s surrender in September 1945 a few remaining ISU veterans. As who wore regular work clothes, he and brought an end to Lieutenant Colonel they stood around him, their old com- his countrymen were required to wear Semler’s program for managing mander spoke with pride about his prison uniforms of black pants and detainees at Standish. By war’s end wartime effort. No POW ever escaped black shirts with the large letters PW more than a few members of the Italian from Standish and all seemed to agree painted in white across their backs. Service Units had become romanti- that the system he directed had been cally involved with local women, and a model for the humane treatment of Although he recalled the kindness of when the Italians departed Boston former adversaries. individual guards at Standish, Scherdel for repatriation some of these women had other memories as well. In the followed closely behind. In his book kitchen area where the Germans Italian Prisoners of War in America, worked, large, graphic, recently 1942-1946: Captives or Allies? (1992), released photographs of Holocaust vic- historian Louis E. Keefer writes that tims were hung on the walls to remind several hundred marriages were forged the Germans of what their government from these wartime relationships. had done. Likewise, Scherdel recalled After marrying in Italy, many of these guards telling him that he would never newlyweds returned to the U.S. to reach his home in Germany because build lives together. For the Germans, after the war the POWs would be sent a less harmonious end marked their to rebuild the European cities that William F. Hanna is Adjunct Professor stay in southeastern Massachusetts. Hitler’s bombers had destroyed. in the Department of History Repatriation and deconstruction was

November 2014 11 I say that my brother and I come from a working-class family, even though our father’s pay as a clock-punching, union- protected, steel-mill worker probably put our family financially in the lower middle class in the area of rural western Pennsylvania where I grew up. But culturally, we were working-class. Dad worked in the Hot Mill Combustion department at the Armco steel mill in Butler, so the furnaces that melted the steel were his responsibility. His dad, also Bill, worked in the rail yard at the Pullman-Standard rail car mill across the street from Armco, and he worked a second job as a plasterer. Our other grandpa, my mom’s dad, Roy, was a truck driver. Our uncle Cliff is a carpenter at a state university. The women in our family worked just as hard as the men, mostly as homemakers, and occasionally in the service industry. So, I was raised to work hard. Dad went off to work wearing steel–toed boots, carrying his hard hat and lunch pail. My dad’s dad shared stories about Employee of the Month (Photo credit: Trevor King). (mis)adventures navigating rail cars through the rail yard on his midnight * shift at the mill, and then spending the Work to Do following morning plastering walls and Colby R. King ceilings around town. On the week- ends, my brother and I helped dad clear was the first in my family to earn a bachelor’s our property, stacking logs as he ran the chainsaw. I helped—well, mostly degree, the first to earn a graduate degree, and watched—as my uncle built a porch for now I’m the first to have an office. In that office, my grandparents’ single-wide trailer I one Saturday morning. My mom, over in Hart Hall, I have hung a sculpture that my Belinda, kept the house and clothes brother made. The sculpture is dirty. The brush is clean and always had a homemade meal rusty and the glove is stained. It smells dusty. It doesn’t on the table. quite fit in with the framed certificates and glossy I was always good at school, so that’s what I worked at the hardest. But while new books. But it is in my office to celebrate the I was smart and determined, sometimes work my family has done and the accomplishments I got lost. I didn’t always know how my brother and I have made. to ask questions or where to go to get the information I needed. And when The piece is made of several objects at our grandfather’s house. Our uncle I encountered difficulties, my family that belonged to family members. The helped my brother cut and assemble wasn’t familiar enough with the situ- brush was used by our grandfather in the sculpture. It is a celebration of our ation to offer suggestions. But I was his work as a plasterer. The glove is one family’s working life, but we don’t fortunate in that they encouraged me to our father used working at the mill. My take it too seriously. My Dad, Bill, calls ask questions and not to be intimidated brother found the rest of the materials it “Employee of the Month,” which by authority figures. I also benefited usually gets a laugh.

12 Bridgewater Review from being a straight white male in One reason I hang this sculpture on the professional cultures in our fields, a society that privileges that identity. my wall is that it expresses the cultural cultures that are different from the one Often I found my way only because understandings of work and social class in which we were raised. Neither of us when I was unsure who to ask, I felt that I carry with me. I negotiate both has figured it all out. But we are both comfortable asking everyone. worlds. I understand the strains, risks, making careful decisions about our and pride of physical labor, but I also career paths, and we both bring passion Once, for an undergraduate sociology understand the persistent curiosity and to our work. class at Westminster College, I read the mental tenacity necessary for academic article “Moving Up from the Working Many of our students struggle with work. When I have trouble concentrat- Class,” by Joan Morris and Michael the same sorts of challenges, as former ing on reading, or struggling to find Grimes (Down to Earth Sociology, 2005). BSU provost Howard London’s impor- words as I write, I think about all the In it, the authors share interviews with tant research (“Breaking Away” [1989]; work that my family has done. I think fellow sociologists from working-class “Transformations” [1992]) on first-in- about the clean laundry and homemade families, many of whom identified two their-family university students has meals my mother made, my grandfa- difficulties they each had encountered told us for some time. These students ther driving the truck further down the in their own experiences. The first was often struggle to navigate their new highway, my other grandfather chang- a deficit in cultural capital. Because cultural worlds while maintaining ing clothes after a shift at the mill and their relationships with their families. Many of them feel a conflict between their duties as family members and This sculpture reminds me that the demands of university study, and the weight of responsibility as my office is comfortable, and that the family standard bearer for educa- tional mobility. much of the work my family has Bridgewater State has a higher propor- tion of first-generation and working- done was not. class students than many schools in the region. One of the reasons I continue to be excited about teaching at BSU is of their cultural background, the heading off to plaster, my uncle ham- the chance to work with students from respondents felt they lacked the social mering nails, my dad sweating as he these backgrounds. I want to pass along skills necessary to do well in academic fixed a furnace. This sculpture reminds to these students the lessons that helped settings. The second involved a contra- me that my office is comfortable, and me make the most of my opportunities. diction: while their parents encouraged that much of the work my family has So, I work to help students, from all them to “do better,” which implied done was not. kinds of backgrounds, use sociology to going to college and likely working a better understand how finding a good My brother and I were lucky also job that did not involve manual labor, job isn’t always just about a degree and because our family trusted we would the parents also advanced a perspec- training, it is also often about develop- make good choices about college and tive that valued manual labor over ing subtle social skills and networking. careers. It was only after I had lived other forms of work. Manual labor was I include lessons in my classes on topics for several years on a near-poverty- acknowledged in a way that intellectual such as the role of social capital and level graduate student stipend, and work was not. So, while these respond- diverse social networks in helping my brother began working toward a ents had attained good positions in their students in their job searches. These Masters in Fine Arts, that our fam- fields, their work often did not feel fully are practical lessons, rooted in good ily really began asking about the risks legitimate. Their stories gave me per- academic scholarship. we were taking. There are real risks. spective and provided some language My brother and I are each paying off In Spring 2014, I taught a Second to help me to make sense of my own substantial student-loan debts. We Year Seminar titled “Doing Work, experiences. They also pushed me to have both pursued advanced degrees Sociologically” that extended these realize how useful sociology can be to in fields that have tough job markets, lessons further. A major assignment in explain how individual opportunities and I am fortunate to have this job at this course, supported in part by the are shaped by social situations. Bridgewater. Every day we each learn Office of Undergraduate Research, asks a little bit more about how to navigate each student to collect an oral history

