Course descriptions
121 Forum 1: Culture and Community is a required upper division course that students take after they have declared Liberal & Civic Studies as their program of study (but not during their freshman year). The course introduces students to Program themes, including, “the great conversation,” diversity (issues of race, class and gender), the arts, and service learning. Lectures and discussions are complemented by a multicultural workshop, a visit to Glide Memorial Church, and attendance at art events. Students are required to devote 2.5 hours a week to a service-learning project, maintain a journal, and write papers and a self assessment. Class sessions are supplemented by a biweekly service-learning lab. A minimum grade of C– is required to continue on to L&CS 122.
122 Forum 2: Nature and the Sacred is taken the semester immediately following Forum 1. Building on program themes, the course explores concepts of nature and the sacred from the perspectives of several major religious traditions. The course moves on to explore “systems theory,” developed in physics, to analyze the state of the natural environment. Students perform 2.5 hours of community service a week in a “systemic” service-learning setting (i.e., at the preventive or policy level) and attend a bi-weekly service learning lab. Requirements include formal papers, a journal, and a self-assessment. Prerequisite: Forum 1. A minimum grade of C– is required to continue to L&CS 124.
124 Assessment and Portfolio is a .25- credit course that students take in the semester immediately before Senior Forum. The course helps them assemble their portfolios and prepare for their assessment interviews, which occur in the latter part of the semester. The course consists of eight class sessions. Prerequisite: L&CS 122. Satisfactory completion of this course is required before a student can continue on with L&CS 130 or 131.
126-127-128-129 Praxis: Art, Community Service, Public Policy and the REACH program are four optional upper-division .25-credit courses. Offered every semester, these courses enable students to involve themselves in exploration of the arts, community service, or public policy. In addition to field work (e.g., attending plays or museums; doing community service; working in student government, environmental projects, or in a political campaign), students meet frequently to discuss their experiences. They produce a culminating paper or project. This course may be repeated for credit, as content varies.
130 Senior Forum is the capstone course of the Liberal & Civic Studies Program. It involves a careful examination of the assumptions upon which democracy is based and the work of citizen groups who are addressing America’s social problems, from education and government to human services, jobs, and the media. The course also looks at the unique challenges that the current generation will face in the future. Students draw on the knowledge and skills they have gained in the Liberal & Civic Studies Program to design and implement group service-learning projects. Students complete a journal and three writing projects, including a research paper, which becomes the basis of group presentations to the SMC community. Senior Forum has a biweekly service-learning lab. Prerequisite: L&CS 124.
131 Advanced Forum is a section of Senior Forum dedicated to Teachers for Tomorrow students. Like Senior Forum, this class is the capstone course of the Liberal & Civic Studies program. While Advanced Forum includes most of the texts and all of the same requirements of Senior Forum, it emphasizes issues of concern to future teachers.
192 Text-Based Discussion in the Elementary Classroom. (.25)
Cross-listed as CS 192
A field-based course designed for future teachers, specifically those enrolled in the Teachers for Tomorrow track of the Liberal & Civic Studies Program. This course trains and gives students hands-on experience in facilitating seminar style, text-based discussion groups for younger students. After two introductory training workshops, students will first observe, then co-lead such discussion on site in an elementary or middle school classroom. Students will learn about and practice an educational style that develops critical skills, speaking, reading, and thinking in open discussion. Prerequisite: Seminar 122, or 130 and 131 for transfer students.
