>Justin Schwartz wrote:
>
>>Hey, we got TV, what do we need night classes and political meetings for?
>>Fact is, most workers, including most white collar workers, would
>>probably prefer a longer workweek to night classes, reading, or political
>>meetings. Especially political meetings. So where does that leave us?
bzzzzzt. nope. i worked with the Center for the Study of Citizenship. this doesn't pan out in a body of research on the topic and it didn't pan out in my experience in two community research projects, one of which was specifically about the topic. we even had them getting together every sunday, for 2-3 hours, to discuss reading materials my mentor, manny, had assigned. i thought he was nuts. but they read it and they loved it. things like articles from LBO, harpers, chapters from various books one would read in an adv. college course/grad theory course. no kidding.
these were ordinary folks: a butcher, a machine shop worker, a 'welfare mom', a minister, secretary, an engineer, etc.
they loved it. everyone dismisses alinsky and harry boyte, but they were on to something and it's too bad dogmatic denunciations of this kind of approach are so common among the "radical" left.
kelley