One of the activities in the

2010-11 CEREMONY: Relating Hospitably to the Land

is to create our own covenant.

The following is a model to help our community create our own covenant, it will apply in the CEREMONY: Relating Hospitably to the Land program while we create our own.

This covenant comprises the learning guidelines and tenants of the program: CEREMONY: Relating Hospitably to the Land

The paramount objective of the program is to create a community of learners.  To that end:
·    CEREMONY: Relating Hospitably to the Land is a program based on equal commitment and responsibility by both the faculty and the students.   
·    As CEREMONY: Relating Hospitably to the Land exists within the larger community of The Evergreen State College, all members of the community are subservient to the guidelines  set forth in the TESC Social contract. 
·    The goals of this community are to provide an environment rich in learning opportunities, facilitation of learning, a sounding board for self-paced learning objectives, and hopefully to sparkle a personal liberation process in each participant.
·    Community members are expected to pursue a tract of learning objectives for their own personal improvement. 
·    As community is one main objective, a cumulative presentation is the sole requirement for successful completion of the program and cooperation in the community.  A presentation or publication shared with the learning community of the class ensures not only commitment to the community but also commitment to the fostering of knowledge . 
·    It is understood that the activities of one individual sometimes override the needs of the community.  As such attendance is encouraged but not mandatory.
.   Conflict and grievances should be dealt with between the parties themselves and solved within the community.
.    Participants will emphasize a complete shift towards a learner-centered approach to their own education.
·    Each faculty will emphasize a *Freirian liberatory education approach by:
       -  Becoming a collaborator and ally of the students, not  supervisors.
       -  Encouraging that the subject CEREMONY: Relating Hospitably to the Land must be the lives of the students, reflected back to the student as a problem or source of contradiction.
       -  Facilitating a goal which must be not just to change the student but to work with the students to change their world.
       -  Practicing a process that must be rational and cognitive, rather than affective, involving critical thinking, natural learning process, problem-posing, looking for contradictions, and using metacognition.

Adapted from the Recognition program Covenant.
(*)From Embracing Contraries, Peter Elbow.

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