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Diverse Pedagogical
Approaches to
Experiential Learning
Multidisciplinary Case Studies,
Reflections, and Strategies

Edited by
Karen Lovett
Diverse Pedagogical Approaches
to Experiential Learning
Karen Lovett
Editor

Diverse Pedagogical
Approaches
to Experiential
Learning
Multidisciplinary Case Studies, Reflections,
and Strategies
Editor
Karen Lovett
Office of Experiential Learning
University of Dayton
Dayton, OH, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-42690-3 ISBN 978-3-030-42691-0 (eBook)


https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42691-0

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither
the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: © Alex Linch/shutterstock.com

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Telling the Story
of Experiential Learning (EL)---Student
Perspectives on EL at UD

This collection highlights several examples of experiential learning (EL)


at the University of Dayton (UD), a Catholic-Marianist institution in
Dayton, Ohio. The narratives and analyses provided by faculty and staff
contain many examples of how EL impacts educators and students, like
us, the student employees of the Office of Experiential Learning (OEL).
As communication majors, our similar academic experiences and interests
have allowed us to combine our skills to tell the story of EL at UD. We’ve
collaborated on several creative projects about EL which have given us
a unique perspective on the impact of EL on students at UD. Our EL
experiences as student employees in the OEL have also encouraged us to
reflect on the importance of EL for our own education.
As a team, we’ve worked together to create and disseminate various
types of content which focus on the importance of EL for students’ educa-
tion, including videos, blogs, social media posts, email newsletters, to
name a few. We’ve conducted numerous student and faculty interviews
about EL and facilitated several EL Labs1 which encourage students from
diverse backgrounds to reflect on their EL experiences. Through our posi-
tions in the OEL, we have advised and supported many students, and
encouraged their growth by helping them think critically about their EL
experiences. Our shared communications background has helped us tell
the story of EL, and hearing about our peers’ unique EL journeys has
also helped us relate to our peers on a more personal level.

v
vi TELLING THE STORY OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING (EL)—STUDENT …

As a result of these experiences, we’ve developed a better under-


standing of EL and how it encompasses a variety of opportunities for
students to explore and enhance their learning, such as those represented
in this collection (internships, education abroad, community-engaged
learning, to name a few). We’ve seen and personally experienced the
importance of becoming involved with our university on more than just
an academic level. EL impacts students because it allows them to break
out of their comfort zone, acquire new skills, and discover their voca-
tions. Through involvement in various types of EL, students obtain a new
understanding of their purpose in life. Students who explore and seek new
knowledge through EL opportunities have a better understanding of how
they can make a positive impact on communities beyond UD.
EL also dissolves the boundary between student and professor. In some
cases, this even leads to a professional relationship that lasts after gradu-
ation. Our own experience has taught us that professors can be more
than just teachers; they can also be our mentors. Traditional methods of
teaching have their place in academia, but EL offers an alternative way to
develop knowledge and bridge the gap between professors and students.
Our EL experiences have prepared us to apply this knowledge in the real
world.
At UD, we have the freedom to shape our education through EL. EL
deeply engages students in non-traditional ways and gives us control of
our educational journeys. Our professors don’t always know what the
outcome of EL will be; rather than being “in charge,” they learn together
with students. Students at UD are encouraged to take part in community
engagement, study abroad, research, and other EL opportunities. The
university shows support for their students by giving them access to EL
that will help them grow and succeed. We believe UD stands out among
other higher educational institutions by providing an environment for
innovative ideas, student support for future career goals, and acknowledg-
ment of the growth of their students. No matter what your background,
abilities, or interest, UD is a community that supports all learning styles.
These are key themes that tie the following chapters together.

Dayton, USA Sophia Williamson, M.A.


Colleen Kelch, B.A.
Christopher Miller, B.A.
TELLING THE STORY OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING (EL)—STUDENT … vii

Note
1. The EL Lab has been a critical part of our work in the Office of Experi-
ential Learning; through these unique monthly three-hour workshops, we
promote EL to our peers and guide them through meaningful reflection
about their learning journeys using digital storytelling and other techniques.
Their reflection has included sharing their experiences abroad, community-
engaged learning opportunities on and off campus, as well as professional
development through various internships. For more information about the
EL Lab, visit udayton.edu/el.

Sophia Williamson, M.A. holds a B.A. and M.A. in Communications with a


focus on Public Relations, from the University of Dayton. During her time as a
Graduate Assistant and Media Producer in the Office of Experiential Learning,
she filmed, edited, and created video content about experiential learning.

Colleen Kelch, B.A. is originally from Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from
the University of Dayton with a B.A. in Communication, with a focus in Public
Relations, and a minor in English. While working in the Office of Experiential
Learning at UD, she created and managed social media accounts and collaborated
with her team members to produce informative and interesting digital content.

Christopher Miller, B.A. is a graduate student attending Marquette University


who will obtain his M.A. in Communication in the Spring of 2021. He works
as a teaching assistant at the university in a professional public speaking class.
Chris graduated from the University of Dayton in 2019 while working alongside
Karen Lovett, Sophia Williamson, and Colleen Kelch in the Office of Experiential
Learning (OEL).
Acknowledgements

First I would like to thank my amazing husband Justin for being so


supportive, loving, and kind. Thank you for patiently listening to my ideas
and for offering your wise, heartfelt advice when I needed it. I am espe-
cially thankful to you for being such a wonderful father to our beautiful
baby daughter Ophelia, who arrived to this world in the midst of this
book project. I am grateful for my family who fills my life with light and
love every day. Thank you to my mother, Ligia, and sister Sandra for
inspiring me and cheering me on throughout my educational and profes-
sional pursuits.
Thank you to all of the authors who contributed to this collection.
I am so inspired by all of your innovative work and your dedication to
student learning and success. I love my work because I have colleagues
like you, who challenge me to grow and who’ve made me feel at home
at UD. I am especially thankful for my colleague Patrick Thomas. Thank
you for sharing your extensive knowledge and expertise to help me with
every stage of this project. I am also so grateful for Patrick’s ENG 377
students who worked diligently to help me edit the book as part of their
own experiential learning.
Thank you to my talented graduate student and digital media producer,
Sophia Williamson, who has been a fantastic, fun, and creative colleague
over the past three years. Thanks to my students Chris Miller and Colleen
Kelch who have made many wonderful contributions to our office; I
am grateful to all my students for their hard work, collaboration, and

ix
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

dedication to the Office of Experiential Learning, and for helping me


better understand the student perspective. I will especially miss you after
graduation.
I am also grateful to my supervisor Deb Bickford, Associate Provost
and Director of the Learning Teaching Center (LTC). Her mentorship
has helped me grow in so many ways. I look up to you and thank you
from the bottom of my heart for giving me the opportunity to be the
Director of Experiential Learning at UD and for showing me what great
leadership looks like. I am also thankful for all my colleagues in the LTC
for creating such an inviting, inclusive learning environment. Many thanks
as well to Stephen Wilhoit, Hunter Phillips Goodman, and Laura Cotten,
for reading through dozens of chapter proposals and helping me make
selections for this collection. I appreciate your willingness to share your
time and wisdom with me.
I am also fortunate for the support and kindness that President Eric
Spina and Provost Paul Benson have shown me; I appreciate all the work
you do every day to ensure that all students have access to excellent EL
opportunities at UD.
Contents

1 Introduction: Listening and Learning from


Experiential Learning Educators 1
Karen Lovett

2 When Students Write for Money: Reflections on


Teaching Grant Writing Through Experiential
Learning 13
Nicole F. Adams and Patrick W. Thomas

3 Intergenerational Engagement Through Experiential


Learning 27
Linda A. Hartley

4 Museums and Mud: An Experiential Undergraduate


Geology Course for Pre-service Teachers 45
Michael R. Sandy

5 Forming Engineers for the Common Good 61


Kelly Bohrer, Margaret Pinnell, Malcolm W. Daniels,
and Christine Vehar Jutte

xi
xii CONTENTS

6 The Processes of Reciprocity and Reflection in


Service-Learning Pedagogy 79
Roger N. Reeb and Amanda R. Barry

7 Experiential Learning in Sustainability:


Opportunities, Building Partnerships, and
Student Engagement 93
Felix Fernando

8 We Are All Students: The Moral Courage Project as a


Model for Transdisciplinary Experiential Learning 111
Natalie Florea Hudson and Joel R. Pruce

9 Dinner in the Desert Kitchen: Reflections on


Experiential Learning Through Food, Art, and Social
Practice 129
Glenna Jennings

10 Critical Cosmopolitan Citizens: Experiential


Engagement with Local Immigrant and Refugee
Communities 149
Miranda Cady Hallett and Theo Majka

11 Writing the History of the Dayton Arcade:


Experiential Learning Through Immersion,
Collaboration, and Service 167
James Todd Uhlman

12 Power, Access, and Policy: Reflections on the Women’s


Center Internship Program 181
Lisa J. Borello

13 Beyond Skepticism or Compassion: A Critical


Pedagogy of Gender-Based Violence 193
Jamie L. Small
CONTENTS xiii

14 Performing Arts in the Service of Others: The


Common Good Players and Experiential Learning in
Social Justice Theatre 207
Michelle Hayford

15 Student Employment for the Real World: Experiential


Learning and Student Development 223
Chris Fishpaw and Chelsea Fricker

16 Experiential Learning and Education Abroad:


Examining the Experiences of Students in the
Semester Abroad and Intercultural Leadership
Program 241
Karen McBride

17 Afterword: Learning, with Consequence 259


Margaret Cahill, Lauren Hassett, Olivia Hendershott,
Abigail Hines, Beth Hock, Robert Kelly, Christina Mesa,
Nicole Perkins, Ethan Swierczewski, and Clare Walsh

Index 267
Notes on Contributors

Nicole F. Adams, M.A. has been a Lecturer in English at University


of Dayton since 2007, teaching professional writing courses and coor-
dinating the writing internship program. For her work in instructional
design and community-engaged learning, she was awarded Outstanding
Faculty Member (Non-Tenure Track) in the College of Arts & Sciences
for 2015. An active Education Abroad faculty member, she has super-
vised and taught on various programs in England, Ireland, Spain, and
Italy with a focus on cultural differences in workplace communication.
Before joining UD, Nicole F. Adams was a workforce development
account manager at Sinclair Community College, where she consulted
with area businesses to assess training and development needs and imple-
ment related programs. Through her LLC, Workplace Communication
Consulting, Nicole F. Adams conducts corporate training and coaching
for both corporate and nonprofit organizations. Nicole F. Adams earned
her B.S. in Education from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) and an M.A.
in English/Organizational Communication from Wright State University
(Dayton, Ohio).
Amanda R. Barry, M.A. a Graduate Student in Clinical Psychology at
the University of Dayton works with the homeless population in Dayton,
Ohio. She conducts participatory community action research with a focus
on civic-related student outcomes of service-learning. Other research
interests include trauma, social stigma, privilege, and social justice and
the intersectionality of homelessness, minority status, mental health, and

xv
xvi NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

substance abuse. She currently serves on the Board for the National
Alliance on Mental Illness (Montgomery County, Ohio).
Kelly Bohrer, M.S. is the Director of Community Relations for the
School of Engineering at the University of Dayton. In this role, she
provides leadership for the development, implementation, support, and
evaluation of community-engaged learning and scholarship initiatives that
advance the School’s academic and civic engagement mission. Kelly also
teaches upper-level community-engaged learning courses and is actively
involved in planning and implementing faculty and staff professional
development to promote and enhance community-based experiential
learning. Other positions Kelly has held at the University of Dayton
include the Director of Community Engaged Learning and Scholarship
within the Fitz Center for Leadership in Community, Coordinator of
Community Outreach in the Center for Social Concern, and the Lab
Coordinator in the Biology Department. In these roles, she created,
directed, implemented, and assessed high-impact experiential learning
and civic engagement initiatives, including social justice education, local
immersions, and inquiry-based science labs.
Dr. Lisa J. Borello has served as the Director of the Women’s Center
at the University of Dayton since July 2017. In this role, Dr. Borello
advances gender equity on campus via educational programming,
research, and policy development. She also serves as Adjunct Faculty in
the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at UD.
Prior to joining UD, Dr. Borello served as the Assistant Director in the
Professional Development and Career Office at Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity in Baltimore, Maryland. She’s spent more than 15 years working in
higher education in diverse roles ranging from strategic communications
to grant writing to managing a research lab. She has a Ph.D. and M.S.
from Georgia Tech in Sociology of Science & Technology, a Master’s in
Women’s Studies from Georgia State University, and received her Bache-
lor’s degree in Journalism and Women’s Studies from Penn State Univer-
sity. She conducts research on women’s advancement in higher educa-
tion, gender, and technologies of the body and women in male-dominated
STEM professions.
Malcolm W. Daniels, Ph.D. is a faculty member in the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering. With undergraduate and grad-
uate degrees from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland,
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xvii