November 2014 13 interview from a person working in which was formed in the past decade to images of hard work and calamity, but a field in which he or she is interested support and promote interdisciplinary the professor was ultimately welcomed in working. Students coordinate with projects that focus on the lives and into the group of mill workers with a BSU’s Career Services office to identify culture of working-class people. round of shots at the bar after the last Bridgewater State alumni or other shift of his probationary period. The Now, when I visit home, my family interested people in the local commu- story could be seen by some as merely makes good-natured jokes about “the nity to participate in the interviews. another version of an old American professor” lacking common sense or After collecting interviews, students trope, an integration narrative, but it about academic work being easy. I write reflective essays about how the has particular resonance for me. I am counter this with tales of my own hard experience informs their perspectives motivated by the same forces, but in work. I describe the mental grind of on their potential careers. Beyond sim- the opposite direction. The protagonist preparing lesson plans, leading classes, ply collecting oral histories about work works to show that a professor can be grading papers, doing research, attend- from the local communities, this pro- competent and capable in a mill, while ing meetings, and advising students. ject gives students the opportunity to also using the experience in his profes- As a friend pointed out, the mainte- apply sociological concepts in practical sional work to demonstrate the value nance of masculinity plays a role in ways that are meaningful in their lives, of stories. I am working to show that how I think about work, too. Family as they expand their social networks a kid from a working-class family can members make jokes about how my and accumulate cultural capital. be a competent and capable academic, hands are soft or suggest that maybe I and that academic lessons have practical Additional resources for students strug- am “afraid” of getting dirty. So when I value for everyone. gling with issues like these are available, go home, I’ll go out of my way to run and several organizations are working the chainsaw or help my uncle with a It is ironic, then, that work rules at the to support university students from physical project. university prevented me from actually hanging this sculpture on my office wall myself. That was work to be done by a carpenter—someone with the I am working to show that a same job as my uncle—not a professor. When visitors to my office ask, and kid from a working-class family sometimes even when they don’t, I’ll can be a competent and capable tell them about the sculpture and what it represents. And after discussing my academic, and that academic family’s work, I’ll return to my own. In my second year here at BSU, I am still lessons have practical value just beginning my job as a university for everyone. professor. I’ve got work to do. working-class backgrounds. There’s When I was an undergraduate, I once Ufused (United for Undergraduate told one of my professors, Jim Perkins, Socio-economic Diversity), a coalition about my dad working at the mill. of students, student governments He responded by sharing with me and allies, which works to advance an unpublished story he wrote called awareness of undergraduate socioeco- “Conceptual Art and Galvanizing,” nomic diversity (ht t p://u f u sed .or g / ). based on his own experiences in a mill. There’s also Class Action (http://www. The story begins at a local bar, when classism.org/), a non-profit organiza- someone declares that “Professors Colby R. King is Assistant Professor tion founded in 2004, which works to have never worked a day in their life.” in the Department of Sociology. help people communicate across the The protagonist of the story, like the * An earlier version of this essay was class spectrum and break down classism professor in real life, accepts this as a published in October 2013 on the through workshops, consulting and challenge and spends the following Working-Class Perspectives blog at: public education. Additionally, there is summer working in a local galvanizing http://workingclassstudies.wordpress. com/2013/10/28/work-to-do/ the Working-Class Studies Association, mill, hoping to prove he could do that work. The story then overflows with

14 Bridgewater Review Figure 1. Spring Mountains Summer temperatures really sizzle and The Other Las Vegas often exceed 105 degrees. Even with PHOTO ESSAY the “dry heat,” it is hard to enjoy the outdoors under those conditions. But Ronald F. Reynolds by taking a short drive, one can increase altitude substantially and undergo hen most people think of Las Vegas, the a dramatic decrease in temperature. picture that comes to mind is of casinos, In half an hour it is possible to escape to Mount Charleston in the Spring Wshows, honky-tonk and extravagance. But Mountains National Recreation Area Las Vegas is also a community of regular people who (Figure 1). Since elevations exceed 10,000 feet, one will experience there work at mundane jobs and live ordinary lives just like a temperature drop of 20 degrees or the rest of us. When they have the chance they, too, more. Given these cooler temperatures like to get outside, hopefully beat the heat and enjoy and the low humidity, it is fairly comfortable for hiking and other activities. the great outdoors. Many visitors never get beyond At this elevation trees grow and it is the “Strip” to experience some of the nearby scenic very picturesque. There are many locations. These photographs show a few of those hiking and climbing trails here as well as ski facilities, in the winter proximate attractions. season. In the lower elevations, typical Mojave Desert vegetation prevails (see inside front cover photograph).

November 2014 15 Figure 2. Red Rock Canyon

Figure 3. Scooters

16 Bridgewater Review Figure 4. Wild Burros

Nearby is Red Rock Canyon National (Figure 4), mule deer or bighorn sheep. oasis and a great place for horseback rid- Conservation Area (Figure 2), which is A couple of miles down the road is ing and other outdoor pursuits. There slightly warmer due to its lower altitude Spring Mountain Ranch State Park are picnic areas, grassy fields for playing but still cooler than the city. This is a (Figure 5). Before it was purchased by baseball or Frisbee, tours of the ranch really beautiful place with a 13-mile the State of Nevada in 1974, Spring house and hiking trails. Lake Harriet scenic loop drive, numerous hiking Mountain had had several celebrity (Figure 6) provides habitat for water- trails and rock-climbing opportunities. owners, among whom Howard Hughes fowl and is frequently crowded with “Scooters” (Figure 3) are available for was the best known. Surprisingly, there ducks. From May through September, rent. These two-passenger vehicles are is no record of Hughes ever having there is an extensive Summer Theater colorful and a lot of fun to drive along stayed at the ranch. The Park is a lovely program including outdoor concerts. the scenic loop. Here, it is possible to escape from the high temperatures and spot wildlife: a herd of wild burros congestion of the city. At an elevation of 3800 feet, it is usually 10-15 degrees cooler than Las Vegas. The ranch is an

November 2014 17 Figure 5. Spring Mountain Ranch

One of the most stunning attractions all these years it is not yet fully cured! high speed. When the bridge was built in the area is south of Las Vegas, outside Hoover Dam has multiple purposes, it included a pedestrian walkway from Boulder City on the Colorado River. including flood control, recreational which you can now get a magnificent Here, Hoover Dam stands 726 feet use, and hydroelectric generation. view overlooking the dam and part of tall and impounds Lake Mead, which It also functions as a reservoir. Until Lake Mead (Figure 8). There is plenty extends 112 miles upstream. It is an recently, the only way to cross the to see on top of the dam, but you can awesome sight to behold, especially Colorado River in the vicinity was to also take guided tours inside the dam at night (Figure 7). The dam was drive directly over the top of the dam. where you can see the turbines and completed in 1936, at which time it There is always heavy pedestrian traffic pass through the network of tunnels. was the biggest construction project there and it is a snarl to get through. It is an eerie feeling to be deep inside ever undertaken. There are three and Since 9/11, there have been major the dam and feel it quivering due to one-quarter million cubic yards of security concerns, so a new bridge the water rushing through and spinning concrete in the dam, so much that after was built over the Colorado just down- the giant turbines. stream from the dam. It is now possible to cross the river on a multi-lane road at

18 Bridgewater Review Figure 6. Lake Harriet

Figure 7. Hoover Dam at Night

November 2014 19 Figure 8. Hoover Dam

20 Bridgewater Review Figure 9. Lake Mead Marina

November 2014 21 Figure 10. Desert Princess

22 Bridgewater Review Figure 11. Lake Mead

The Lake Mead National Recreation dry weather and poor conservation, Area impounded behind Hoover Dam the lake level has dropped substantially serves as a reservoir but also provides (80-100 feet) since 1991. Figure 9 opportunity for people living in the documents this fall: there is a promi- desert to experience the fun of being nent white “bathtub ring” encircling out on the water. Many people own the lake showing former water levels. pleasure boats that they moor at the Still, much of its beauty and function Lake Mead Marina (Figure 9) or at remain as it was. It is possible to rent a other marinas along the lake shore. All houseboat and spend time on the lake that water in the middle of the desert or take a paddle-wheeler cruise on the Ronald F. Reynolds is Adjunct Professor produces a marvelous sight. Today, it Desert Princess (Figure 10) and enjoy the in the Department of Geography and the is a little less marvelous than it once magnificent scenery (Figure 11). Department of Physics. was. Due to a combination of recent If you get to Sin City, take some time away from The Strip and explore some of The Other Las Vegas.

November 2014 23 environmental pressures, and capitaliz- The Business of Diversity ing on emerging opportunities. To succeed in this new environment, Management organizations must draw on the full scope of human talents, qualities, Jakari Griffith perspectives, and skills as part of their cholars who study organizational diversity often larger strategies. Therefore, diversity management no longer concerns just identify with Martin Luther King Jr’s remarks fairness and equality, it also embodies on equality, largely because they were a prelude a meaningful appreciation for differ- S ent patterns of thinking, beliefs, and to Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which cultural assumptions as preconditions outlawed discrimination in hiring, promotion, for learning and effectiveness. compensation, and termination. “We are caught in When businesses apply diversity an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single management, however, there is often great confusion about what constitutes garment of destiny,” wrote King in his famous 1963 “diversity.” First, it can be classified Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “and whatever affects into two general areas: surface diversity one directly, affects us all indirectly.” King understood and deep-level diversity. Surface diversity represents the visible indicators of that our most significant political and social aims difference, such as race, ethnicity, gen- could only be met if we work with our neighbors der, and age. It is commonly employed in corporate diversity training pro- to realize the promises of democracy. He believed grams, recruitment practices, and that our society could flourish only through lawful related policies. Surface-level diversity recognition of the equal and inalienable rights of is easily measured and can be effective in driving corporate outreach policies, all people. For King, equality in group relations for example. was essential not only to a democracy, but also to Deep-level diversity consists of attrib- organizational governance. utes that are more difficult to measure, such as attitudes, values, beliefs, and Since King’s time, there has been at Businesses increasingly recognize that perspectives. Since deep-level diversity the heart of diversity management a their success is strongly tied to the can be informed by intersecting sur- fundamental need to promote equality trends and preferences of a more diverse face-level attributes (age, gender, etc.), in organizational processes and sys- marketplace. In this respect, diversity it gives rise to variously situated social tems. While this has fostered impor- management holds that having diverse identities that are made clear through tant human resource management personnel in business is essential to tap- repeated interactions with colleagues. practices that target equality—griev- ping into growing markets, adapting to Deep-level diversity weakens the ance procedures, formal hiring and promotion systems, systematic recruitment schemes—the new managerial Diversity management holds mandate has shifted away from simply promoting fairness and equality toward that having diverse personnel identifying unique perspectives from an increasingly diverse workforce that in business is essential to translate into tangible business value. Today, globalization, rapid develop- tapping into growing markets, ment of technology, and increased adapting to environmental economic pressures all require a thorough reexamination of human pressures, and capitalizing on resources, making the need to focus on diversity all the more apparent. emerging opportunities.

