Public Service Sections Offered in Gen Ed 105

After a popular trial run last year, students in General Education 105, "The Literature of Social Reflection," again have the option of joining special sections where they can apply class readings to extracurricular public service work.

Students in the special sections can discuss anything they have done, are doing now, or plan to do in public service, said course instructor Robert M. Coles, professor of psychiatry and medical humanities.

They are encouraged to connect their own experiences with the lives of James Agee, Dorothy Day, Williams Carlos Williams and other authors read in the course.

Participants discuss the personal problems an intellectual encounters working with underprivileged individuals, Coles said.

"The importance of the course was that you talked back and forth with people who did all kinds of social work," said Michele D. N. Rago '84, a member of a community section last year.

Rago said the course themes of "the outsider" and of "justice versus charity" enabled students in various aspects of social service to directly relate their own experiences to the readings.

Gen Ed 105 "helps me tie in to the community issues," said Laura K. Abel '89, who plans to volunteer through Phillips Brooks House this year.

"This course is going to reaffirm my liberal values because everybody in here believes in helping other people," said Peter T. Hinderson '88, who said he may decide to do public-service work because of his experience in the section.

The public service experience of students in this year's sections ranges from summer work with Cambridge youths to volunteering for the presidential campaign of Walter F. Mondale.