he has worked at the University of Dayton since 1985. In addition to


his faculty responsibilities, he has held various administrative positions
including Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and Associate Dean
for Graduate Studies and Research. His professional areas of research
are in electrical machines, control, and automation. Most recently his
research has focused on the design of renewable energy systems and the
control of micro-grids. In addition to teaching undergraduate and grad-
uate courses in Electrical Engineering, he also teaches courses in Appro-
priate Technology Design. Dr. Daniels currently serves as Director of the
ETHOS Center within the School of Engineering. The Center is the focal
point for all community-engaged learning and service within the School
of Engineering. In this capacity, he directs domestic and international
service immersion programs for undergraduate and graduate engineering
students.
Felix Fernando, Ph.D. is a Lecturer at the University of Dayton
(Hanley Sustainability Institute). His research and teaching interests are
on human dimensions of sustainability. Specifically, he is currently inter-
ested in how people think about certain things like climate change and
local food, and how such information can be used in planning. He is
interested in examining the mental and psychological thought processes
in play pertaining to sustainability and how to address certain miscon-
ceptions, misrepresentations, and action barriers through teaching and
research. He uses a mixed methods approach in his research, where qual-
itative and quantitative methods blend in a complementary manner. He
has published work in several well-known journals, including Science of
the Total Environment, Water, Rural Studies, Rural Sociology, Society and
Natural Resources, and Applied Research in Quality of Life.
Chris Fishpaw, M.S. is the Director of Student Leadership Programs
at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. In this role, he advises
the Student Government Association, oversees leadership programming
and co-curricular initiatives for the campus, and coordinates the award-
winning Student Employment for the Real World experience. A Dayton
native, Chris earned a Bachelor’s of Music in Music Education and a
Master’s of Education in College Student Personnel from the Univer-
sity of Dayton. At UD, he has worked with summer conferences, campus
information services, college media, and student life and concurrently
taught elementary school and middle school band for seven years.
xviii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Chelsea Fricker, Ed.M. serves as the Assistant Director of the Center


for Student Involvement and Student Leadership Programs at University
of Dayton (OH). In this role, she works to develop programs that enhance
the leadership experiences of students on campus through student
employment, scholarship, programming, and co-curricular involvement.
Chelsea has overseen the University of Dayton’s award-winning Student
Employment for the Real World program since February 2018. Chelsea
is a two-time alumna of the University of Missouri, holding a Bachelor
of Arts in Organizational Communications and a Master of Education in
Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. She is currently pursuing a
doctorate in Educational Leadership at the University of Dayton.
Miranda Cady Hallett, Ph.D. (Ph.D. Cornell University 2009) is Asso-
ciate Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Human Rights Research
Fellow at the University of Dayton. She has published numerous articles
on Salvadoran culture and politics, Central American migration, and US
immigration policy in scholarly journals and stays active and engaged as a
public scholar accompanying trans-border migrants and refugees.
Linda A. Hartley, Ph.D. is the Associate Dean for Education in the
School of Education and Health Sciences and Professor of Music in
the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Hartley, past coordinator of the
undergraduate music education program, is the founder of the UD music
education graduate program and the UD New Horizons Music program
for adults. The recipient of the University of Dayton Faculty Award in
Teaching and the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching
Award, Dr. Hartley is a published author of journal articles and book
chapters, and an active presenter and consultant on music education
topics.
Michelle Hayford, Ph.D. is the Director of the Theatre, Dance, and
Performance Technology Program and Associate Professor of Theatre at
the University of Dayton. Michelle holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies
from Northwestern University. Her original creative scholarship combines
her passions of creating live plays with utilizing the craft of theater as a
necessary response to community and civic engagement. Previous original
works include Spectacle (with Nick Cardilino, 2018), Sustenance (2016)
created in collaboration with the Hanley Sustainability Institute, Dog Wish
(2013) commissioned by The Humane Society of the United States, and
Suit My Heart (2011) created in collaboration with Footsteps to the
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xix

Future, a foster youth nonprofit. She is co-author and co-editor (with


Susan Kattwinkel) of Performing Arts as High-Impact Practice, published
by Palgrave Macmillan (2018) and Arts and Humanities Division editor
of the journal SPUR: Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research.
Natalie Florea Hudson, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Political
Science at the University of Dayton, where she also serves as the Director
of the Human Rights Studies Program. She specializes in gender and
international relations, the politics of human rights, human security, and
international law and organization. Her book, Gender, Human Security
and the UN: Security Language as a Political Framework for Women
(Routledge, 2009), examines the organizational dynamics of women’s
activism in the United Nations system and how women have come
to embrace and been impacted by the security discourse in their work
for rights and equality. She is a co-author of Global Politics (McGraw-
Hill, 2013) and numerous articles appearing in journals, such as Inter-
national Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review, Journal of
Human Rights, International Journal, Simulation and Gaming, and
Global Change, Peace and Security. Her current research focuses on
human rights and humanitarian advocacy campaigns focused on sexual-
ized violence in conflicted-affected areas.
Glenna Jennings, M.F.A. is an artist and educator whose work draws
primarily from the history, theory, and practice of photography. She
completed her MFA in Visual Arts at the University of California, San
Diego, and holds BAs in English and Spanish, and a BFA in Photography.
She is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Dayton, where
she heads up the photography program. Jennings has worked and exhib-
ited widely throughout the USA, China, Europe, and Mexico, and her
work resides in multiple private and public collections. She is co-founder
of the Desert Kitchen Collective, a loose organization of artists, educa-
tors, students, and advocates working to promote food justice and eradi-
cate hunger on regional and national levels. Jennings’ research, teaching,
and service inform her dynamic practice of image-making, curating, and
socially engaged creative collaboration.
Karen Lovett, Ph.D. is the Director of Experiential Learning at the
University of Dayton (UD). She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology and
Education from Columbia University in New York City. Prior to UD,
she was Assistant Professor of Cooperative Education at Antioch College
and Adjunct Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Fordham University.
xx NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Karen is interested in how people learn through experience in diverse


social contexts, and her work highlights the transformative impact of expe-
riential learning on students’ lives.
Students Margaret Cahill, Lauren Hassett, Olivia Hendershott,
Abigail Hines, Beth Hock, Robert Kelly, Christina Mesa, Nicole
Perkins, Ethan Swierczewski, and Clare Walsh edited chapters included
in this collection as part of an experiential learning project for Patrick W.
Thomas’ ENG 377: Writing in Social Contexts course. They are destined
for great things.
Dr. Theo Majka (Professor of Sociology, University of Dayton) has
taught Immigration and Immigrants (Soc/Ant 368) since 1999 and
Sociology of Human Rights beginning spring 2019. Immigrant and
refugee integration has been the focus of much of his recent research
and community involvements. The three research projects on this topic
that he coordinated resulted in four 1-day conferences held at UD.
His and Jamie Longazel’s 2017 article on Welcome Dayton, “Becoming
Welcoming: Organizational Collaboration and Immigrant Integration in
Dayton, Ohio,” was published in the journal Public Integrity. Among
others, he is also the co-author of Farm Workers, Agribusiness, and the
State, with Linda Majka (1982), and Farmers’ and Farm Workers’ Move-
ments, with Patrick Mooney (1995). His and Linda Majka’s chapter
“Institutional Obstacles to Incorporation: Latino Immigrant Experiences
in a Mid-Size Rustbelt City” [Dayton] appeared in Latinos in the Midwest,
edited by Rubén Martinez (2011). He was also a participant in the “com-
munity conversations” and subsequent committees that resulted in the
Welcome Dayton: Immigrant Friendly City initiative in 2011 and has been
a member of the Welcome Dayton Committee.
Karen McBride, Ed.D. is the former Director of Education Abroad
and Partnerships at the University of Dayton’s Center for International
Programs (CIP). She is now an International Partnerships Manager at
the University of Dayton School of Law. The Office of Education Abroad
coordinates short- and long-term programs abroad for students and
faculty at the University of Dayton. Karen was responsible for estab-
lishing student learning outcomes on all education abroad programs as
well as the acquisition and use of data for program enhancement. She also
taught the first three reentry courses for students on the Semester Abroad
and Intercultural Leadership program. Additionally, Karen managed a
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xxi

variety of partnerships with international institutions to enhance campus


internationalization and facilitate cross-cultural opportunities for UD
students, faculty, and staff in her former and current roles. Karen has
15 years of experience working in international higher education and is
the current Chair of the Education Abroad Knowledge Community with
NAFSA. Her background includes study, internship, work, and research
experiences in Costa Rica, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Thai-
land. Karen wrote the Creating an Internationalization Framework guide
for Thai universities as a Fulbright Specialist to Thailand in 2013. Karen
is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Antigua, West Indies.
Margaret Pinnell, Ph.D. is the Associate Dean for Faculty and Staff
Development and a Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engi-
neering Department. Dr. Pinnell served as the acting director of ETHOS
from 2001 until 2012. She has over 35 peer-reviewed publications in
the areas of community-engaged learning and K-12 STEM education. In
addition to these areas, her current research interests also include faculty
development.
Joel R. Pruce, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Human Rights Studies
in the Department of Political Science and Faculty Fellow in Experi-
ential Learning in the Learning and Teaching Center at the University
of Dayton. Joel is faculty coordinator of the Moral Courage Project, a
program of the University of Dayton Human Rights Center. With this
initiative, Joel recruits and prepares undergraduate students to conduct
immersive fieldwork in a search for “upstanders,” ordinary people who
act extraordinarily during moments of crisis. The students gather inter-
views and produce a range of multimedia products, including exhibitions,
podcasts, and websites to share stories out widely. Thus far, the Moral
Courage Project has generated two efforts, “Ferguson Voices: Disrupting
the Frame” and “America the Borderland.” Joel is also the author of The
Mass Appeal of Human Rights (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and editor of
The Social Practice of Human Rights (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
Roger N. Reeb, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology and a Faculty
Research Fellow in the Human Rights Center at the University of Dayton,
where he previously held positions of Director of Graduate Programs
in Psychology (2006–2014) and Roesch Endowed Chair in the Social
Sciences (2014–2018). Dr. Reeb received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology
from Virginia Commonwealth University, after completing the Brown
xxii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

University Internship Program. Dr. Reeb received numerous awards at the


University of Dayton (Alumni Award in Teaching; Outstanding Faculty
Service-Learning Award; Service-Learning Faculty Research Award). He
also received numerous awards from the American Psychological Associ-
ation (Dissertation Award; Springer Award for Excellence in Research
in Rehabilitation Psychology–Division 22), and he currently serves as a
Work Group Member for the American Psychological Association’s Citizen
Psychologist Initiative. Dr. Reeb is a Fellow in the Midwestern Psycho-
logical Association. With over 35 publications and over 100 confer-
ence presentations, Dr. Reeb coauthored Service-Learning in Psychology:
Enhancing Undergraduate Education for the Public Good and published
Community Action Research: Benefits to Community Members and Service
Providers. Dr. Reeb conducts participatory community action research,
with special research and scholarship interests in the areas of homeless-
ness, psychopathology, service-learning pedagogy outcomes for students
and community, and advocacy. Dr. Reeb, a licensed clinical psychologist,
serves on the Homeless Solutions Board and the National Alliance on
Mental Illness Board (Montgomery County, Ohio).
Michael R. Sandy, Ph.D. was born in Kingston upon Thames, England,
in 1958. Growing up in the suburbs of SW London was not so far from
the scenic North Downs where he developed an interest in the relation-
ship between geology and scenery. Family vacations in southern and South
West England, and Yorkshire nurtured this interest in geology. After
the opportunity to study geology at high school, he studied for a B.Sc.
(HONS), 1980, and Ph.D., 1984, in Geology from Queen Mary College,
University of London. This was followed by a post-doctoral research
fellowship at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, before moving to
the University of Dayton, where he has been in the geology department
since 1987. Fieldwork has been an important component of his profes-
sional life as a geologist with a research interest in Mesozoic brachiopods.
He has carried out fieldwork and studied fossils in museum collections
in the UK, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Austria, France, Germany, Italy,
Switzerland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia,
and Slovakia. These various opportunities have fueled his interest in expe-
riential learning and incorporating it in this teaching.
Jamie L. Small, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the
University of Dayton. Her research focuses on law, gender, and sexual
violence. Currently, she is writing a book manuscript where she
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xxiii