24 Bridgewater Review influence of surface-level attributes by challenging biases linked to stereotypes. Yet while it is easy to embrace the limited number of attributes contained in either the surface- or deep-level cat- egorizations, it is important to note that any social category underrepresented in a particular context can be considered for diversity inclusion. This holds all organizational members responsible for ensuring that different social categories are respected and validated. Putting the “Diversity” in Diversity Management Diversity management, in the popular sense, uses differences in surface- or deep-level categories to create social and economic value. It is a distinct set of practices conceptually related to Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity (AA/ EEO) policy, but different from it in that diversity management primarily concerns the voluntary promotion of diversity-relevant activities that benefit organizations. In a related sense, diversity management also means fostering inclusivity through socially integrated workgroups. It refers to the creation of conditions where people of diverse Employees on Blocks (Credit: Image Zoo) backgrounds and worldviews can develop their capacities and contribute social and moral ones, regardless of diverse, which refers to the numeric to organizational goals. Some observers their societal value. The key argument representation of various diversity have even described diversity manage- here is that the greater the tie between groups. This approach makes organi- ment as the recognition and valuation diversity and performance, the more zational sense, because it encompasses of cultural differences, informational an organization will commit to invest- surface-level attributes that are easy to exchanges, and alignment in functional ing in resources to support diversity count and observe, and therefore can expertise or background knowledge. efforts, a phenomenon scholars call be used to gauge the success of staffing the “business case” for diversity. and recruiting efforts. Companies that At the end of the day, business leaders Consequently, examining links adopt the approach typically showcase must pay close attention to practices between diversity efforts and specific the composition of their workforce in that affect the bottom line. This logic business outcomes has become an order to assess its value for diversity strays not too far from the late business important area of inquiry. and show where they might improve. diversity champion Roosevelt Thomas’s This could mean publishing the num- observation that diversity efforts are Diversity Management and ber of women they employ, or empha- best supported when they are aligned Business Performance sizing the diversity of their workforces with business outcomes. The architect in brochures, leaflets, pamphlets and of Coca-Cola’s Diversity Leadership Effective diversity management has websites. But perhaps the most logical Academy, Thomas (1945-2013) rea- a strong impact on organizational argument in its favor is that it makes soned that an economic justification performance. One metric often used to diversity a point of positive differentia- for diversity was a far superior rationale assess this relationship is the degree to tion from competitors. to impress upon managers than were which companies are compositionally

November 2014 25 For example, Phillips and colleagues (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2009) found that members of homo- geneous groups were more inclined to share unique viewpoints when more diverse members were included in the group. Moreover, members were also more likely to use diverse viewpoints to either validate or reexamine the logic supporting particular courses of action. Finally, diversity also benefits company performance when the opinions, values, and experiences of a diverse Collage of Business People in Shaking Hands (Credit: John Lund) workforce cross-fertilize to create novel insights and innovative performance. Taken together, perceived composi- How Does Diversity Affect When people band together accord- tional diversity and the existence of a the Bottom Line? ing to their more visible surface-level diversity management program seem attributes, it can create subgroups that Visible diversity management practices to greatly expand the potential pool of prevent effective group performance. send a message to external stakehold- applicants available to an organization On the other hand, research tells us that ers that an organization is fair and while at the same time appealing to as diverse employees interact during inclusive. Studies have shown that high achievers who are likely to recip- group tasks, they discover similarities organizations are rewarded for this sort rocate with supportive work behavior. of commitment by way of increased that lead to deeper levels of cooperation economic returns and investments. Also, by appearing diverse, businesses and communication. Susan Fiske notes Moreover, high levels of composi- can create opportunities to make mean- in Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination tional diversity allow firms to signal ingful connections with important (2000) that an increased sense of important information to labor markets stakeholder groups and customers. The interdependence among diverse group about their ability to attract and retain U.S. population has changed dramati- members leads them to value others on workers from diverse backgrounds. cally over the past four decades. The the basis of their individual qualities, There is general agreement among Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) pre- resulting in a better understanding of scholars that diverse job seekers form dicts that by 2020 the U.S. labor force members’ needs, interests, similarities, favorable impressions about a prospec- will be significantly older and more and perspectives. Though scholars have tive employer when they see that the racially and ethnically diverse. This often emphasized the role of conflict company hires people who look like will create a new pattern in spending in diverse groups, studies now show them. Avery and colleagues (Personnel power, which suggests the potential to that diverse teams with properly man- Psychology, 2006) found that job seek- develop new markets for products and aged conflict are often more creative, ers who believed it was important to services. Firms adjusting their work- arrive at better decisions, and are more engage with diversity groups other force demographics to match the needs innovative than their homogenous than their own were also more likely to of emergent customer groups stand to counterparts. benefit substantially as these markets pursue employment with an organiza- The Role of Diversity tion that valued diversity because, to continue to grow, and increase the them, it increased the chances of their overall effectiveness of sales, marketing, Training and Leadership own identities being affirmed. Ng and and product development efforts. In Given what is at stake, it is no wonder Burke (International Journal of Human addition, when a firm employs people that formal diversity training pro- Resource Management, 2005) found that whose demographics resemble those of grams have received so much attention high achievers rated organizations its targeted customer groups, it signals over the past 25 years. Though many with diversity management programs to these groups that it values their expe- training methodologies have been as attractive places of employment. In riences, beliefs, and opinions. Likewise, devised and published, there is much fact, among the 12 criteria in the 2014 firms employing members of diverse convergence on the idea that training edition of its annual “Great Colleges groups benefit tremendously from programs should emphasize diversity to Work For” feature, the Chronicle of cultural experiences and understanding awareness as a means to promote posi- Higher Education lists diversity fourth. that would be unavailable were such tive intergroup interactions. This often diversity inaccessible or nonexistent.

26 Bridgewater Review takes the form of workplace seminars Diversity-training efforts alone means showing high levels of trust and and information sessions that provide are inadequate if they are not fully sensitivity, encouraging full participa- important diversity facts, details of anchored in an organizational culture tion of all members in organizational group-member experiences, knowl- that has made diversity and inclusion a systems, showing interest in and appre- edge about how cognitive bias works, primary part of its mission. Whereas an ciation for viewpoints and concerns and suggestions for improving the employer may use industry-established different from one’s own, being trans- capacity for empathy. Businesses may best practices to differentiate it from parent about how decisions are made, even instruct employees on the impor- competitors, a company committed to and maintaining attitudes that foster tance of creating and managing a shared a culture of inclusion accepts diversity good communication. Leaders must organizational identity in which mem- as a maxim governing its existence. also show genuine compassion and con- bers connect to one another through a These companies conduct systematic cern for all organizational members in common sense of purpose, conviction, audits to assess the degree to which both their public and private actions if and meaning. Tony Hseih, CEO of diversity is integrated throughout they are to promote the common good Zappos.com and author of Delivering their systems, levels, and processes. and health of the organization. Most Happiness (2010), argues that a strong set They make frequent use of diversity importantly, leaders must champion a of core values can foster a culture where assessment measures, hold managers discourse that affirms both the organization and the people they employ. Although no one approach to diversity Though scholars have often management fits all circumstances, it is becoming increasingly clear that emphasized the role of conflict in targeted and deliberate diversity leadership programs are required for diverse groups, studies now show long-term organizational success. And though the benefits have been that diverse teams with properly expressed through the narrow lens of financial profit, there are many other managed conflict are often more positive outcomes that do not lend themselves directly to measurement. creative, arrive at better decisions, Workplace diversity involves everyone’s and are more innovative than values and the pursuit of both com- munal and individual good. Diversity their homogenous counterparts. management might have less to do with learning about others than discovering new and unimagined parts of ourselves. And that cost-benefit analysis requires no business case. everyone identifies with diversity, accountable for creating inclusive which for Zappos means being open work environments, and recognize minded, humble, and committed to diversity as an essential tool with which pursuing growth and learning. Other organizations create value for them- diversity interventions focus on behav- selves and their stakeholders. This often ioral changes in interpersonal commu- means thinking differently about estab- nications, so that employees can better lished power structures and learning to communicate across cultural margins value individuals for their intrinsic as and integrate different worldviews in opposed to instrumental value. ways that lead to better business deci- But perhaps the most salient indicator of sions. Regardless of whether training a company’s commitment to diversity focuses on improving interpersonal Jakari Griffith is Assistant Professor in the and inclusion resides in its leadership. processes or raising diversity awareness, Department of Management. Whether elected or appointed, lead- it is important that any training be done ers should know that their constituents as an integrated set of practices rather expect certain behaviors from them. than a loosely configured campaign of In leading a diverse organization, this isolated ones.

