TOWN & GOWN: IN & AROUND TEMPLE

Reading these posts on environment, I'm glad to see so many of you have related our studies of environments to the built environments of Temple's campus and the surrounding communities. I think that any person is going to feel some sense of culture shock as they move from one environment to another, and it doesn't require a radical change in one's environment to feel that shock, so long as we're mindful of how space and place influence everything about our lives. And I think it's fine to feel uncomfortable in certain environments, so long as we're always asking ourselves why we are feeling what we're feeling, and what it says not only about our environment but about ourselves.

Something that many of the writers we read this semester emphasize is that all environments, including built environments like North Philadelphia, are in a state of constant change. Like the "built environments" of the essays you've written, neighborhoods can be thought of as organisms that grow and change and die and become other things in the process. For a writer like Elijah Anderson, this dynamic manifests as "pockets of resistance," where neighbors come together to rewrite, as it were, the vision of what a neighborhood can be. For a writer like Ray Oldenburg, we create "third spaces" between the private sphere and the public sphere in order to revitalize our sense of self in the social sphere. And then of course for others, like Timothy Treadwell, so-called civil spaces are anathema to what it means to be alive and human. And so he retreated into the Alaskan wilderness. But even deep in the wilderness, Treadwell created a space to feel at home: a "made" or "made-up" wilderness. And even the Times Square sinkhole of Tom Wolfe's "Rotten Gotham" is very different now, 40 years later.

So . . . some questions to ask yourself as you finish the course: "What does Temple's environment mean to me?" "What do the communities around Temple mean to me?" "How do I define myself as a student and a citizen living in North Philadelphia?" "How am I part of the many communities in and around Temple?" "How do these environments interact?" "How do they perceive each other?" "How do I perceive them?" "Years from now, how will I see my years at Temple--not only as a student, but more broadly as a human being?"

Like all these spaces and places, "natural" and "civil," your writings are also built environments. They are put together: composing, decomposing, and recomposing visions and revisions of what is possible. This idea of writing as a cultural artifact and a natural process informs much of the thinking about ecocomposition and the relationships among readers, writers, and environments.

For those of you who want to pursue some of the ideas that we've explored in class this semester, especially relationships between Temple and its local communities, check out the Faculty Herald article and interview with Eli Goldblatt on a new community-based learning project at Temple, the Community Learning Network.

Click here to read.

Environment

(Option 2)

This semester I have learned a lot about the environment. I never gave nature and the environment any thought but during the course of this semester I have had time to process my own perception of the environment and nature. The first essay topic: Space and Place, really changed m perception of the environment. After reading Elijah Anderson's essay, "The Social Ecology of Youth Violence" I was fascinated with Philadelphia and the people who live here; simply because I'm not from this area. When Anderson talked about his interview with Old-head, Mr. Don Moses, I was stunned by the reality of the situation: living in Germantown. “Keep your eyes and ears open at all times. Walk two steps forward and look back. Watch your back. Prepare yourself verbally and physically. Even if you have a cane, carry something. The older people do carry something, guns in sheaths. They can’t physically fight no more so they carry a gun” (75, Anderson). Could it really be that bad in Germantown? In my home environment in Lorton,VA, I've always felt safe. There's no need to carry a gun or watch your back. In my environment everyone goes to college and will probably do something amazing with their lives. But in Germantown the kids barely attend school and a small percentage of them will go to college. So I learned, your environment does affect your behavior. I didn't notice till I read Anderson's essay and looked around me as I walked around Philadelphia. I've noticed how my behavior has changed from care-free in Lorton, VA to more attentive in Philadelphia, PA. It's natural to do so. Elijah Anderson would say, "It's just the code of the street." I've learned a lot this semester but this is the one thing that changed my view of the environment. Thanks Dr. F:)

Environment

Throughout the course of this fall semester we have read over various texts and documents pertaining to the environment, more specifically nature. After exploring all of the essays in class, my perception of the environment has definitely been altered. More specifically my view of animals, along with their relationship to humans. Having read "Why Look at Animals?" by John Berger and watched "Grizzly Man" produced by Werner Herzog, my prior opinion about the environment has transformed. Before going over these two resources, I really didn't think or care much about the environment, and I felt that there was no connection between humans and animals. Now however, I developed an understanding that animals have been granted some of the same characteristics as humans, and are therefore related. Also, one can take advantage and learn from animals. By properly observing animals in their natural habitat, it is much easier to fully appreciate their existence. This is seen for example in the movie "Grizzly Man", as the life of Timothy Treadwell is portrayed. It is clear that Treadwell expressed love for grizzly bears, and developed a connection with these animals. This connection is what allowed him to survive a miraculous thirteen summers unarmed. I don't believe it's possible for everyone to develop such a personal relationship with animals, but I do think people can learn a lot by observing and studying animals, both wild and domesticated alike. Ultimately, it is vital that people strive to protect animals, and preserve the environments in which they live.

conservation.org

Conservation.org officially known as Conservation International is a website dedicated to the preservation of earth's natural resources.Their vision is to obtain a "healthy prosperous world in which societies are forever committed to caring for and valuing nature for the long-term benefit of people and all life on Earth."They have a variety of resources for taking action as an individual or a group, newsletters, web links to related websites, programs and events and even career opportunities.