investigates how prosecutors and defense attorneys make sense of men


who are sexual victims. Previously, she taught for Project Community at
the University of Michigan. Established in the wake of the civil rights
movement, Project Community is one of the oldest and longest-running
undergraduate service-learning programs in the USA.
Patrick W. Thomas, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Writing and
Director of Undergraduate Studies in English at the University of Dayton.
His research intersects literacy studies, writing technologies, empirical
methodologies, and computer-mediated communication. With Pamela
Takayoshi, he has edited the collection Literacy in Practice: Writing in
Private, Public, and Working Lives (Routledge Press). He has published
in the journals Computers and Composition, Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, and Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy.
Patrick teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in digital writing,
argumentation, composition theory, writing assessment, discourse anal-
ysis, business communication, report and proposal writing, writing for the
web, style, and composition.
Dr. James Todd Uhlman is an Assistant Professor of US sociocultural
history at the University of Dayton. He received his Ph.D. in History
at the Rutgers and has been a Fellow at the Smithsonian Museum of
American History and the National Endowment of the Humanities. His
research interests revolve around the history of mobility, identity forma-
tion, capitalism, popular culture, and structures of power. His recent
publications have examined a variety of topics including the history of
travel, public lecturing, authorship, film, and automobility. These have
appeared in the pages of literary, historical, and interdisciplinary jour-
nals including American Nineteenth Century History, Studies in Travel
Writing, The Journal of Popular Culture, and Gilded Age Progressive
Era. Currently, he is at work on a number of projects including the
political impact of Hollywood trucker films in the 1970s, the diplo-
matic importance of Russia during the Civil War, as well as monograph-
lengthened studies about famed traveler and lecturer Bayard Taylor enti-
tled The Cultural Work of Mobility in the Political Economy of Nineteenth
Century American Capitalism. Dr. Uhlman teaches classes on subcul-
tures, film, cultural icons, and comparative historical study. He recently
piloted a series of courses titled the “Dayton History Project” in which
students worked collectively to research and write a history on a local
xxiv NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

history topic. The courses combined the traditional approaches of histor-


ical enquiry with twenty-first-century technology, as they emphasize expe-
riential learning and community engagement. In both classes, the students
built websites such as http://daytonarenahistory.org/ or https://arcade.
daytonhistoryproject.org/ to display what they found.
Dr. Christine Vehar Jutte graduated from the University of Dayton
(UD) with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering in 2002. During her
years at UD, she traveled to India through a Campus Ministry Cultural
Immersion Program, which inspired her to co-create UD’s ETHOS
(Engineers in Technical Humanitarian Opportunities of Service-learning)
program with fellow engineering students in the spring of 2001. Since
then, Christine has been working for NASA as a civil servant and
contractor.
List of Figures

Fig. 4.1 Field trip to Ohio Caverns, West Liberty, Ohio


(Photograph by the author, 2019) 46
Fig. 9.1 Installation of Dinner in the Desert Kitchen II: Just Add
Water (Personal Photo from Author) 130
Fig. 9.2 Student-designed dinner plate (Photo Credit: Hadley
Rodebeck, 2017) 131
Fig. 16.1 Overall IES Scores for SAIL Cohort 1 (2016–2017) 247
Fig. 16.2 Overall IES Scores for SAIL Cohort 2 and Control
Group 2 (2017–2018) 247
Fig. 16.3 Overall IES Scores for SAIL Cohort 3 and Control
Group 3 (2018–2019) 248

xxv
List of Tables

Table 4.1 Various locations visited during GEO 204 field trips 49
Table 15.1 CSI learning outcome 229
Table 16.1 Average Scores on 3 Dimensions of Intercultural
Effectiveness for SAIL Cohort 1 (2016–2017) 248
Table 16.2 Average Scores on 3 Dimensions of Intercultural
Effectiveness for SAIL Cohort 2 (2017–2018) 248
Table 16.3 Average Scores on 3 Dimensions of Intercultural
Effectiveness for Control Group 2 (2016–2017) 249
Table 16.4 Average Scores on 3 Dimensions of Intercultural
Effectiveness for SAIL Cohort 3 (2018–2019) 249
Table 16.5 Average Scores on 3 Dimensions of Intercultural
Effectiveness for Control Group 3 (2018–2019) 249

xxvii
CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Listening and Learning


from Experiential Learning Educators

Karen Lovett

The field of experiential learning (EL) has significantly expanded over the
past several decades, along with a proliferation of research and scholar-
ship on EL methods and best practices. The following chapters provide
detailed, behind-the-scenes insights into the creation and development of
powerful and impactful EL programs that contribute to student success.
The book brings together the voices of 37 faculty, staff, undergraduate
and graduate students, alumni, and community partners, from over fifteen
different academic disciplines and areas of specialization at the University
of Dayton (UD), a private Catholic and Marianist institution in Dayton,
Ohio. The book contains EL case studies, reflections, and strategies for
designing, facilitating, expanding, and assessing different EL activities and
programs, including community-engaged learning, internships, education
abroad, student employment, and more. It provides a unique, holistic pic-
ture of EL which includes educators’ personal experiences and learning
processes—perspectives which are often missing in EL literature.

K. Lovett (B)
Director of Experiential Learning, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA
e-mail: klovett1@udayton.edu

© The Author(s) 2020 1


K. Lovett (ed.), Diverse Pedagogical
Approaches to Experiential Learning,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42691-0_1
2 K. LOVETT

The book also features many examples of the ways EL educators collab-
orate within and across academic and professional boundaries to develop
multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches to
EL. The chapters describe the complexities of doing EL in a college set-
ting, including: integrating EL into a course or curriculum, navigating
academic and institutional hurdles to obtain EL resources and support,
handling the logistics of executing an EL activity or program, mentor-
ing and guiding students with varied skills and abilities who are at dif-
ferent developmental stages in their college careers, leading students into
new and diverse communities beyond the classroom, and facilitating deep,
sometimes difficult conversations with students and colleagues about the
ethical, social, political, and economic dimensions of EL.
One especially unique feature of this book is that students contributed
to the collection in many important ways. Students in ENG 377 Writ-
ing in Social Contexts, taught by English professor Patrick Thomas,
co-authored the afterword and provided immensely valuable editorial
support, rendering the book itself an EL project. Additionally, my own
student team in the Office of Experiential Learning co-authored the
book’s foreword and offered a wealth of insights that informed the
development of this project.
Scholars have offered numerous definitions for EL, a broad term which
includes many pedagogical approaches, learning environments, and activ-
ities1 (Beard & Wilson, 2015; Eyler, 2009; McClellan & Hyle, 2012;
Morris, 2016). In sum, EL is a process that involves active engagement
and self-guided learning in a purposeful, immersive experience, as well as
reflection and sense-making about that experience in order to transform
it into knowledge that can be applied in subsequent experiences and con-
texts. Active engagement in purposeful, immersive experiences can take
many forms, from internships to community-engaged learning, student
employment, education abroad, and more—there are numerous teaching
and learning methods which can be included under the larger umbrella
of EL (Roberts, 2016).
EL learning goals and objectives can also vary greatly; some experi-
ences are intended to prepare students for specific professions, others
are meant to help individuals achieve greater integration of classroom
concepts and real-world problems, others are meant to enhance learners’
problem-solving and leadership skills or intercultural competencies, and
some attempt to do all of these and even more. In addition to differences
in form and objectives, strategies for implementing EL experiences can
1 INTRODUCTION: LISTENING AND LEARNING FROM EXPERIENTIAL … 3

vary greatly, depending on the learners (K-12 versus traditional college-


age students or adult learners, for example), the specific techniques
employed by instructor or facilitator of the experience (e.g., having
students work in groups or teams), and the structural or geographic con-
straints and assets of the learning environment (location, the academic
calendar timeline, funding availability).
Overall, research has found that EL has many benefits for students;
“gains in deep learning, practical competence, persistence rates, civic
engagement, appreciation of diversity, professional networks, and many
others” (Kuh & O’Donnell, 2013; Hesser, 2013, cited in Coker &
Porter, 2013) are well documented. The various forms of EL repre-
sented in this collection are now recognized as high-impact practices
which have become essential and fundamental components of higher
education. Yet as the chapters in this collection demonstrate, creating
impactful EL opportunities is not always easy or straightforward, partic-
ularly because effective, meaningful EL experiences must be intentionally
designed and require careful coordination, collaboration, and integration.
Authors highlight the “critical importance of orchestrating appropriate
framing of the educative experience, of guided inquiry and reflection,
and of meaningful linkages between various experiences” (Roberts, 2016,
p. 56). This is more important than ever as colleges and universities are
increasingly challenged to purposefully integrate EL on their campuses,
as well as track and evaluate the outcomes of EL for diverse learners. As a
result, it has become more and more important to provide opportunities
for students to apply classroom concepts in real-world settings, and gain
practical experience through relevant and engaging EL.
The rise in interest in experiential learning (EL) in US education makes
sense in a time when young generations are leading and advocating for
change in the world. Indeed, “given the weight of societal issues and con-
cerns in front of them, this generation appears to have less tolerance for
‘learning for learning’s sake’ and seem to push harder for relevance and
application” (p. 61). Thus, the collection brings together educators who
“promote various expressions [of EL]” and “argue for educational reform
that would support experiential education in all settings” (Itin 1999 in
Roberts, 2016, p. 44). However, it is also worth noting that doing EL
can present challenges, which several authors in the collection point out.
It should also be kept in mind that EL is not always equally accessible to
all learners, and more can and should be done to make EL equitable in
higher education institutions. Some barriers can include, “finances, major
4 K. LOVETT

requirements, athletics, a lack of research opportunities, commitments to


student organizations, familial complications, and transportation issues as
reasons for nonparticipation” (Coker & Porter, 2015, p. 66). As a result,
it is important for institutions and educators to make opportunities as
accessible through various means; “experiential learning requirements,
scholarships, targeted advising, diverse faculty and destinations, and good
institutional policies can all increase participation” (66).

About UD and Dayton


UD, a mid-sized institution of approximately 12,000 students, has a long
history of EL initiatives on campus, in the city of Dayton, and glob-
ally. Over the past century, the university has built long-lasting ties with
numerous organizations and corporations where hundreds of students
participate in internships, co-ops, and community projects each year. UD
is privileged to have abundant resources to do EL on a large scale. EL
is integrated into the academic curriculum and offered through a variety
of centers and institutes on campus.2 Our Institutional Learning Goals
which guide and frame our Common Academic Program also reflect the
centrality of EL at UD. EL at UD is a way for students to explore their
vocation and discover their passions, purpose, and callings, and how they
can use their talents and gifts to meet the world’s greatest needs.
As a Catholic, Marianist university, our educators are committed to
educating the whole person and developing leaders in service of oth-
ers which promotes leadership and service for the common good. UD
attracts students and faculty who are interested in helping others and
invested in making a positive impact on communities both on and off
campus. For them, EL is a direct way to take action and make a dif-
ference with their college education. Throughout the years, UD’s leaders
have shown strong support for the development of EL in key areas such as
sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation, community-engaged
learning, global and intercultural learning, among others. Our current
president has underscored the important role of EL in UD’s educational
mission as the University for the Common Good and has also imple-
mented various initiatives to make our campus (predominantly white,
middle to upper class) more inclusive and accessible to more diverse
groups of students.
UD’s Office of Experiential Learning, located in the Ryan C. Harris
Learning Teaching Center, was created as a way to connect UD’s EL
1 INTRODUCTION: LISTENING AND LEARNING FROM EXPERIENTIAL … 5

efforts and help foster communities of practice around EL. The deep sup-
port and commitment to EL allow educators to experiment with different
types of EL and establish important partnerships across institutional and
community boundaries. This has resulted in fruitful and vibrant EL
communities of practice which include individuals from a myriad of
backgrounds, perspectives, and types of expertise. I am very fortunate to
be the Director of EL at a university where EL is widely practiced and
supported by university leadership, and where students generally have
great interest in, and access to, a multitude of EL opportunities. And, of
course, it is wonderful to be at a place where there is so much interest in
reflection, research, and scholarship about EL.
The city of Dayton also provides a unique context for this collection.
Despite Dayton’s historical legacy as a city of inventors and successful
business owners, it has also faced many difficulties such as an economic
depression, the ongoing opioid epidemic, a struggling public education
system, housing and racial segregation, food deserts, among others. These
issues are not unique to Dayton and can be seen in cities across the
Midwest and US. UD communities have responded to these local and
regional issues through a number of EL programs, while also educating
students about community assets and opportunities. Dayton is experienc-
ing an economic revitalization, and its population is gradually increasing
and becoming more diverse and welcoming to newcomers such as immi-
grants and refugees. Readers of this text will gain important insight into
the ways EL educators in this book are applying their expertise, knowl-
edge, and skills in new ways to address these realities so their students
have the best chance of becoming the kinds of responsive, creative, and
collaborative problem-solvers the world needs.
This collection can appeal to a range of audiences, including faculty
and staff educators looking for examples of EL within and across disci-
plines, as well as college administrators interested in supporting faculty
in their areas and gaining a better understanding of the issues educa-
tors encounter when doing EL. Those who are interested in expanding
campus-wide EL initiatives and advancing EL goals, nurturing communi-
ties of practice around EL, and developing an understanding of faculty at
different stages of learning around EL would find the collection helpful
as well. Students interested in how learning happens in diverse social con-
texts, or those looking to explore the institutional demands, constraints,
and opportunities that impact EL in higher education would also benefit
from this book. The sections described below offer readers a roadmap for
6 K. LOVETT

exploring six key themes in the collection. These themes are applicable to
many forms of EL as well as diverse student populations and institutions
involved in EL.