November 2014 27 Khan was very pleased with the holy oil Marco Polo: Pioneer of East-West that they had brought. In 1277, Marco Polo was appointed an official of the Communication, Transportation Privy Council by Kublai Khan and served as a tax inspector for three years and Trade in the City of Yangzhou. Chien Wen Yu Staying and doing business in Mongol Empire for 17 years, the Polos acquired escription of the World or, more commonly, a wealth of jewels and gold, but they The Travels of Marco Polo was the most influ were anxious to go home. Kublai reluctantly let them go in return for ential travelogue concerning China in the escorting Mongol princess Kokachin so D thirteenthcentury. Today, there exist more than 130 that she could marry the Persian prince, Arghun. The sea journey took two versions of the book. Though scholars have examined years; they passed through the South many aspects of The Travels of Marco Polo, few have China Sea to Sumatra and crossed studied closely what it tells us about the origins of the Indian Ocean for a final landing in Hormuz. The Polos arrived back East-West communication and culture. The Travels is in Venice in 1295 by way of Persia, a popular text in China, but it is controversial in the Constantinople and the Black Sea. West. Though many skeptics question the authenticity The Travels of Marco Polo of Polo’s account, the work that scholars (members and Controversies of my family and myself included) have done over The Travels of Marco Polo is a detailed many years translating and writing about Marco Polo account of his travels to China and neighboring countries in central, proves that his coming to China contributed greatly west and southeast Asia, using first- to the advance of East-West communication, cultural hand information. The book is of high academic and historical value exchange, transportation, and trade. since there were no annals in China The Life of Marco Polo and to record the historical facts of that period. The document is divided into His Journey to China four volumes. The first volume pro- Marco Polo was born to a merchant vides an account of what the Polos saw family on the Venetian island of and heard on their way to China. The Curzola (present-day Korcula, Croatia) second volume records the society of in 1254. When he was six years old, early Yuan Empire including political his father (Niccolo Polo) and his uncle affairs, wars, secrets of the royal court, (Maffeo Polo) made their first trip to exotic customs, and economic pros- China. When Marco was 17, Nicolo perity of such cities as Dadu (Beijing), and Maffeo took him with them on Shangdu (Zhangjiakou), and Xingzai their second trip to China. From (Hangzhou). The third volume depicts Venice, they entered the Mediterranean the conditions of the neighboring Sea, crossed the Black Sea, and arrived Marco Polo (1254-1324). Engraving by Gaetano countries to the southeast of China. Bonutti after a painting by the Venetian School. in the ancient city of Baghdad in the (Photo credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images) The final volume describes the wars Middle East. There they were robbed between the Khans and the political by pirates, which dissuaded them from Afghanistan, before they arrived in situation in northern Asia. Of the four travelling any further by sea. Instead, the empire of the Mongol Great Khan. volumes, the second volume stands out they took a land route to China. Riding In May 1275, Kublai Khan invited because it is written from the perspec- on horseback, they overcame obstacles the Polos to his residence where they tive of Marco’s personal experiences in and went over the Pamir Mountains presented him the privileges and letters China and it is considered by many to passing through Armenia, Persia and that the Pope of Rome had sent. Great be the best part.

28 Bridgewater Review Today, there are two schools among the clear. For Marco Polo, the practice scholars of Marco Polo, and they have of foot-binding for women was rare, formed opposing views. One side, the especially in the Mongol area. Mongol Believers, affirm that Marco Polo went nomads practically lived on horseback; to China, while Skeptics doubt that he it would have been difficult for bound- went. Supporters are represented by foot women to function. The Great scholars such as Tübingen University Wall was built in the Ming Dynasty professor Hans Ulrich Vogel, British after the Yuan Empire and Marco Polo’s diplomat and Polo biographer Maurice travels. A Venetian, Marco Polo did Collis, and Chinese scholars such as not know or learn any Chinese, nor did Zhijiu Yang and Shixiong Yu. Skeptics he know how to use Chinese writing are represented by Frances Wood, brushes or chopsticks. Therefore, there Head of the Chinese Collection at the was no mention of Chinese characters British Library, and Professor Craig or chopsticks. Finally, the Mongols Clunas from University of London. did not drink the regular Chinese tea, Best known for her book Did Marco which is brewed from tea leaves, and Polo Go to China?, Wood argues that so Chinese tea is, naturally, never Marco Polo didn’t, and that The Travels mentioned. In short, skeptics’ questions was merely a travel guide containing are easily answered and the believers’ A page from The Travels of Marco Polo by second-hand tales. Rustichello da Pisa and Marco Polo, c 1300 case is sustained. (Source: Wikipedia) Marco Polo’s Stories and Contribution to East- Today, there are two schools West Communication and Culture among the scholars of Marco Polo, Marco Polo’s description of Chinese and they have formed opposing food and drink still plays an important part in our understanding of the origins views. One side, the Believers, of East-West communication and cultural exchange. The foods he men- affirm that Marco Polo went tions include rice, noodles, the meat of birds, and the meat of domesticated and to China, while Skeptics doubt wild animals. In terms of drink, there is mare’s (horse) milk, camel milk, that he went. grape wine and rice wine. Horse milk is a Mongolian drink that many claim tastes as good as wine. According to In the fourteenth century, the book Rustichello wrote down only what he Marco Polo’s account, the Great Khans spread throughout Europe in manu- was interested in. And here is the root raised thousands of white horses, and script form, popularly circulated of the controversy. only Kublai Khan and his immediate and copied by hand. Two years after The historical debate about the verac- family had the privilege of being served Marco Polo returned from China, a ity of The Travels focuses on what is (or of this kind of drink. In addition to war started between the city states of seems to some to be) missing from the mare’s milk, camel’s milk was a favorite Venice and Genoa. During the Battle book. Why does the book contain no drink because it was reportedly tasty of Curzola (1298), Marco Polo was references to quintessential Chinese and good for promoting the health of captured and put into jail as a prisoner cultural practices and symbols, such as the whole body and strengthening of war. He spent several months of his foot-binding among Chinese women, will power. imprisonment dictating his travels to a the Great Wall, Chinese characters or fellow inmate and writer, Rustichello Polo also wrote about grape and wine chopsticks, or even Chinese tea? The de Pisa. Interpreting Marco Polo’s production in Taiyuan of Shangxi. answers to those questions are pretty stories and incorporating his own ideas, Wine was believed to stave off hunger