Building EL Experiences into the Curriculum


for Developing Professionals
From grant-writing projects to experiential field trips and music lessons
with community members, the EL activities featured in this section are
designed to prepare future professionals with the skills they need to
succeed in their chosen fields. Chapter 2, “When Students Write for
Money: Reflections on a Decade of Community-Engaged Grant Writ-
ing” by Nicole F. Adams, M.A. and Patrick Thomas, Ph.D. (English),
describes how students apply their grant-writing skills to help meet com-
munity partners’ needs, while simultaneously gaining a better understand-
ing of their own vocations. Chapter 3, “Intergenerational Participation
through Experiential Learning in Music Education” by Linda Hartley,
Ph.D., describes the process of developing the New Horizons Program
(NHP), an EL program in which students who are preparing for careers in
music education develop music lessons for Dayton community members
over the age of 50. Hartley discusses how this kind of intergenerational
EL helps students develop important skills that will enhance their careers
as music educators. Similarly, Chapter 4, “Museums and Mud: GEO 204
(Geology for Teachers) - An Experiential Undergraduate Course for Pre-
service Teachers” by Michael Sandy, Ph.D., describes the integration of
outdoor field experiences into a geology course for pre-service education
teachers. As a result, students gain a deeper understanding and apprecia-
tion of geology, and they can use these experiences to develop their own
K-12 science classrooms.

Sustainable and Reciprocal


Community-Engaged Learning
Chapter 5, “Evolution of Community-Engaged Experiential Learning
from a Program to a Center: Reframing ETHOS to Broaden Participa-
tion and Impact” by Malcolm Daniels, Ph.D., Margaret Pinnell, Ph.D.,
Kelly Bohrer, M.S. and Christine Vehar Jutte, Ph.D., highlights the
Engineers in Technical Humanitarian Opportunities of Service-Learning
1 INTRODUCTION: LISTENING AND LEARNING FROM EXPERIENTIAL … 7

Center (ETHOS). The chapter describes the development of partnerships


grounded in reciprocity, in which engineering students work side by side
with communities to co-create technical solutions. Chapter 6, “The
Processes of Reciprocity and Reflection in Service-Learning Pedagogy”
by Roger Reeb, Ph.D., and Amanda Barry, M.A., highlights a service-
learning program in which students work with homeless shelter residents
to enhance their sense of hope, empowerment, social support, wellness,
and quality of life as they strive to overcome homelessness. Chapter 7,
“Experiential Learning in Sustainability: Opportunities, Building Partner-
ships, and Student Engagement” by Felix Fernando, Ph.D., describes the
process of engaging students in local sustainability initiatives, including
how to structure and evaluate EL in community-engaged settings.

Crossing Boundaries:
Transdisciplinary EL for Social Justice
Chapter 8, “We Are All Students: the Moral Courage Project as a Model
for Transdisciplinary Experiential Learning” by Joel Pruce, Ph.D., and
Natalie Hudson, Ph.D., describes the development and growth of a multi-
sited (Ferguson, Missouri, and El Paso) inter-/transdisciplinary EL pro-
gram focused on human rights, which involves collaboration among fac-
ulty and community partners from photography, political science, media
production, and more. Chapter 9, “Dinner in the Desert Kitchen: Reflec-
tions on Experiential Learning through Food, Art, and Social Practice” by
Glenna Jennings, M.F.A., explores a socially engaged art program involv-
ing educators, students, advocates, and food-related organizations who
work to raise awareness of food justice and food insecurity in Dayton.
The chapter addresses key challenges and successes in establishing col-
laborations across academic disciplines, managing course assessment, and
sustaining equitable partnerships with individuals and organizations out-
side the university.

EL Research in the City:


Communities and Places of Dayton
Chapter 10, “Engagement with Local Immigrant and Refugee Commu-
nities” by Miranda Hallett, Ph.D., and Theo Majka, Ph.D., describes
an EL experience in which students conduct interviews with leaders
8 K. LOVETT

and representatives of local immigrant and refugee communities and


organizations. Authors describe how this community-engaged project
leads students to see the inherent interconnections of local to global
issues, while also fostering opportunities for growth in cultural humility
and a sense of critical global citizenship. Chapter 11, “The Dayton
Arcade Experiential Learning History Project: Combining Research
Methods, Community Outreach, and Digital Humanities,” by James
Todd Uhlman, Ph.D., describes how students worked together to write
a history of the Dayton Arcade, a shopping mall built in 1904, currently
undergoing redevelopment as part of a city-wide urban revitalization
program. Through this immersive, place-based EL experience, students
interviewed Daytonians and constructed a website about the arcade as a
public resource for the community.

Engaging Issues of Power, Identity,


and Inequality Through Transformative EL
Chapter 12, “Power, Access, and Policy: Reflections on the Women’s
Center Internship Program” by Lisa Borello, Ph.D., discusses the devel-
opment of an internship program through the university’s Women’s Cen-
ter, in which students critically analyze gender equity issues on campus,
develop policy recommendations, and become agents of change in the
process. Chapter 13, “Beyond Skepticism or Compassion: How Experi-
ential Learning Enhances Pedagogy of Gender-Based Violence” by Jamie
Small, Ph.D., gives readers a close look at various pedagogical strategies
including developing community partnerships with law enforcement offi-
cials, grant-writing activities, and mini-documentary productions, which
enabled students to locate themselves within systems of gendered violence
rather than maintaining their positions as outside observers. Chapter 14,
“Performing Arts in the Service of Others: The Common Good Players
and Experiential Learning in Social Justice Theatre” by Michelle Hay-
ford, Ph.D., focuses on an applied performing arts troupe, the Common
Good Players (CGP), comprised of diverse undergraduate and graduate
students of various majors dedicated to social justice and creating a more
inclusive community at UD. The CGP leverages performance and active
participation of audiences to serve UD’s diversity, equity, and inclusion
initiatives.
1 INTRODUCTION: LISTENING AND LEARNING FROM EXPERIENTIAL … 9

Integrating the Student Voice and Assessing


EL Through Student Reflection
Chapter 15, “Student Employment for the Real World: Experiential
Learning and Student Development” by Chris Fishpaw, M.S. and Chelsea
Fricker, Ed.M., outlines the Student Employment for the Real World pro-
gram, a professional development opportunity for student employees at
UD. Authors describe how they encourage student reflection, and inte-
grate students’ voices and perspectives in the design and evaluation of
the program. Chapter 16, “Experiential Learning and Education Abroad:
Examining the Experiences of Students in the Semester Abroad and Inter-
cultural Learning Program” by Karen McBride, Ed.D., describes the use
of qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the experiences of over
60 student participants involved in the Semester Abroad and Intercultural
Learning Program (SAIL) and understand students’ intercultural compe-
tency learning outcomes. The chapter serves as a model for designing
education abroad programs that include assessment of student learning
around intercultural leadership. To conclude the collection, undergrad-
uate students provide a meta-commentary on the value and significance
of EL. Drawing on their own EL project in which they served as chapter
editors for this collection, students reflect upon the narratives of teaching
and learning recorded in this collection to address the implications for
students’ understanding of the design, implementation, and evaluation of
EL opportunities.

Conclusion
As Director of Experiential Learning at UD, I have developed a great
appreciation for the fascinating, complex, and innovative EL landscape
around me, which is reflected in the following chapters. My unique per-
spective as an anthropologist of education has informed the ways in which
I examine and analyze EL in its numerous forms and expressions. I have
been guided by a desire to discover the meaning, value, and impact of EL,
from the perspectives of those who participate in EL and practice it every
day. Through hundreds of illuminating conversations about EL with fac-
ulty, staff, students, alumni, and community partners, my understanding
of the multifaceted nature of EL deepened and expanded. I have also
gained insight into how these individuals are actively re-shaping institu-
tional norms and transforming cultures of higher education as they work
10 K. LOVETT

with students to address real issues and problems on campus, in surround-


ing communities, and globally. As a result, I have realized just how dis-
tinctive and special UD is.
In addition to offering strategies, methods, and tips for doing EL effec-
tively, this book also represents a model for building communities of prac-
tice around EL. Bringing EL educators together to share and write about
their experiences encourages them to communicate with each other about
their teaching practices, concerns, hopes, and dreams. I have found that
one of the most effective ways of supporting and inspiring the creation of
new and engaging learning experiences for students is to listen and share
stories of what EL educators have learned by doing EL. My students and
I have carefully documented our findings3 and we’ve shared numerous
lessons and insights about EL with colleagues on campus through various
workshops and educational forums. I believe our efforts to highlight the
story of EL at UD have led to increased curiosity, reflection, and engage-
ment with EL. I hope this collection will inspire the same for you and
your communities of practice, wherever they may be.

Notes
1. For a compilation of various EL definitions, see Beard and Wilson (2015,
pp. 25–26).
2. For more information, see our EL catalog at udayton.edu/el.
3. For more information about the Office of Experiential Learning archive of
EL interviews, reflections, and testimonies, visit udayton.edu/el.

References
Beard, C., & Wilson, J. P. (2015). Experiential learning: A handbook for
education, training and coaching. London: Kogan Page.
Corker, J. S., & Porter, D. J. (2015). Maximizing experiential learning to
student success. Change, 47 (1), 66–72.
Eyler, J. (2009, January 1). The power of experiential education. Liberal
Education, 95(4), 24–31.
Hesser, G. (Ed.). (2013). Strengthening experiential education: A new era. Mt.
Royal, NJ: National Society of Experiential Education.
1 INTRODUCTION: LISTENING AND LEARNING FROM EXPERIENTIAL … 11

Kuh, G.D., & O’Donnell, K. (2013). Ensuring quality and taking high-impact
practices to scale. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and
Universities.
McClellan, R., & Hyle, A. E. (2012, May 1). Experiential learning: Dissolving
classroom and research borders. Journal of Experiential Education, 35(1),
238–252.
Morris, L. V. (2016). Experiential learning for all. Innovative Higher Education,
41(2), 103–104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-016-9361-z.
Roberts, J. W. (2016). Experiential education in the college context: What it is,
how it works, and why it matters. New York: Routledge.
CHAPTER 2

When Students Write for Money: Reflections


on Teaching Grant Writing Through
Experiential Learning

Nicole F. Adams and Patrick W. Thomas

As professional writing faculty, we are deeply invested in helping students


understand the roles that writing plays in workplaces; how, for instance,
an accountant communicates changes in tax laws to her client, or how a
nurse instructs a patient in aftercare from a surgical procedure. Indeed,
the workplaces our students enter are saturated with writing, and regard-
less of profession, students can expect to write daily as part of their work-
ing lives. For this reason, experiential learning plays a significant role in
our professional writing pedagogy, as the pedagogical strategies of EL sit-
uate students within authentic purposes, audiences, and consequences for

N. F. Adams · P. W. Thomas (B)


University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA
e-mail: pthomas1@udayton.edu
N. F. Adams
e-mail: nadams1@udayton.edu

© The Author(s) 2020 13


K. Lovett (ed.), Diverse Pedagogical
Approaches to Experiential Learning,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42691-0_2
14 N. F. ADAMS AND P. W. THOMAS

their writing. These authentic contexts provide students with opportuni-


ties to understand unfamiliar genres and written conventions of profes-
sional discourse as well as the ethical and social commitments of writing
with accuracy, clarity, and concision.
One especially successful approach to experiential learning in pro-
fessional writing is through community-engaged grant writing. In this
project, students collaborate with community partners to identify a fund-
ing need, target a donor, and write a grant proposal on behalf of a com-
munity organization. Along the way, students have guided practice in
research methods to solicit organizational information, persuasive com-
munication, writing in multiple new genres (meeting agendas, progress
reports, grant narratives), strategies for collaboration, and project man-
agement.

Grant Writing at the Intersection


of Related Pedagogical Goals
Grant writing has emerged as a way to integrate several conceptually over-
lapping areas of our work as English instructors at the University of Day-
ton. As a kind of community-engaged experiential learning, grant writing
offers a unique avenue for introducing students to professional “com-
munities of practice” (Wenger, 1998) that are already actively address-
ing local needs. Of course, students do not come to our courses “tab-
ula rasa” but as individuals with interests, motivations, and concerns of
their own. The potential for community-engaged experiential learning,
through grant writing, relies in part on our ability to tap into students’
interests at a local level through their work with community partners.
Beyond the goals of community-engaged experiential learning, grant
writing projects fulfill many of the interests that are central to effec-
tive pedagogical practices in the field of Professional and Technical Writ-
ing. Specifically, grant writing activities offer an immersive framework
for teaching specific threshold concepts (Adler-Kassner & Wardle, 2015)
and professional writing practices in an authentic context. In terms of
threshold concepts, or the “core knowledge and disciplinary capabilities
that students must transition through to make progress in their majors”
(Adler-Kassner & Wardle, 2015), students recognize that writing is a
social, rhetorical activity (Roozen, 2015, cited in Adler-Kassner & Wardle,
2015), and that disciplinary and professional identities are constructed
through and mediated by writing (Estrem, 2015, cited in Adler-Kassner
2 WHEN STUDENTS WRITE FOR MONEY … 15

& Wardle, 2015). Beyond these concepts, grant writing offers a use-
ful way of addressing many of the types of skills that are important for
professional writing students to practice as part of their learning experi-
ence, skills such as primary research, collaborative writing, development
of workplace/professional genres, and rhetorical methods for tasks such
as interviewing, memoing, summarizing, and reporting. These skills and
practices, which are common across many types of Professional and Tech-
nical Writing curricula, are integrated within the development of grant
proposals through a multi-stage approach to research, writing, and dis-
semination.
Finally, grant writing provides us, as faculty at the University of Day-
ton, with a tangible means of enacting some of the most significant tenets
of the Common Academic Program (CAP), the university’s interdisci-
plinary general education program. Specifically, CAP courses are part of
sixteen types of courses built around a set of seven institutional learn-
ing goals. Beyond introductory-level coursework, students are required
to take “Crossing Boundaries” courses from areas outside of their own
major discipline “in order to see the relationship between the practical
and theoretical and to understand issues in a more integrative and holistic
perspective” (“The Common Academic Program,” 2010, p. 16). The par-
ticular type of course for which we teach grant writing falls within an “In-
quiry” category of Crossing Boundaries courses. Inquiry courses are cate-
gorized as such because they require students to investigate problems and
develop solutions using methodologies outside of those in their home dis-
cipline. In the case of our grant writing course, these methodologies are
drawn from the rhetoric and professional writing studies and include crit-
ical rhetorical analysis and qualitative research. Therefore, in addition to
providing English majors with experience and professional development
in grant writing, our coursework in grant writing also engages students
from other disciplines—especially social scientific, business administrative,
and scientific disciplines—in experiential learning as a way to understand
how professional writers work to solve problems and communicate effec-
tively, for money, within organizations.
Together, these interconnected sets of pedagogical goals—of experien-
tial learning, professional/technical writing, and our university’s general
education program—are meaningfully integrated through our approach
to the teaching of grant writing, which we describe in further detail below.
16 N. F. ADAMS AND P. W. THOMAS

Simulation Pedagogy
to Community-Engaged Grant Writing
Nicky, the first co-author of this chapter, offers the following narrative
describing her initial foray into teaching grant writing:

When I began teaching at UD in 2007, two of my four assigned classes


were to be the Report & Proposal Writing course, offered to a variety of
majors. I knew that such a course could be prime ground for experien-
tial learning (still commonly being called “service learning” at that time)
and that getting students out in the community would be key to making
it relevant to them. After all, it’s not the most engaging course title or
workplace writing task!
Yet, it would be nearly two years before I made the leap into
community-engaged learning. Given the wonderfully positive responses
from students and community organizations, I often ask myself why I
waited. And then I remember the intimidating logistics and goals involved:
coordinating 40 students (usually two sections) and their direct communi-
cation with community partners (partners, of course, that need to be lined
up well in advance); providing them with enough understanding of the
nonprofit world to give them confidence to begin researching and writing;
and sustaining their interest in a single project spanning 8 weeks or more.
Ten years and over 25 community partners later, the logistics are still
necessary, of course – but now that I’ve seen the student engagement and
investment first-hand, they’re exciting rather than intimidating. In fact, I
can’t imagine teaching the course without the grant writing project.

Patrick, the second co-author of this chapter, had surprisingly parallel


experiences when developing activities for grant writing.

I came to the University in Fall of 2011, fresh out of graduate school, and
interested in the ways that I might expand course offerings in the area of
professional writing. After all, that was why I was hired.
In graduate school I had worked on a series of successful grant writ-
ing projects, most of which were funded, and so I knew first-hand how
empowering it was to be able to use my writing skills to further projects
that I cared about – especially educational projects for teachers. Despite
this, I had little “formal” training in grant writing, so I wasn’t sure I
could actually teach a course in which I had only practical experience.
However, when I arrived to campus, our first-year faculty orientation
included a three-hour tour of the city of Dayton, making stops at four
2 WHEN STUDENTS WRITE FOR MONEY … 17

local organizations with which the university had maintained active com-
munity learning projects. What was so memorable about that tour was
how many different types of organizations were represented: large non-
profit centers, start-up businesses, and even neighborhood programs. The
message of that tour was clear: UD, my new employer, cared about how it
helped the community. And that message was repeated multiple times over
my first year, as many folks in my department mentioned the possibilities
of engaging with local community partners to help build new opportuni-
ties for students with interest in writing. I was interested in doing this, but
without knowing which community agencies to target, or how to go about
doing so, I decided to begin with a smaller assignment for grant writing
instead.

For both of us, prior to including a grant writing course into our curric-
ular offerings, we each experimented with the prospect of grant writing
assignments in our other professional writing course, especially Report
and Proposal Writing, a course for non-majors focused on producing var-
ious types of the two genres. In this way, our approach mirrored the type
of “simulation pedagogy” (Wang, 2019), a popular pedagogical approach
in applied fields such as nursing, management, and computer science. In
this approach, instructors may construct simulated rhetorical situations in
which students practice producing appropriate kinds of texts to fit that
situation. Often, students benefit from this approach to practice profes-
sional writing skills because it offers a “low stakes” method of engaging in
the kinds of communicative situations that they can envision in contexts
outside the classroom.
The simulation approach to grant writing often took the form of an
instructor-supplied RFP (Request for Proposals, a solicitation for grant
proposals). As instructors, we could invent a funding organization, situa-
tion, and genre constraints and group students into grant writing teams
as a way to propose funding ideas aimed at this RFP. Student teams could
work to fulfill many of the aspects of the grant writing process in condi-
tions that we, as instructors, can easily control and alter as teams required.
In addition, students had the opportunity to select causes, issues, or cam-
paigns to which funding from the RFP organization would be applied.
This approach was successful in the way that it provided us with oppor-
tunities for experimenting with teaching the process of grant writing—
including research, genre knowledge, and team writing, all of which offer
students (who may or may not have interest in grant-making or grant
writing) useful practice in developing professional skills.
18 N. F. ADAMS AND P. W. THOMAS

A further opportunity to develop grant writing projects into a fuller


curricular offering occurred in 2014 with the University of Dayton’s
launch of the CAP. The deliberate interdisciplinary focus of CAP
encouraged pedagogical and curricular experimentation, and in doing so
foregrounded experiential learning as a cornerstone of students’ UD aca-
demic experience. As is often the case when new curricular programs are
introduced, departments across the university were re-evaluating their
general educational course offerings in light of the institutional learn-
ing goals and curricular priorities. Too, departments sought new forms
of learning that would demonstrate the significance of an interdisci-
plinary approach to general education. For us, these factors related to the
introduction of CAP provided the momentum to develop the new grant
writing class.
In the spring of 2015, we began collaboration on a new CAP course
proposal for grant writing. Given the interdisciplinary focus of CAP
courses, we sought to integrate disciplinary knowledge, drawn from our
own field of professional and technical writing and earlier class exper-
iments with grant writing, with related disciplines that would find the
experience of learning grant writing useful. To this end, we examined lit-
erature and resources in our social science departments; namely political
science, sociology, and communication studies. Because we decided to
propose the course as a “Crossing Boundaries: Inquiry” course, we fore-
grounded the use of rhetorical methods—drawn from classical rhetorical
theory, activity theory, and genre theory—as a way to guide the process
of grant writing. Further, we situated the practice of grant writing within
interdisciplinary foci of leadership development (especially for nonprofits),
and communication management. Thus, the thrust of our course was to
integrate professional grant writing with leadership and management skills
and practices for nonprofit professionals. This led to the final focus and
course title, Writing for Grants and Non-Profits.
The course has now been taught since spring 2017, each time with
enrollments primarily from the fields of English (Professional and Techni-
cal Writing), Communication Studies, Political Science, Health Sciences,
and the interdisciplinary Medical Humanities and Sustainability Studies
programs. As a way to demonstrate the course design and general struc-
ture, the section below outlines a typical course sequence.
2 WHEN STUDENTS WRITE FOR MONEY … 19

Integrating Communities of Practice


Within the Grant Writing Course Design
More than the imperative of interdisciplinarity, making the case for the
need for a course in grant writing and its role within the CAP generally
required that we draw upon the value of experiential learning as it per-
tains to learning professional writing for students across the university. To
do this, Nicky developed a course rationale that centered on the prac-
tice of Corporate Social Responsibility as it has evolved from a trend to
a necessity as corporations face increased global competition in retaining
customers and employees. Understood this way, corporate partnerships
with nonprofit organizations have allowed companies to “give back”
within their communities, especially as young professionals across indus-
tries seek service opportunities in prospective employers. Therefore,
understanding the roles and needs of nonprofit organizations is key to
students’ connecting with the communities in which they work and live
upon graduation.
Framed as an opportunity to learn about both corporate and non-
profit operations (and the partnerships between the two) while learning
about local community needs, Writing for Grants and Non-Profits pro-
vided a capacious avenue for understanding how grant-making activities
take place. Further, writing to address real needs as identified by non-
profit organizations, students’ writing directly supports local community
projects. In other words, Nicky’s course rationale required that experien-
tial learning be infused into the course content.
Understood within the larger context of disciplinary pedagogy, the sig-
nificance of this integrative focus is especially significant because of how
the course intentionally works against some of the prevalent assumptions
about the teaching of professional writing. For one thing, much research
on the relationship between academic writing instruction and professional
writing activities recognizes that there is a gap between how students are
taught to write and how students actually write when they enter their
workplaces. Dias, Freedman, Medway, and Paré (1999) compare writing
activities in academic and workplace settings, concluding that academic
writing “assumes a distinct identity seeking autonomy” while workplace
writing serves as a “means to an end” (p. 235). In short, these contexts
place writers, as their title suggests, “worlds apart.” On the other hand,
20 N. F. ADAMS AND P. W. THOMAS

Joliffe (1994) notes that many practitioners—including writing instruc-


tors—follow a “myth of transcendence,” by which he means “an assump-
tion that while sites of writing may differ, people easily transport or trans-
late what they have learned from one domain to another” (qtd. in Dias
et al., 1999, p. 223).
What this means for our course, then, is that the experiential learning
component of students’ grant writing for local nonprofit organizations
is not merely a by-product of interdisciplinarity or a response to insti-
tutional demands. Rather, experiential learning is quite possibly the only
way by which students might learn how to move between the academic
and professional communities of practice and learn the particular kinds of
genres, communication practices, collaborative writing approaches, and
professional discourse conventions that professional communities require.
Far from being an “alternative” approach to the teaching of grant writ-
ing, the experiential approach is the primary (and possibly the only) way
in which students might occupy roles within their nascent professional
communities.
For the sake of helping readers recognize the specific learning goals
and sequence of activities that students practice in the course, we offer our
own set of course learning outcomes and general assignment list. While
institutional contexts and instructors’ priorities may differ, we intend the
following sets of outcomes and assignments to be generative for readers
in designing their own courses.