November 2014 29 and promote health. As Marco Polo The Polos were adventurous merchants told it, in the Yuan Empire wine was from Venice and went to the East to to be used as the only offering made in seek spices, silk and jewelries. Marco imperial ancestral temples. In Qidan, Polo was drawn to the powerful Yuan he observed, residents drank a wine Empire and the prosperity of its econ- made of rice, spice and Chinese medici- omy and trade. Regarding the mon- nal materials. In the Yuan Dynasty, etary system, he gave a detailed account Chinese medicinal materials were of paper money, its money circulation infused in distilled wine liquor to make and manufacturing process. Lugou Bridge (also known as Marco Polo Chinese Wolfberry Wine, Radices Bridge), built of stone with 24 arches and Under the rule of the Yuan Empire, Rehmanniae Wine, Tiger Bone Wine supported by 25 piers (Author’s photo) paper money was used by government and Poria Cocos Wine. The Chinese officials and ordinary citizens. In Dadu, medicinal wines that spread to the Marco Polo was impressed with the refusing to accept it as payment was West are still popular today. All of efficient transportation and communi- punishable by death. Even the foreign this can be attributed to Marco Polo. cation system in the Mongol Empire. merchants who came with silver, gold, Finally, the eating of noodles was The Travels of Marco Polo describes precious stones and leather to the Yuan brought to the West by Polo. The extra another important feature of east-west Empire had to accept the paper money thin noodles that came from China transportation: the world-famous and take it for payment. Despite this to Italy become famous in Venice as Lugou Bridge (which Marco Polo threat, the use of paper money for trade “Marco Polo Noodles.” called the Bridge of Pulisangan). was recognized by many in Polo’s time Marco Polo’s Stories and Appointed by the Great Khan as his and since as so much more convenient ambassador to the West, Marco left Their Contribution to East- and efficient than bartering with goods Khan-balik (Beijing), crossing the for goods. It signified the progress of West Transportation handsome bridge of stone built with the Yuan Empire, but it also reflects the As Marco Polo described it, the Yuan 24 arches and 25 piers. Lugou Bridge acumen the Marco Polo possessed as a Empire was a vast territory that was was a strategic point of transportation, businessman and an objective observer, remarkably well connected. Across the crossing as it did Polisangan River, and a conduit for connecting ideas, Empire were hundreds of communica- which flowed into the ocean and was practices and cultures of the East and tions posts where horses and couriers navigated by many vessels with consid- the West. were stationed. In all, about 200,000 erable quantities of merchandise. Since horses were kept and a system of town- Marco was the first westerner to cross to-town messengers was put in place the bridge and introduce the bridge for this purpose. Some messengers to the West, many westerners call it traveled 250 or 300 miles in a day. “Marco Polo Bridge.” The Travels of Marco Polo expanded the worldview of both his contemporar- ies and European explorers who came after his time. Some famous world maps were made using information provided by Marco Polo, and The Travels of Marco Polo contributed to the expan- sion of shipping ventures and business. After reading The Travels, Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama (1460-1524) and Italian mariner Christopher Chien Wen Yu is Assistant Professor in the Columbus (1451-1506) each became Department of Management. interested in the East, envisioned Chinese prosperity and civilization, and explored the East in a way that pro- Sculpture of Marco Polo on campus of Beijing Foreign Studies University (Author’s photo) moted the East-West cultural exchange, transportation and trade.

30 Bridgewater Review In 1832 Doctor Charles Knowlton Miniature Books at (1800-1850) wrote a manual on the then-taboo subject of birth control, and Maxwell Library published it under the innocuous title The Fruits of Philosophy, or the Private Marcia Dinneen Companion of Young Married People. or centuries, people have been fascinated by The book measures 2 M by 2 ½ inches and was easy to conceal. In 1862, the miniature books. Some have collected them; Emancipation Proclamation was printed others have written about them; still more have in miniature book form by abolitionist F John Murray Forbes of Boston. Copies simply enjoyed them. What many people do not know were given to Union soldiers to carry is that the Maxwell Library has its own collection and to distribute in southern states. On of miniature books. Housed in Special Collections, his travels in Africa, British explorer David Livingstone carried with him a these tiny treasures are rare in several aspects. The miniature book of the poems of Robert most obvious of these is their size. The standard Burns, and T. E. Lawrence gave miniature copies of the Koran to his Muslim definition for a miniature book as set by collector soldiers as a battle talisman. Adolf Percy Spielmann and by Julian Edison, editor of Hitler used miniatures for propaganda, Miniature Book News, is three inches in height—up issuing cheaply printed biographies of Nazi officers, folk songs, and praise to four inches “if the intent is miniature.” By this for himself. One miniature book, measure, the BSU collection has 78 miniature books, The Autobiography of Robert Hutchings Goddard, Father of the Space Age, pub- including Bibles, religious books, Thumb Bibles were particularly popu- lished by St. Onge, was aboard the novels, poems, hymnals and children’s lar, as were Almanacs. By the nine- Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969. books. The collection also includes teenth century, technological advances 19 books published by Achille J. in typography and photography ena- St. Onge (1913-1978) of Worcester, bled the creation of the smallest books. Massachusetts, whose publications are “The 19th century,” Louis Bondy wrote regarded as among the best-produced in his Miniature Books: Their History from miniature books in America. Beginnings to the Present (1981), was “the supreme age of the miniature book.” In The origin of miniature books actu- that century, several London publish- ally precedes the invention of printing. ers developed complete libraries for The earliest miniature “book” is a tiny children that were housed in specially cuneiform clay tablet produced by the designed bookcases, and religious tract Sumerians and containing government societies produced huge numbers of Although miniature books were largely records. Miniatures were developed tiny books, which they often distrib- the creatures of publishers, some authors in manuscript form and only later uted for free. Since then, miniature wrote their works in miniature. The as printed books. The first printed books have conveyed many types of Brontë sisters and brother Bramwell miniature book, according to historian knowledge, from dictionary entries created their worlds of Angria and Douglas McMurtrie, was the Diurnale to poems. Gondal in tiny manuscripts. They Moguntinum, produced about 1468 by replicated published print in careful German printer Peter Schoeffer, who Fine workmanship is the hallmark calligraphy and used a variety of apprenticed with Johann Gutenberg. of miniature books. Care is needed materials (including a flour sack, a Early miniature books are rare. By the to cut and cast type, develop ink sheet of music, or a wallpaper scrap) sixteenth century, miniatures were that will not clog the tiny type, select for each “volume.” As described by produced more frequently, and there appropriate paper, and bind the minute Kate E. Brown in her 1998 essay are many examples that can be seen in volumes. Miniature books are works “Beloved Objects,” Charlotte Brontë’s such repositories as the British Library of art, but they are also useful. Because Never-Ending Story (1826-29) is less and the Library of Congress. In the of their size, they have been easy to than three inches tall, as is Bramwell’s seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, carry and, when necessary, to hide. History of the Young Men (1830).

November 2014 31 in Worcester holds all 49 miniature Miniature books are works books published by St. Onge. of art, but they are also useful. In addition to the St. Onge collection, BSU collection contains other Because of their size, they intriguing little books. There is the 1828 three-volume set of the gothic have been easy to carry and, romance Children of the Abbey, along with books published by the American when necessary, to hide. Tract Society, such as Daily Food for Christians (1880). One fascinating book is The Bliss of Marriage, The Way Miniature books have great appeal to the Altar, Matrimony Made Easy, or to the avid collector. In his book The How to Win a Lover (1854). The book Savage Mind (1962), anthropologist is included in Humbug. A Look at Some Claude Levi-Strauss called the minia- Popular Impositions (1859) as an example ture book the “masterpiece of the jour- of a famous hoax, purportedly offering neyman.” Some are driven to collecting advice for a happy marriage, but in miniatures because they can amass a reality selling various nostrums. great many of them in a small space. Among the miniature children’s books Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, are stories and poems difficult to had a collection estimated at between locate elsewhere, such as Frank L. 1800 to 2000 volumes; sadly, it was Baum’s short piece “The Christmas wholly lost during the 1871 burning of Frost. There are also inaugural presi- Stocking,” published in the Christmas the Tuileries Palace. President Franklin dential addresses: Kennedy, Johnson, Stocking Series. Other important titles Delano Roosevelt collected more than and Nixon. Some of the books at in the collection include The Ladies 750 miniatures. Among the many Maxwell are in poor shape and some Almanac, published in 1856, which libraries that collect miniature books of them are missing pages. The major- includes an informative article on are the Henry E. Huntington Library, ity of the books are written in English. women’s medical colleges. the Boston Public Library, the Library Some of the “books” are actually pamphlets and two are Christmas orna- Although housing and displaying a of Congress, the American Antiquarian collection of miniature books can be Society (which has 100 examples of ments, complete with string, to hang on the tree. challenging, having it is an asset to American editions of Thumb Bibles Bridgewater State. Many of the titles dating from 1765) and the New York Perhaps most interesting among the are valuable because they point to our Public Library (which has a copy of miniature books in the BSU collec- history and reflect aspects of a forgot- the first miniature book printed in tion, however, are a series of 19 min- ten past. Students, scholars and others America, William Secker’s A Wedding iature books (all of them in fine shape) fascinated by the riches inside these tiny Ring for the Finger, or the Salve of Divinity published by St. Onge. He started books would do well to set aside some on the Sore of Humanity [Boston, 1695]). publishing miniatures in 1935 with time to spend with them by visiting our Bridgewater State University’s own Noel, by Robert K. Shaw. His early Special Collections, on the third floor collection of miniature books ranges books were printed in this country, but of Maxwell Library. from literature to religion, from later he had his books printed abroad instructive manuals to biographies. The using, for example, the Enschede Press books are bound in cloth, paper, and of Haarlem, Holland (the one that various types of leather. Most of the also prints money for the country). books are children’s literature, 30 of St. Onge’s Inaugural Address of John them in all. Twenty-two books are of F. Kennedy was in such demand after a religious nature, ranging from prayer Kennedy’s death in 1963 that the 1000 books to books of Bible verses for each original copies quickly sold out, and the day. There are 13 Bibles. Sixteen books book had to be reprinted. Within the fall into the category of literature— year following Kennedy’s death, 7000 novels and poems including some by copies had been sold. The Robert H. Marcia Dinneen is Head of Reference recognized authors, such as Robert Goddard Museum at Clark University Services at Maxwell Library.