Grant Writing Course Learning Outcomes and Assignment Sequence


By the end of this course, students will be able to:

1. Identify rhetorical and organizational strategies that impact the


effectiveness of professional writing and communication in the non-
profit sector.
2. Identify various disciplines represented within the nonprofit sector,
including health care, education, the arts, international and cultural
awareness, environmental advocacy, and economic development.
3. Based on analyses of social problems, analyze and critique profes-
sional writing practices designed to build community relationships
and fund selected projects.
2 WHEN STUDENTS WRITE FOR MONEY … 21

4. Create targeted documents designed to inform and/or persuade


readers in various genres, including reports, proposals, letters, and
e-mails.
5. Present to peers and community partners their acquired knowledge
of grant proposal writing processes and the specific ways projects
will benefit the local community.

To accomplish these goals, students engage in the following overlapping


tasks:

• Class Pitch: Students create a professional introduction to your qual-


ifications that would make you a good team member for the course
grant project. After hearing each student’s pitch, students compose a
Reflective Memo, explaining their choices for team members, draw-
ing on content from each person’s pitch.
• Preliminary Client Plan: A short report of a relevant client organi-
zation for whom the group will be seeking grant funding, the prob-
lems/needs of the client organization, and the feasibility assessment
of working with these clients.
• Client Investigation Report: a research-based report in which stu-
dents detail the client’s problem and funding needs. Often accom-
panies by a presentation to the client for feedback.
• Funding Search: a written proposal of at least 3–4 possible fun-
ders/funding sources for the client, along with an assessment of each
and recommendation of funds and source to pursue.
• Project Letter of Inquiry: a formal introductory letter seeking finan-
cial support from the funding source on behalf of the client.
• Project Budget: an itemized budget for the grant project with accom-
panying budget justification.
• Project Final Application: a completed grant application packet, sub-
mitted to the granting institution on behalf of the client.
• Final Presentation: an oral and visual presentation, accompanied by
individual written self-assessments of collaborative work during the
semester, presented to the class and clients.

In addition to the activity sequence outlined above, students engage in


a variety of informal writing assignments, including period reflections,
22 N. F. ADAMS AND P. W. THOMAS

progress reports, correspondence with client organization, team agendas


and minutes, and self-assessments.

From Course Assignment to Curricular


Offering: Changes in Student Perceptions
The developmental transition in our teaching of grant writing—from an
ad hoc course assignment to a regular curricular offering—represents a
shift in the way that experiential learning functions within our profes-
sional writing curriculum. What began as a simulation, as an activity that
we “snuck in” to a course that was supposed to be about more “serious”
matters of report and proposal genres, has now become a vital and pop-
ular course for students both within and outside the English major. The
popularity of this course is, we believe, in large part due to the direct
role that students play in working for clients on a grant funding project.
Indeed, our particular version of community-engaged experiential learn-
ing has granted our course a unique reputation, as we have been success-
ful in securing grants for a number of local organizations and, to date,
have garnered over $40,000 in funding. We have found that students are
attracted to the course’s practical purposes both for engaging with a grant
project for a local organization and for practicing new skills related to an
aspect of professional writing with which many undergraduates are unfa-
miliar.
Too, students have reported that employers are particularly interested
when students include their grant writing experience on their resumes.
Nicky recalls Chris, an accounting major who took her in the fall of
his senior year. The following semester, as Chris was interviewing for
accounting positions, he relayed to Nicky that the Deloitte recruiter spent
the majority of his interview asking about the grant writing project and
Chris’ role in developing the budget, writing the proposal narrative, and
submitting a proposal. Chris was surprised to the point of concern that
an accounting recruiter was so preoccupied with an experience that was
outside of Chris’ accounting major. When Chris was offered a position at
Deloitte, he was told that the grant writing experience made a significant
positive impact on his application.
Two of Patrick’s recent students, one an English major (Katie) and
the other a Political Science major (Emily), have gone on to use their
grant writing skills in their early career work. For Katie, her grant writing
experience became useful during her time as a Peace Corps volunteer in
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
TOM.

I now come to the very prince of pets, the one of all I ever had the
most noble and most dear,—Tom, a Newfoundland setter, the
favorite dog of my brother Albert. He has been a member of our
family for five or six years past. We brought him from the city to our
pleasant village home in Pennsylvania, where we now live.
Tom is a dog of extraordinary beauty, sagacity, and good feeling. He
is very large, and, with the exception of his feet and breast, jet black,
with a thick coat of fine hair, which lies in short curls, glossy and
silken. He has a well-formed head, and a handsome, dark eye, full of
kindness and intelligence. His limbs are small, and his feet
particularly delicate. He is, I am sorry to say, rather indolent in his
habits, always prefers to take a carriage to the hunting-ground, when
he goes sporting with his master, and he sleeps rather too soundly at
night to be a good watch-dog. We make him useful in various ways,
however, such as carrying baskets and bundles, and sometimes we
send him to the post-office with and for letters and papers. These he
always takes the most faithful care of, never allowing any one to look
at them on the way. He is a remarkably gentlemanly dog in his
manner, never making free with people, or seeming too fond at first
sight; but if you speak to him pleasantly, he will offer you a friendly
paw in a quiet way, and seem happy to make your acquaintance. He
never fawns, nor whines, nor skulks about, but is dignified, easy, and
perfectly at home in polite society. He is a sad aristocrat, treats all
well-dressed comers most courteously, but with shabby people he
will have nothing to do. Tom knows how to take and carry on a joke. I
recollect one evening, when we had visitors, and he was in the
parlour, I put on him a gay-colored sack of my own, and a large
gypsy hat, which I tied under his throat. Instead of looking ashamed
and trying to get these off, as most dogs would have done, he
crossed the room and sprang on to the sofa, where he sat upright,
looking very wise and grave, like some old colored woman at church.
The illustrious General Tom Thumb once travelled with my brother
and this dog, and, falling very much in love with his namesake,
offered any price for him. Of course, my brother would not think for a
moment of selling his faithful friend, and even had he felt differently, I
doubt very much whether Tom, who had been used to looking up to
full-grown men, would have shown much obedience or respect, for
such a funny little fellow as the General. It was amusing to observe
the dog’s manner toward his small, new acquaintance. He was kind
and condescending, though he sometimes seemed to think that the
General was a little too much inclined to take liberties with his
superiors in age and size,—rather more forward and familiar than
was quite becoming in a child.
Two or three years ago, Tom was the beloved playfellow of my
brother Frederic’s youngest daughter,—our little Jane. She always
seemed to me like a fairy-child, she was so small and delicate, with
such bright golden curls falling about her face,—the sweetest face in
the world. It was beautiful to see her at play with that great, black
dog, who was very tender with her, for he seemed to know that she
was not strong. One evening she left her play earlier than usual, and
went and laid her head in her mother’s lap, and said, “Little Jane is
tired.” That night she sickened, and in a few, a very few days she
died. When she was hid away in the grave, we grieved deeply that
we should see her face no more, but we had joy to know that it
would never be pale with sickness in that heavenly home to which
she had gone; and though we miss her still, we have great
happiness in the thought that she will never be “tired” any more, for
we believe her to be resting on the bosom of the Lord Jesus.
One day last spring, I remember, her mother gave me a bunch of
violets, saying, “They are from the grave of little Jane.” I suppose
they were like all other blue violets, but I thought then I had never
seen any so beautiful. It seemed to me that the sweet looks of the
child were blooming out of the flowers which had sprung up over the
place where we had laid her.
Tom seems much attached to all our family, but most devotedly so to
my brother Albert. They two have hunted very much together, and
seem equally fond of the sport. If Tom sees his master with his
hunting-dress on, and his fowling-piece in hand, he is half beside
himself with joy. But when he returns from the hunt, spent and weary,
he always comes to me to be fed and petted.
You will remember that years have passed by since this brother and I
were schoolmates and playmates together. He is now a fine young
man, while I am a full-grown woman, who have seen the world I
used to think so grand and glorious, and found it—no better than it
should be. But of my brother. He is our youngest, you know, and so
has never outgrown that peculiar fondness, that dear love, we
always give to “the baby.” While I have been writing these histories,
and recalling in almost every scene the playmate of my childhood, I
can only see him as a boy,—a little black-eyed, rosy-cheeked boy; it
is very difficult to think of him as a man, making his own way bravely
in the world. Last spring we observed that dear Albert’s bright face
had become very thoughtful and serious; we knew that something
was weighing on his mind, and finally it came out. He was about to
leave us all for a long time, it might be for ever; he was going to
California! We were very unhappy to hear this, but, as it was on
some accounts the best thing that my brother could do, we finally
consented, and all went to work as cheerfully as we could to help
him off.
It was a bright May morning when he left, but it seemed to us that
there never was a darker or sadder day. The dear fellow kept up
good courage till it came to the parting; then his heart seemed to
melt and flow out in his tears, fast dropping on the brows and necks
of his mother and sisters, as he held them for the last time to his
heaving breast. But I will not dwell on this parting, for my own eyes
grow so dim I cannot well see to write.
I remember that poor Tom seemed greatly troubled that morning; he
knew that something sad was happening, and looked anxiously in
our faces, as though he would ask what it was; and when my brother
patted him on the head, bade him good by, and passed out of the
gate, forbidding him to follow, the faithful creature whined sadly, and
looked after him wistfully, till he was out of sight.
After Albert had been gone about an hour, I remember that I went up
into his room, and sat down in his favorite seat, by the window. O,
how still and lonely and mournful it seemed there! Near me hung my
brother’s fencing-sword and mask, which he had used only the day
before,—on the floor lay the game-bag, which he had always worn in
hunting, and which he had flung out of his trunk, not having room for
it. This brought my merry brother before me more clearly than any
thing else. I took it up and held it a long time, mourning at heart, but I
could not weep. Suddenly I heard a low whine in the hall, and Tom
stole softly into the room. He came to me and laid his head in my
lap; but when he saw the game-bag there, he set up a most mournful
cry. Then I flung my arms about him, bowed my head down against
his neck, and burst into tears. I forgot that he was a poor dumb
brute, and only remembered that he loved my brother, and my
brother loved him, and that he mourned with me in my sorrow. After
this, it was very affecting to see Tom go every day, for a long while,
to the gate, out of which he had seen his master pass for the last
time, and then stand and look up the street, crying like a grieved
child.
As you will readily believe, Tom is now dearer than ever to us all; we
cannot see him without a sweet, sad thought of that beloved one so
far away. I am not now at home, but I never hear from there without
hearing of the welfare of the noble dog which my brother, in going,
bestowed upon me.
SUPPLEMENTARY STORIES.

It is twenty years since the first part of this little volume was
published. The dear children for whom those simple stories of my
childhood were told are men and women now, and wonderful
changes have taken place in all our lives and in all the world. But in
growing old I have not lost any thing of my old love of pets; and I
hope that my little readers of this time will understand and share that
feeling. I hope that you, dear boys and girls, look on all innocent
dumb creatures about you as friends, and have not only a kindly
interest in them, but respect them for all that is lovely and wonderful
in their brief existences, and as objects of the unceasing care and
tenderness of our Father in heaven. Every smallest creature that
lives represents a thought of God,—was born out of his great, deep,
infinite life.
I hope you especially like to hear about dogs and cats, birds and
chickens, for it is of them that I have a few new stories to relate, as
true as they are amusing or marvellous.
FIDO THE BRAVE.