32 Bridgewater Review “in the learning process through The Classroom as the World: discussion, group work, hands-on participation, [and] applying informa- Understanding the Value of tion outside the classroom” (Teaching for Experiential Learning, 2010). At its Experiential Learning core, experiential learning calls for us to envision the classroom differently. Lisa M. Litterio Rather than a fixed, physical location xperiential learning appeals to Bridgewater of desks and whiteboards, the classroom is the world: it is a summer internship, State students, whose lives consist of balancing a trip to the grocery store, a carefully rigorous course loads with full-time work and crafted assignment. Experiential learn- E ing not only invites us to reimagine familial obligations. Experiential learning is exactly as the classroom, but also reconsider what it sounds: learning by experience. Learning by doing. constitutes learning and the formation It is a paradigm shift, requiring our students not to of knowledge. It calls students to be the agents of their education—to learn compartmentalize their lives between school and by doing, discovering, reflecting and work, extracurricular and familial obligations; to seize applying. This kind of learning, Fink explains, does not have one end goal; opportunities to direct their own learning, make their instead, its taxonomy spans six different own knowledge, and apply it. Bridgewater fosters this areas of learning (see Figure 1), includ- kind of learning and application of knowledge through ing “foundational knowledge, application, integration, human dimension, its many internships, study abroad offerings, caring, and learning how to learn.” and practicums, but experiential learning can also happen with strategic classroom pedagogy. It can be a lens to reshape assignments and syllabi. My goals in this article are first to provide Learning How Foundational an understanding of experiential learn- to Learn Knowledge ing, then demonstrate two examples • Becoming a better student Understanding and of experiential learning in classroom • Inquiring about a subject remembering assignments to illustrate this concept • Self-directing learners • Information • Ideas as well as suggest ways to integrate this kind of teaching at Bridgewater. Caring APPLICATION Experiential learning was champi- Developing new Skills • Feelings A Taxonomy of Thinking: oned by early theorists in the field of • Interests Significant Learning • Critical, creative & education, nineteenth-and twentieth- • Values practical thinking century thinkers such as John Dewey, • Managing projects David Kolb, and Carl Rogers. More than a decade ago, L. Dee Fink defined experiential learning as a “paradigm of Human Dimension Integration significant learning” that supports mul- Learning about Connecting tiple learning objectives for students, • Oneself • Ideas including shaping their own knowledge • Others • People through experience (Creating Significant • Realms of life Learning Experiences, 2003). More recently, educators Scott Wurdinger and Julie Carlson also encouraged Figure 1. L. Dee Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning, detailing 6 areas instructors to involve their students of learning (from Fink, Creating Significant Learning Experiences [2003]).

November 2014 33 Today, “technology” is the buzzword in higher education with discussions Experiential learning not only centering on MOOCs (massive online open courses) and online/hybrid invites us to reimagine the pedagogy. But experiential learning does not require new technology: it can classroom, but also reconsider be as refreshingly low-tech as build- what constitutes learning and ing a chair. To provide some context, one of the courses I teach is English the formation of knowledge. 201: Technical Writing. In this course, students consider how to write and It calls students to be the agents deliver specialized (that is, “technical”) information to non-technical or general of their education—to learn by audiences. One of the most common examples of a technical document is a doing, discovering, reflecting manual; it can be a physical manual for, say, a coffee maker or an electronic one, and applying. such as a PDF detailing how to use the latest iPhone. Designing a manual is a chair to learn to think and write like builders. These students also spoke of crucial part of technical writing because a technical writer. But I do not tell the necessity for a team of writers who it relies on teaching students about them so. I want them to discover that would observe their building process— audience, purpose, and clear content. for themselves. and discuss what mode (text, verbal, Before students can design their own visual) would be necessary to elaborate The challenge is that IKEA’s manuals, manuals, I encourage them to discover and represent various steps. One student as the illustration below (Figure 2) what that process is like by following suggested building the chair outside shows, contain a series of images instructions of a pre-existing manual. to have more space, and other students and graphics, with little or no text. In this case, I use a manual from IKEA, quickly agreed. Students spent the next Adhering to the philosophy of experi- and my 20 students are charged with 50 minutes building a chair, discussing ential learning, I invited students in my the task of following these instructions and interpreting the IKEA manual as Spring semester 2014 ENGL 201 class to build a ready-to-assemble wooden they assembled the chair with efficiency to brainstorm on how we should divide chair. They are not building the chair and precision. The one tool I provided our labor. We decided that we would because I need additional furniture in them, a three-pronged screw driver, did need a project manager and a team of my home or office. They are building a not have a Phillips head, so they were almost unable to complete the final steps. Several students said that it was “hopeless” that they could finish, while others realized they were so close to a finished chair were not ready to give up. To complete their chair, one of the students ran to the nearby Art Building to borrow the correct screwdriver from an art instructor. The students showed resourceful- ness and perseverance as they shared aloud their process and as the manual writers observed, offered feedback, and collaborated to produce a revised document. This was not only experiential learning in progress, but it is also how I teach writing. Writing, too, involves discussion, collaboration, revising, and refinement. At the end Figure 2. Example of instructions from a typical IKEA manual

34 Bridgewater Review of this 50-minute class session, I had I include disclaimers or other notations? Island. In other disciplines, experiential much more than a completed chair; Do I include both text and images, or learning could involve students creating I had a group of students who had only one of them? art to illustrate a mathematical equa- willingly taken part in a pedagogical tion, developing maps from spaces they For their own projects, I invite students experiment, a lesson of experiential visit for a geography class, or conduct- to write their manuals for any user, but learning. This lesson resulted in a class ing interviews with grocery store let them know that as their instruc- more connected by this shared experi- customers for a marketing project. tor, I will complete the steps listed and ence and students who realized that evaluate them on the clarity of their Experiential learning also encourages the ownership of teaching and learning instructions. And so, in past semesters, us to reconsider what we mean by the and applying information is not in the I baked an orange cake, played Fantasy classroom. At Bridgewater, students hands of a singular person, but part of a Football, and even attempted to change already take part in study abroad pro- collaborative effort. my own brake pads based on the docu- grams, hold internships, and undertake In experiential learning, learning by ments that students submitted. Here is service-learning projects. Yet, how can doing leads to the questions of “Now the beauty of experiential learning: it’s we integrate sites of study and explora- what?” and “So what?” According not one-sided. It encourages instructors tion as part of the classroom? How can to C. Haynes’s Experiential Learning to guide students in their own learning we extend the classroom as a site of (2007), “Students are encouraged to process, allowing them to experiment learning? Even within the confines of a connect this experience to a real-life and discover. It also invites the instruc- course syllabus, instructors can question situation and apply what they learned in tor to be part of a shared experience how our material, our understanding this experience to a similar or different that fosters not only a strong sense of of our world, is influenced by experiential learning practices. One of the ways in which Bridgewater supports Here is the beauty of experiential this practice is through the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR). Each learning: it encourages instructors semester, funding is allocated to faculty applicants through course-embedded to guide students in their own research grants—funds that support students in their research, reimbursement learning process, allowing them for classes to travel off campus, or for supplies. Last semester, OUR provided to experiment and discover. a grant for my English course, “Writing It also invites the instructor to for the Public: The Art of Persuasion” (ENGL 389), a course that explores be part of a shared experience how writing can influence people to reconsider viewpoints, discover com- that fosters not only a strong mon ground, compromise, or even create policy change. As the culminat- sense of community, but also ing project in ENGL 389, students were invited to consider how public writing student autonomy. extends to memorials and monuments as sites of writing, speech, and memory. This assignment not only encour- experience.” Technical writers are community, but also student autonomy. ages students to analyze and consider a often required to write manuals and Beyond the technical writing class- memorial in a public space to develop user-friendly directions. Because stu- room, I see students drawing from the a thoughtful and articulate rhetorical dents experienced building a chair from experience, whether it is writing a series analysis of the space, it also requires an unclear pictograph, they applied of instructions necessary for a visitor students to experience a physical place. that knowledge in their own manual- watching their cats while they are away We visited the New England Holocaust writing process, asking themselves from home or, with respect to the more Memorial in Boston. questions such as: How do I make this life-threatening cases we study, crafting ENGL 389 class members traveled to step clear to the reader? What kinds of technical documentation relating to the Boston on a Friday afternoon in April. terms do I need to define? What equip- Challenger Explosion, aviation cri- We spent time together as a class not ment or materials are necessary? Should ses, or the nuclear crisis at Three Mile

November 2014 35 heritage shared with the class that world, and that our role is to facilitate stones are often left on Jewish graves to and cultivate opportunities for students symbolize the permanence of a person to be self-learners. Experiential learn- or event. Consisting of six glass towers ing requires us to reflect on what we representing each concentration camp, teach and the way we teach it, examin- the Memorial was a physical site with ing our syllabi and assignments, and which students interacted. They all engaging in conversations with other considered carefully how the Memorial faculty about our teaching practices. was constructed and positioned, but As educator Larry Spence summarizes, also how viewers interacted with the “We won’t meet the needs for more and Figure 3. Author (back row, left) with students space. They noted that many people better higher education until professors from ENGL 389 in Boston. (Author’s photo) seemed to walk right by and not even become designers of learning experi- analyzing or evaluating images in a realize the solemnity of the space. A ences and not teachers” (Fink, 2003). textbook or on a computer screen, but few peered through the metal floors to Following Spence, let us craft and analyzing exterior spaces in person. The see smoke and lights flicker, reminis- shape learning opportunities that students who went to Boston presented cent of the Gas Chambers, according best serve our students at Bridgewater their own theses and arguments about to the designer’s vision. and beyond. the memorial they encountered at the Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 28, 2014. Their experience What I am encouraging… is that was of more than just visiting a research site to conduct fieldwork, interviews we help our students see that there with observers, and fellow classmates; they also disseminated that research is no singular divide between to a wider audience that consisted of members of the BSU community. They academia and the real world, cultivated what Fink considers the and that our role is to facilitate human dimension of experiential learning, as they learned of the atrocities of and cultivate opportunities the Holocaust and pondered the quota- tions from personal accounts. They for students to be self-learners. also learned about cultural significance, as they observed the small stones that are routinely piled on the entryway to Experiential learning is exactly what it the memorial. One student of Jewish sounds like: experiencing something. Visiting a site of memory—the New England Holocaust Memorial—invites students not only to experience how societies negotiate memory, but to examine how the memorial interacts with them, other viewers, and its context of Boston. Building a chair, when presented as a way to learn about the Lisa Litterio is Assistant Professor necessary skills of a technical writer, in the Department of English. also invites students to see themselves as professionals, collaborators, and problem-solvers in a real-world task. Figure 4. Students in author’s ENGL 389 What I am encouraging, and what course take part in experiential learning as they proponents of experiential learning are view, interact, observe, and document the space in the New England Holocaust Memorial, exhorting us to do, is that we help our Boston. (Author’s photo) students see that there is no singular divide between academia and the real

36 Bridgewater Review power and violence. Of course, whites’ FACULTY IN PRINT impersonation and appropriation of blackness has a much longer, multi- An excerpt from Kimberly Chabot Davis, Beyond media history, encompassing blackface the White Negro: Empathy and Anti-Racist Reading minstrel shows, modernist poetics, and (University of Illinois Press, 2014). Hollywood film. With good reason and ample evidence, many scholars read this Winner of the 2014 Lois P. Rudnick Book Prize, cultural history from blackface to wig- New England American Studies Association. gers as a long and repetitive story of the imperialist and racist nature of whites’ t the start of the twenty-first century, critics desire to possess the black “Other.” concerned about white appropriation of Beyond the White Negro: Empathy and black culture reached back into their cultural Anti-Racist Reading complicates this A history of white appropriation by lexicons to resurrect a term that Norman Mailer had analyzing white audiences consum- popularized in 1957: “The White Negro” … Between ing African-American literature, film, theater, and music in the late twenti- 1999 and 2003, nearly every media journalist and eth and early twenty-first centuries. scholar writing about the rise to fame of white rapper Extending the cultural sphere of the Eminem felt obliged to use Mailer’s phrase to describe debate beyond hip-hop music, I argue that the White Negro paradigm is the hip-hop star who claims to be “chocolate on the inside.” Revealing the stereotyping logic often lurking beneath white attraction to African Americans, Mailer’s famous essay “The White Negro” typified the white bohemian fascination with the supposed sexual potency, anarchic wildness, and hip poses of black men. Desiring escape from a 1950s white culture of conformity and anxiety, the hipsters that Mailer describes sought an antidote and the infinite variations of joy, lust, in the swagger and “primitive” emo- … [and the] scream and despair of his tions of “the Negro”: “He lived in the orgasm. For jazz is orgasm” (341). The enormous present, he subsisted for his jazz-consuming “White Negro” has Saturday night kicks, relinquishing now been resurrected as the “wigger,” a the pleasures of the mind for the more term for suburban white kids who dress obligatory pleasures of the body, and in ghetto style and consume gangsta rap in his music he gave voice to… his rage music to stoke their fantasies of macho

inadequate to describe the varied I examine encounters with politics of cross-racial identification black literature and culture in the past decade, given the evolution of whiteness in our contemporary that foster the development of moment. To question the often pes- simistic and cynical scholarly view of “white allies” who are divesting, cross-racial empathy and affiliation, I examine encounters with black rather than investing, in white literature and culture that foster the development of “white allies” who power and privilege. are divesting, rather than investing, in

November 2014 37 white power and privilege. I investi- cultures” (14). In contrast to Tate, and interpreting the world, includ- gate how whites respond to politically Beyond the White Negro contends that ing racist structures of power. While progressive forms of African-American African-American literature and cul- my research confirms that cross-racial culture that aim to expose and under- ture can be productive catalysts for the sympathy can often resemble a coloniz- mine white supremacy, and thus are less development of cross-racial empathy ing appropriation of blackness for white easily re-purposed for white needs and and anti-racist identities among white needs, the evidence also suggests that desires. How might the scholarly narra- audiences. In response to critics who cross-cultural encounters can stimulate tive of appropriation change if we were believe that the forces of commodifi- radical acts of treason against white to examine white audience responses cation render cultural consumption a privilege. In her book White Women, to a Toni Morrison novel, a Spike Lee tainted vehicle for cross-racial under- Race Matters, Ruth Frankenberg con- film, or politically oriented hip hop? standing, I argue against a too hasty cludes that “whiteness changes over To address that question, chapters of dismissal of white consumption of black time and space and is in no way a trans- this book are focused on white hip-hop cultural texts as a potential conduit historical essence,” yet critical race artists, white women discussing black for social change. Although “cultural scholars such as Noel Ignatiev continue to essentialize whiteness as “nothing but an expression of race privilege” Rather than treating whiteness (Race Traitor 289). Rather than treating whiteness as a transhistorical essence as a transhistorical essence synonymous with domination, I explore how encounters with African- synonymous with domination, American literature and popular culture help whites to develop and I explore how encounters with strengthen anti-racist sensibilities. The nouns “White Negro” and “wigger” African-American literature and are inadequate to describe this recep- tion phenomenon because they imply popular culture help whites to that blackness is a state of being that can develop and strengthen anti-racist be embodied by white people—a false premise given the tenacity of white sensibilities. privilege in this country. In contrast, Beyond the White Negro emphasizes that cross-racial empathy is a state of mind women’s fiction on The Oprah Winfrey consumption” is a term commonly and an aspirational process, a struggle Show, Boston-area book clubs reading used to describe reading, viewing, that is ongoing and never complete. African-American literature, and col- and listening to texts, the word “con- lege student viewers of the racial-consumption” is ill-fitting for my pur- flict films Do the Right Thing and Crash. poses because it signifies purchasing and eating, implying that the culture In his book Everything But the Burden: in question is commodified, easily What White People Are Taking From digested, and disposable. Instead, I Black Culture (2003), editor Greg Tate highlight experiences of cross-cultural brings together essays examining encounter that can profoundly alter white fascination with blackness as a the self-conceptions of white readers, “fetish object” in the realms of music, viewers, and listeners of black-authored sports, fashion, comedy, art, cinema, texts. Although white co-optation is an and politics. As his title implies, Tate undeniably potent force in the present, reductively assumes that white people Kimberly Chabot Davis is Associate the possibility remains for white audi- take everything from black culture Professor in the Department of English. ences to do more than simply consume except the burden of living in a racist and copy black style, but to experience society, and that black culture “remains a perspective shift by being exposed the most co-optable and erasable of to African-American ways of seeing