First I must relate the somewhat tragical history of a certain little


shaggy brown-and-white spaniel belonging to some friends of ours in
the country. He was a stray dog, and came to them in a very forlorn
condition, and had evidently been vagabondizing about in the fields
and woods for some days, for he was ravenously hungry, and his
long hair was dirty, and stuck full of straws, briers, and burrs, till he
bristled like a hedgehog. The first thing that the kind lady did, after
feeding him, was to put him into a warm bath. Then she set herself
to work to rid him of his encumbrances,—sticks, straws, briers, and
burrs. It was a long time before she got down to the dog; but when at
last she laid down scissors, scrubbing-brush, and comb, and
deposited her poor protégé on the floor, he was a good deal
diminished in size, but looked really handsome, and very bright,
quaint, and droll.
He took at once to his new home, and soon became a great pet,
showing himself to be grateful, affectionate, and full of cleverness,
fun, and fire. His pluck was beyond all question. Though not
quarrelsome, he would, when in the least degree put upon, fight any
dog in the neighborhood, whatever his size and breed, and he
generally came off victorious. But he was altogether too rash and
venturesome, given to worrying cows, horses, hogs, and old
stragglers; rushing into all sorts of danger, and coming out, when he
did come out, and was not brought out, with his little eyes dancing
and his bushy tail in air, as though enjoying the risk of the thing, and
the terror of his kind mistress.
Among other sportive tricks was a way he had of running before the
locomotive when the train was coming in or going out of the station,
near by the house of my friends. Nearly every day he could be seen
frisking about it, dancing frantically up and down before it, and
barking valorously. He really seemed to take a malicious satisfaction
in defying and insulting that rumbling, puffing, snorting monster, that,
big as it was, ran away from him as fast as possible.
“The pitcher goes often to the well, but is broken at last.”
One fatal day the little spaniel miscalculated the speed of his big
enemy, and failed to get out of the way in time. He was all off the
track but one hind leg, when he was struck by the locomotive and
knocked into a ditch,—that one hind leg being pretty badly mashed,
you may believe. The poor little fellow set up a great outcry, but the
unfeeling engineer never stopped the train to attend to him, and the
railroad folks kept the accident out of the papers. Fido made his way
home all alone, dragging his mashed leg behind him. Though greatly
shocked, his mistress did not scold him, but sent for a surgeon, who,
after a careful examination, and consulting his books, decided that
an amputation was necessary. Then the good, brave lady held her
poor, dear pet on her lap while the dreadful operation was
performed. She asked a gentleman of the family to hold him, but he
had not the nerve. After the stump had been skilfully dressed, the
little dog evidently felt better, soon ceased to bemoan his loss, and
took kindly to a light supper. He rested well that night, and in the
morning the doctor pronounced him better. His kind mistress nursed
him faithfully till he was restored to perfect health. He never seemed
to fret about his maimed condition, but hopped around on three legs
as merry and active as ever. It was observed, however, that he gave
a wide berth to railway trains, and howled whenever he heard the
whistle of the engine, ever after. Still the fight wasn’t out of him. He
was as jealous of his honor and as fiery and plucky as before his
disaster.
One afternoon, while taking a quiet three-legged stroll some distance
away from home, he encountered on the highway a big, surly bull-
dog, who presumed on the spaniel’s diminutive size and crippled
condition to insult him and rail at him. Brave Fido dashed at once at
the ugly bully’s throat, and bit and hung on in the most furious and
desperate way. It was a gallant fight he made, and it did seem for a
while as though he must come off victorious, like David after his
engagement with Goliah. But at last the infuriated bull-dog tore
himself free, and then proceeded to make mince-meat of the poor
spaniel. He tore his ears half off, and his eyes half out, and mangled
his head generally, till it was disfigured to the last degree. Then he
bit and chewed the left, the only left hind leg, till one might say that
he was next to a locomotive and a whole train of cars at the
mangling business. At this desperate stage of the combat a woman
came out of a farm-house near by, drove the bull-dog away with a
poker, and took up poor Fido. As he had become insensible, she
thought him dead, and flung him down in a fence corner, out of the
way of travel, and there left him, meaning, let us hope, to have him
decently buried in the morning. But Fido was not yet ready to give up
this life. The cool evening dew revived him; brought him to his
senses, in part at least. He could not yet see, but, guided by some
mysterious instinct, he made his sure way, dragging himself by his
fore legs, which were only two you know, across the fields to his
home. His mistress was awakened in the night by hearing him
scratching and whining at the door, and made haste to arise and
take in the poor crippled, blinded, bleeding creature, who laid himself
panting and moaning at her feet. I hope I need not tell you that she
did not give him up. She prepared a soft bed for him in an old
basket, washed and dressed his wounds, and though every body,
especially the doctor, said he must die, that he was as good as dead
then, she was sure she could fetch him round, and she did fetch him
round amazingly.
But alas! Fido’s troubles were not over, even when he got so that he
could hobble about on his three legs, and see tolerably well; for one
cold morning, as he lay curled up in his basket near the kitchen
stove, he was, I grieve to say, terribly scalded by a careless cook,
who spilled a kettle of hot water over him. Even then his mistress
refused to give him up to die, but dressed his burns with sweet oil, or
applied a pain-killer, or “Dalley’s Salve,” and administered Mrs.
Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, perhaps,—anyhow she nursed him so
skilfully and faithfully that she fetched him round again. He is no
beauty nowadays, but alive, and alive like to be. It is my opinion that,
like the great Napoleon, that dog bears a charmed life.
CAT TALES.

FAITHFUL GRIMALKIN.
Many years ago, when my parents lived in old Connecticut, my
mother had a pet cat, a pretty graceful creature, frisky and arch and
gay, though clad in sober gray. She was a favorite with all the large
household, but especially attached herself to my mother, following
her about everywhere,—“up stairs, down stairs, and in my lady’s
chamber,” accompanying her in her walks, hiding behind every bush,
and prancing out upon her in a surprising, not to say startling,
manner.
At last she grew out of kittenhood, laid aside, in a measure, kittenish
things, and became the happiest, fondest, proudest feline mamma
ever beheld. She caressed and gloated over her little, blind, toddling,
mewing, miniature tigers in a perfect ecstasy of maternal delight.
Just at this interesting period of pussy’s life our family moved from
the old place to a house in the country, about a mile away. My
mother was ill, and was carried very carefully on a bed from one
sick-room to another. In the hurry, trouble, and confusion of that time,
poor pussy, who lodged with her family in an attic, was quite
forgotten. But early in the morning of the first day in the new house,
—a pleasant summer morning, when all the doors and windows
were open,—as my mother lay on her bed, in a parlor on the first
floor, she saw her cat walk into the hall and look eagerly around. The
moment the faithful creature caught sight of her beloved mistress,
she came bounding into the room, across it, and on to the bed,
where she purred and mewed in a delighted, yet reproachful way,
quite hysterical, licking my mother’s hand and rubbing up against her
cheek in a manner that said more plainly than words, “Ah! my dear
madam, didst thou think to leave thy faithful Grimalkin behind?
Where thou goest, I will go.”
She was taken into the kitchen and treated to a cup of new milk; but
after a few moments given to rest and refreshment she disappeared.
Yet she went only to come again in the course of an hour, lugging
one of her kittens, which she deposited on the bed, commended to
my mother’s care, and straightway departed. In an almost incredibly
short time she came bounding in with a second kitten. She continued
her journeys till the whole litter had been safely transported, over hill
and dale, ditches and stone-walls, through perils of unfriendly dogs
and mischievous boys, and the family flitting was complete.
After this, our noble puss was loved and respected more than ever.
She dwelt long in the land, and her kits grew up, I believe, to be
worthy of such a mother.

OBEDIENT THOMAS.
Now I want to give you an instance of filial respect and submission
in a young cat. When we first came to Washington, nearly two years
ago, I took to petting a handsome cat belonging to the relatives with
whom we then lived. I fed and caressed her, and she became very
fond of me, always running to meet me when I entered the garden
which she haunted, or the barn in which she lodged. She was rather
wild in her ways, and so stole a nest, in which she finally hid away
some kittens, that she afterwards reared to be wilder than herself.
These somehow disappeared, all but one, which, when he was
about half grown, I undertook to tame. It was a difficult, tedious job;
but I persevered, and at last found him a more affectionate, docile
pet than ever his mother had been. She had seemed fond of him in
his wild, unregenerate days, but as soon as he became
domesticated, and I began to show a partiality for him, she grew very
severe with him, scratching his face and boxing his ears whenever
she saw me caressing him. I soon noticed that when she was near
he was shy, pretending not to be on intimate terms with me; while, if
she was out of the way, I had only to call his name, to have him
come galloping up from the furthest part of the long garden, to rub
against me, to lick my hand, and show every feline fondness and
delight. Now we live at another house, and I seldom see my pets,
mother and son; but they are loving and constant still, proving that
the poet Coleridge didn’t know every thing when he talked about “the
little short memories” of cats.
Master Thomas has grown large and strong, and is accounted a
gallant young fellow by all the young pussies in the neighborhood.
But while toward cats of his own sex he is fierce and combative, he
is just as meek and deferential to his mother as he was in his tender
kittenhood. The other day I encountered him in the old garden, and
was surprised to find how stalwart he had become. I stooped to
caress him, and he seemed as susceptible to gentle overtures as
ever, arched his back, switched his tail, and purred rapturously.
Suddenly the mother cat stole out from behind a tree, and confronted
us. “Good morning, madam,” I said, for I always talk to cats and dogs
just as I talk to other people. “You have a fine son here; a handsome
young fellow, that favors you, I think.” But she wasn’t to be softened
by the compliment. She walked straight up to him, and boxed him
first on one ear and then on the other, quite in the old motherly way.
As for him he never thought of resenting the old lady’s act, or
opposing her will, but drooped his lordly tail, and hastily retreated.
Now that is what I call good family discipline.
This city of Washington is a place where the wits of people are
sharpened, if anywhere, and perhaps even cats and dogs become
uncommonly clever and knowing here. Only yesterday I was told of a
Washington cat which had just been found out in a wonderful trick.
Observing that, when the door-bell rang, the one servant of the
household was obliged to leave the kitchen, she managed to slyly
ring the bell, by jumping up against the wire, and invariably, when
her enemy, the cook, went to the door, she would slip into the
kitchen, and help herself to whatever tempting article of food was
within reach. At last some one watched, and caught her at her secret
“wire-pulling.” Poor puss retired with a drooping tail and a most
dejected aspect, evidently realizing that the game was up.
Another cat I know of was of so amiable and benevolent a
disposition that she actually adopted into her own circle of infant kits
a poor, forlorn little foundling of a rat. As her nursling he grew and
thrived, seeming quite as tame as the others; and when a
mischievous boy set a rat-terrier on him, and so finished him, cat and
kittens really seemed to mourn for their foster son and brother.

KATRINA AND KATINKA.