38 Bridgewater Review into nearby aquifers, thus polluting BOOK REVIEW drinking water sources. The process has critics and defenders, but no one Energy Futures debates that fracking has become an increasingly important fixture on the Stephen E. Kaczmarek domestic and global energy landscape. In fact, cleaner-burning natural gas Russell Gold, The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the produced by fracking is now overtaking American Energy Revolution and Changed theWorld coal as the dominant fuel used to gener- (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014). ate electricity in the United States. Somewhere near the midpoint of the nless you have been living under a rock for book, Gold summarizes the secondary the past decade, there is probably no need focus of his 300-plus page primer: the to introduce you to the public dispute over major players in the world of frack- U ing. In the opening lines of Chapter the process of hydraulic fracturing, aka “fracking.” 8, Gold states: we “Americans like our Countless newspaper columns, a handful of anger- abundant energy, but not the men who provide it.” In addition to a story about inspiring documentaries, and plenty of internet the process of fracking, this book is hyperbole have been devoted to convincing us that about the people who make a living in fracking is either the very best solution to America’s the fracking industry; the ones responsible for the technology and strategy energy problems, or the single greatest threat to our for producing America’s enormous environment, our health and our global climate. With that said, it would be easy to hydrocarbons form from ancient, tiny begin reading The Boom by Russell water-dwelling organisms to how the Gold, senior energy reporter for the process of fracking differs from conven- Wall Street Journal, with your mind tional hydrocarbon production, from already made up about whether the the enormous costs associated with benefits of fracking outweigh the drilling and fracking a single well to the costs. Unfortunately, in this respect, global economics of energy industry, Gold’s story about the pros and cons Russell Gold covers his bases. of fracking probably won’t offer much Throughout the book, Gold focuses on to change your mind. That is to say, the science and technology of fracking if you are in search of a data-dense by expertly providing the reader with analysis about whether the images of both facts and context. For example, he flames coming out of the water faucets tells us that an astonishing 100 wells per of Pennsylvanian homeowners can day are drilled in the U.S. and nearly all be blamed on fracking, you should of them are fracked. Gold also explains look elsewhere because that is not how this oilfield technique is used to the author’s intent. However, if it is a release the hydrocarbons locked within level-headed, well-balanced story about deep shale formation by injecting tons the history of the political, economic, of sand, millions of gallons of water supply of natural gas; the ones argu- social and environmental aspects of this and often dangerous chemicals at high ably responsible for lower energy costs, game-changing technology that appeals pressure to induce man-made fractures reduced carbon emissions in the U.S., to you, consider The Boom an adequate in the rock. These fractures, in turn, and perhaps a resurgence of American primer on the subject. The Boom is an provide fast pathways for hydrocarbons manufacturing. This book is also about easy read and the book’s author takes an to move more freely and flow into the how some of those industry leaders, in a even-handed position concerning the well and increase hydrocarbon produc- rush for money and market dominance, process of fracking and the major play- tion. Unfortunately, as Gold notes, may have risked the environment and ers in its long and interesting history. these fractures may also provide direct public health to produce hydrocarbons From a detailed explanation about how pathways for hydrocarbons to travel as quickly and cheaply as possible.

November 2014 39 Gold introduces us to Edward Roberts, as benefits, such as steady income and poses questions that are complicated the Civil War veteran who observed economically revitalized communities. and nuanced. Is fracking good for our that shell explosions during bat- communities because it brings money There is no disagreement that modern tle cracked the sides of trenches and and jobs that help revitalize struggling societies run on fossil fuels. There is explains how he parlayed that into communities? Is fracking bad because also no dispute about the strong correla- the first down-hole frack of a tight oil of the noise pollution and environmen- tion between a country’s affluence and well. He presents George Mitchell, the tal destruction associated with drilling its energy consumption. Americans, the modern “father of fracking,” who by oil wells? Is the story of fracking one most affluent people on Earth, have the most accounts is an extremely environ- of reduced carbon emissions and cheap, most voracious appetite of any nation mentally conscious billionaire. He also abundant energy production, or one in the world, consuming as they do gives a significant amount of space to in which our landscape is drastically nearly 20% of all oil produced annu- the audacious Aubrey McClendon, the compromised, our drinking-water ally. Over much of the last five or six former CEO of Chesapeake Oil, argu- aquifers poisoned and global climate decades, Americans have imported a ably the biggest player in the modern change advanced? Is this another of our great majority of their hydrocarbons. natural gas boom, and, for a few years at society’s mistakes, or is it the beginning The Boom is the story of how this is least, the largest single monetary con- of a more environmentally friendly now changing due to fracking and the tributor to the Sierra Club. Gold notes energy era? Like most debates, it is all production of a cheap, domestic sources after first meeting with McClendon: about perspective. What is clear is that of energy. Fracking may be the single “Is he a huckster, a dynamic salesman, fracking has become a fixture on the biggest game changer on the American a visionary, a fool? I can’t tell.” The sto- American landscape and the global economic landscape since the dawn ries of these men are as much the story economy, and the people living in com- of the internet. Gold takes us through of fracking as is the process itself, and munities where fracking is prevalent are fracking’s destiny in the global energy they offer an interesting lens through having their lives drastically changed. landscape by explaining: (1) a favorable which Russell Gold narrates the history legal framework that incentivizes devel- of fracking. opment of natural resources; (2) the Gold also introduces us to the everyday surprisingly lucrative financial incen- men and women who work in the oil- tives; (3) the ever-degrading environ- fields and traces how the fracking boom mental attitudes toward coal-powered has provided a good, honest way to power plants; and (4) the deteriorating make a living. He also introduces us to political attitudes toward importing the people living in fracking communi- foreign oil. ties and shows how fracking has caused The Boom is certainly not the last word both problems—such as noise pollu- Stephen E. Kaczmarek is Assistant on fracking, but is it a comprehensive tion and bad drinking water—as well Professor in the Department of introduction. As we know, this impor- Geological Sciences. tant debate will continue because it

Call for Submissions Bridgewater Review invites submissions from full- and part-time faculty assistance with revision and in polished pieces that are publication ready. members and librarians for publication. Bridgewater Review is published All submissions will be reviewed, but there is no guarantee that submitted twice yearly by the faculty and librarians of Bridgewater State University. work will be published. It provides a forum for campus-wide conversations pertaining to research, teaching, and creative expression, as well as a showcase for faculty Bridgewater Review also welcomes Letters to the Editor with the hope art. Articles in all disciplines and genres are welcome and encouraged, that BR may become a locus for community discussion at Bridgewater including scholarship about research interests and trends, scholarship State University. about teaching and learning, creative writing, and short reviews of other publications. Submissions should be sent electronically to: Andrew Holman Articles should be 1700-2200 words in length, though shorter articles Editor, will also be considered. Creative writing can be submitted at lengths Bridgewater Review briefer than 2200 words. Those wishing to submit are asked to consult [email protected] the Bridgewater Review submission guidelines (available from the Editor). Articles published in Bridgewater Review may be reprinted with In keeping with the founding spirit of our faculty magazine, the editors permission of the Editor. are equally interested in unfinished pieces of writing that may need

40 Bridgewater Review What Al Young Might Say to the Graduates Joe LaCroix

Be yourself Remember to stand on your feet And don’t wear other people’s clothes. To speak Avoid thinking they are better Or weep or pretty Cast your shadow or important Write a poem or worthy.

Always play your song. Delight in your own sunshine Dance barefoot Plant a garden Joseph LaCroix is Adjunct Professor Keep your old shoes in the Department of Mathematics. And be the joy of candles.

Readers Respond to BR, VoL. 33, No. 1 (Spring 2014)

I thoroughly enjoyed the essay on marginal scribbling, a practice that I have engaged in for four decades! I enjoy returning to books I read in graduate school … and seeing the conversation I was having with the text at that time. I also see how, over time, I have read books more than once and have entered notes in different colors. Several of the other essays brought back memories. The photo of Foucault was more of a nightmare, because I hated his Discipline and Punish, a work loved by radicals in their critique of prisons. It was brilliant but indecipherable and, to a degree, wrong (the insidious nature of non-physical controls did not explain why prisons became more violent and unruly at the very time he would have predicted greater discipline). I must confess that I also have an aversion to the lover of interdisciplinary enterprises in academia. When such efforts emerge naturally, they can be great. But too many universities try to force interdisciplinary courses/programs when there is no enduring base to sustain them. Oh, but I am a fan of Diane Ravitch. I have read some of her writings (mostly in magazines) and find her refreshingly empiri- cal! She changed her mind because she read the data. Her insights in Finnish education are wonderful. I think that system, which I recall produces among the highest scores internationally, contributed to her change of heart about testing. The Finns recruit high quality students to train [as] teachers and then use a strong professionalism to ensure high quality teaching. I could go on, but I just wanted to thank you for inspiring some thinking on my part! Frank Cullen ‘72 (The writer is Distinguished Research Professor at the Center for Criminal Justice Research, University of Cincinnati)

Just used a copy of the Bridgewater Review to kill an enormous bee in my office. Keith Lewinstein, History Bridgewater Review Nonprofit Org. Bridgewater State University U.S. Postage 131 Summer Street PAID Bridgewater, MA 02325 Augusta, ME Permit No. 121

4 Bridgewater Review