Once on a time—no matter when—in a certain beautiful city—no
matter where—there lived two lovely twin sisters, with the brightest
eyes, and the cunningest little roly-poly figures, and the slenderest
ears with the softest pink satin lining, and the spryest motions
imaginable. They were brunettes in complexion, with white breasts
and tail-tips, and they were kittens. Katrina and Katinka were their
names, if I remember rightly,—maybe I don’t, but anyhow they might
have had those names, which, to my thinking, are very pretty and
appropriate for kittens.
Well, these same twin pussies were singularly fond of each other,
and more singularly good to each other. They never called names, or
scratched, or spat in each other’s pretty faces, or pulled each other’s
little smellers, or quarrelled over their meals. They were so
marvellously alike that it was always difficult to tell them apart; and
when they slept, as they always did, hugged close in each other’s
arms, you couldn’t have told to save you where one kitten left off and
the other kitten began.
They not only slept, ate, and played together, but, as they grew
older, took their strolls for health and recreation and their mouse-
hunts in the same close and loving companionship. They were very
curious and wide-awake little bodies, and liked to see all they could
of the great, busy world; so every pleasant afternoon, when there
was much driving and walking up and down the fine street on which
they lived, they could be seen strolling down the long walk to the
gate, always exactly side by side,—“neck and neck,” as the horse
people say,—as even in their pace, and as perfectly matched in their
action, as ever were a pair of trained ponies in Hyde Park. Reaching
the gate, they would pause and stand quite still for a half-hour or so,
gravely gazing through the palings at the passers,—pedestrians,
equestrians, and drivers of fast horses,—like a pair of dear little
brigadiers reviewing their brigades marching by. Then, with the air of
having discharged a public duty to the entire satisfaction of the
community, they would wheel exactly together, and again, precisely
neck and neck and tail and tail, trot gently homeward.
So they lived on, in and for each other, almost as much united as if
they had been a pair of small feline female Siamese twins, amiable,
loving, and virtuous, and grew in knowledge and stature up to a
comely young cathood. At last it happened that a very interesting
event occurred to the twin sisters at precisely the same time,—they
became happy mothers, were blessed with three or four fine kittens
apiece. But alas! before the little strangers had got fairly to feel their
legs, before they had got their eyes open, all save one mysteriously
disappeared from each nest. It was one fatal morning when the twin
sisters had slipped out of their happy attic apartment for a little air,—
to take their “Constitutional” in a trot down the long gravel walk to
see how the world would look to them now they were mothers,—that
this kit-napping occurred. When they returned to their families, they
found them strangely thinned out; but they were mothers for all that,
and did not seem to fret much, or abate their maternal pride a jot.
You see the ruling power in the human household in which they were
domesticated, and who was to them as a providence, had ordered a
little hydropathy for their poor, feeble, sprawling, blind darlings,—
beginning with what is called in water-cures “the heroic treatment,” a
cold plunge; and it didn’t agree with them,—it never does with any
but the healthy and hardy patients,—so it was they never came
back. But under the blue waves they sleep well, though never a mew
or a purr comes bubbling up to the surface to tell the spot where they
lie on beds of tangled sea-grass. “Requies-cat in pace,” as old
tombstones say.
The next mournful event in this true family history was the untimely
death of Katrina’s one darling. This had proved to be but a frail
flower of kittenhood; very pretty she was,—“too sweet to live,” people
said. Her constitution was defective, her nervous system was
extremely delicate. Before she was a week old she had something
alarmingly like a fit of catalepsy. Suddenly, while imbibing
nourishment, with her fond mother purring over her, and two or three
children looking on in smiling sympathy, she gave a piteous wild
mew, rolled over on her back, and stuck up her four little legs and
laid out her little tail stiff as a poker! On the ninth day of her little life
she opened her blinking blue eyes on this great wonderful world, in
which she had as good a right to be as you or I; but she didn’t seem
to like the looks of things, for she soon closed those small eyes
again, and never opened them more. Life was evidently too hard a
conundrum for her poor, weak little brain, and she gave it up.
Of course Katrina was greatly afflicted, but she did not abandon
herself utterly to grief. Had not her sister a kitten left? and had not
they two always had every thing in common? So as soon as the
sympathetic children had buried her dead out of her sight under a
lilac-bush, she went straightway to Katinka, and, with her full
consent, began to divide with her the duties and joys of maternity. All
three just cuddled down together in one nest; from mamma or auntie
Master Catkin took nourishment, just as it suited his whim or
convenience, and, as you might suppose, he grew and thrived
astonishingly. So equal and perfect was this partnership in the kitten,
that it was impossible for a stranger to tell which of the two cats was
the real mother. One day all three were brought down to the parlor to
amuse some visitors. Both mammas seemed equally nervous about
having the baby kitten handled, and presently one of them caught it
by the neck,—the cat’s usual, immemorial way of transporting her
young,—and started with it for the attic; when, to the surprise and
immense amusement of all present, the other caught hold of the tail,
and so the two bore it away in triumph.
After this I am afraid the children gave the little kitten rather more
travelling than he liked. It was such fun to see the two anxious cats
following him, mewing, and at the first chance catching him up, and
lugging him home in that absurd manner. Generally the real certain
true mother seized on the head, but sometimes she was
magnanimous enough to yield the post of honor to the aunt, and take
to the tail herself.
So things went on for a few weeks, and then there happened to this
estimable cat-family another sad event,—for this is a tragedy I am
writing, though you may not have suspected it,—Katinka died! What
of has never yet been decided; physicians differed about it, and the
coroner could not make it out. But this much is certain, Katinka died.
The grief of Katrina was and is very affecting to behold. She mopes,
she mews, and her slender tail, which she used to carry erect with
such a jaunty air, droops dolefully. She takes no longer the
“Constitutional” trot down the walk to the front gate. Life seems to
have grown dull and wearisome to her, and the pleasures of mouse-
hunting and tree-climbing appear to have lost their zest. If she
remembers at all the halcyon period when much of her precious time
was spent in a dizzy round of gayety, in a swift pursuit of a ball of
cotton, or a futile pursuit of her own tail, it is in sad wonder that she
could ever have been so merry and thoughtless. She grows thin,
neglects her toilet, and often refuses food; but when the children
offer her catnip, she turns languidly away. If she were acquainted
with Shakespeare, she would doubtless say,—“Canst thou minister
to a mind diseased?” “Throw physic to Bose and Jowler,—I’ll none of
it!”
Friendly cat-neighbors call in occasionally, but they cannot console
her. All the petting of the household fails thus far to make her cheery
and playful as once she was. She is fed on the very “milk of human
kindness,” but grief has licked the cream off.
She seems to find her only consolation in her care and affection for
the motherless catkin, and in his fondness for her. I am sorry to say
that he does not show a very deep sense of his loss; perhaps he is
too young to realize it. His good aunt seems sufficient for all his
needs, and he thrives finely, is fat and jolly, and full of all kittenish
pranks and mischievous tricks. Poor Katrina will have a time with
him, I fear, as he is sadly petted and indulged. Such a lazy rascal as
he is too,—don’t earn the salt of his porridge, that is, if he took it
salted,—and, though quite old enough to “go on the war path,” has
never yet killed his mouse, or brought home a rat’s scalp, or a
ground-squirrel’s brush, or as much as a feather from a tomtit’s wing.
Ah! of all the darlings in the world, an aunty’s darling is the likeliest to
be spoiled.
This is all I know about this curious cat-family. I hope, dear children,
that my true story may not sadden you, for I really wish you, one and
all, the merriest of merry Christmases, and the happiest of happy
New Years.
All I can say in the way of a moral to my little story is: How beautiful
is love! even when shown in the fortunes and sorrows of cats and
kittens, how beautiful is love!
FEATHERED PETS.

OUR COUSINS THE PARROTS.


These strangely interesting birds, according to natural history,
belong to the second bird family, the Psittacidæ. I never knew how
many wonderful and splendid varieties this family contained until I
saw living varieties of all, or nearly all, in the known world, in the
Zoölogical Gardens of London, where they are kept in a great
gallery,—a beautiful parrot paradise, all by themselves. They were a
wonder to behold, but a perfect astonishment to listen to. The
confusion of tongues was something almost distracting. The Tower
of Babel, in its talkingest day, never approached it, I am sure. A large
sewing-circle of elderly ladies might come nearer the mark. The
colors of their plumage I have no words to describe. They fill my
memory with tropic splendors whenever I think of them, to this day.
’Tis strange that but one species of parrots was known to the ancient
Greeks and Romans,—the Parakeet of India,—at least up to the time
of Nero. That gentle prince, with his amiable love of pets, is said to
have sent emissaries far up the Nile to collect new varieties for the
gratification of his royal whim and dainty appetite; for, when the poor
little captives ceased to amuse him by their conversational powers,
he ate them. I hope they lay hard on his stomach, and made him talk
in his sleep!
The early Portuguese navigators found parrots at the Cape of Good
Hope, and at other points on the African coast; and the very first
creatures that welcomed Columbus to the isles of the New World
were Parakeets. The Macaws of South America are very handsome
birds, but not remarkably tractable or agreeable. They are fond of old
friends, but are fierce to strangers, and have a singular dislike to
children. The gray and scarlet parrot, called the Yaco, is a charming
bird for a pet. It is clever and docile, and learns readily to talk,
preferring to imitate the voices of children. The Cockatoos of New
Guinea are very pretty and graceful pets. They do not like to be
caged, but may be safely allowed to have the range of the premises,
as they will immediately come when called; thus setting an excellent
example to rebellious children. The green parrot, most common in
this country, is a native of Africa.
Dear old Dr. Goldsmith, whose Natural History is all out of fashion
now, except with us old folks, tells some amusing stories about
parrots. Among these is an anecdote of a famous fellow, belonging
to King Henry the Seventh, Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather. This bird,
sitting on his perch in the palace-yard at Westminster, used to hear
the talk of gentlemen who came to the river to take boats. And one
day, while overlooking the busy traffic of the Thames, he fell from a
tree into the water; and while there, floating helplessly, he cried: “A
boat! twenty pounds for a boat!” A waterman rescued him, and took
him to the king, demanding his twenty pounds. The king, who was
not remarkably generous, hesitated about giving so large a sum; but
finally agreed to leave the amount of the reward to the parrot. That
ungrateful fellow, who sat on his perch, still shaking the water from
his feathers, when appealed to, turned his head slyly on one side,
and said, “Give the knave a groat” (about fourpence). I hope,
children, you won’t doubt the truth of this story; it isn’t good to get
into sceptical habits of mind in early life.
For many years there lived in the porter’s lodge of the old
Pennsylvania Hospital a distinguished and venerable citizen,—a
parrot of rare cleverness and intelligence. This famous bird belonged
to the porter, and was one of many feathered pets, the chief favorite
and familiar. A remarkable affection and sympathy existed between
these two friends; yet I am sorry to say their relations were not
altogether pleasant and peaceful. Innumerable were their quarrels
and make-ups. The bird was very knowing, and almost
supernaturally gifted as a talker, especially, like some human orators,
in the language of railing and taunting. The old man, his master, had
one deplorable weakness,—he would occasionally drink too much
whiskey; so much that, getting quite beside himself, he would leave
his lodge and his innocent feathered family, and go off on a
desperate spree, which sometimes lasted for days. Now, Master
Paul Parrot thought this weakness, through which he suffered in
loneliness and neglect, very reprehensible and not to be winked at,
and when the fit of dissipation was coming on his master, it is said,
would remonstrate with him, in a friendly way, like a very Mentor.
When this proved in vain, and he saw the misguided old man leave
the lodge for some of his disreputable haunts, he would endeavor to
put a good face on the matter, would hop about on his perch in great
excitement, and call out to the other birds: “The old man has gone on
a spree!—on a spree! He won’t be back for a week! Let’s have a
time. Ha, ha!”
When the old porter came home, this naughty bird would be very apt
to mock and taunt him, calling out: “So you’ve come back,—have
you? O, how drunk you are! Now we’ll have a row.” And there always
was a row; for the indignant porter never failed to beat Mr. Paul, for
his impudence, soundly. Then the bird, seeking the dignified
retirement of the darkest corner of the lodge, sulked and muttered,
till, the old porter’s good-humor returning, he made friendly
overtures. The two were reconciled, and “every thing was lovely”
again.
At length the poor old porter died; and as his successor was no bird-
fancier the feathered family at the lodge was broken up and
dispersed. The clever parrot was kindly treated in a new home; but
he never seemed happy. He evidently missed his old master,—
missed his caresses and his scoldings. Or perhaps he found the
steady goings-on of a moral household too dull for his taste, for
when I went to see him, I found him as glum, stupid, and morose as
an old politician who had had his day. All he would say was, “O you
goose!”
There is another curious parrot in Philadelphia, in a store kept by a
maiden lady whose voice is so exceeding shrill and parrot-like that it
is difficult to tell when she leaves off talking and the parrot begins.
One day, as a customer was examining an article on the counter,
Miss Polly called out: “What are you doing with that? Put it down! put
it down!” The lady looked round very indignantly for the offender,
saying: “Well, ma’am, I must say you have a very impudent child.”
There is in the same city another parrot, who recites a verse of an
old song in a most distinct and triumphant manner:—
“O pretty Polly,
Don’t you cry,
For your true-love
Will come by and by.”
There is in Brooklyn, New York, a parrot that sings many of the
popular airs correctly, and with as much expression as many
fashionable singers give to them. This bird is singularly social and
affectionate, and has a horror of being alone. He will sometimes
awake in the middle of the night, and arouse the household by
crying: “O dear! I am all alone!—all alone! Somebody come to me!”
I have heard much of a clever parrot once kept by some relatives of
ours on an old place in a quiet little village. Mistress Polly had free
range of the house and yard, and throughout the town was as well
known as the oldest inhabitant. Through all the pleasant weather she
haunted the tall trees in front of the house, climbing to the highest
branches, and from there superintending the affairs of the
neighborhood, and making astronomical and meteorological
observations. In the spring and autumn she watched from these lofty
perches the flight of great flocks of pigeons and crows with intense
but decidedly unfriendly interest. She would scream and scold at
them in a most insolent and defiant manner, evidently criticising the
order of their march and all their manœuvres and evolutions, for all
the world like a newspaper editor finding fault with the conduct of
great armies. Doubtless she was astonished and disgusted to see
the great host sweep steadily on, following their leader, paying no
heed to her shrieking, railing, and evil prophecies. Yet she was never
so absorbed by her duties on the watch-tower that she failed to
come to her meals. These she took with the family, perched on the
back of a chair or the corner of the table. She was very fond of
coffee, and was always provided with a cup. She would take it up by
the handle with her claws, and drink from it without spilling a drop. A

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