Self, Community and the Environment  (RSP 297) 

Winter Session, 1999 
January 2-10 
Instructor: Robert Atkinson
410 Bailey Hall, Gorham campus
780-5078
e-mail: atkinson@usm.maine.edu

Click here to see photos

Course Description

This course examines the essential interaction between the self, others, and the environment. The course
framework acknowledges the conflicts between the three main components of the course, but provides a way of
recognizing, through considering theories, principles, data, and personal experience, how the individual, the
community, and the environment may also work in harmony with each other. The experiential nature of the course
offers a direct approach to exploring how and why there exists an interdependence of the three elements. The
structure and unique setting of the course (a 1 week intensive living-learning experience sailing aboard a 125'
schooner, including pre- and post-sail class work) encourages self-reflection, critical thinking about one's self in
relation to others and the environment, and active participation in a community of learners interdependent with
each other. 

Goal

The primary goal of the course is to provide students with the resources and the personal experience to come to a
deeper understanding of personal growth, group dynamics, and the role of the self in relationship to the human
and natural community of which we are a part. A secondary goal is to assist students in coming to a greater
degree of self-awareness, a clearer sense of personal goals, a more practical understanding of community
building, and a greater appreciation for the environment and the ecological balance of the earth.

General Objectives

1. To explore personal growth, self-discovery, self-reflection, the self in relation to others and the
environment, the make up of communities, and how communities come together, are built up, and stay
together.

2. To introduce students to the qualitative methods of studying the self and the study of individual lives by
learning how to use personal growth exercises and reflective writing. 

3. To introduce students to group processes, and methods of gathering data about community formation
and interactions.

4. To afford students the opportunity to experience directly, through a reflective look at their own lives and
the community they are part of, the patterns of growth and behavior employed by both individuals and
groups.

5. To examine the language, literature, key terms, basic research findings, and theoretical perspectives of
the psychology of the self, and the psychology and sociology of interpersonal relations.

6. To encourage students to think critically and creatively about the nature of the self, the nature
of communities, and the ways and reasons people interact.

Specific Objectives

1. To become familiar with the theoretical and practical constructs used in psychology to describe,
analyze, and understand the self in internal and external contexts. 

2. To utilize active learning techniques to facilitate the development of the self, especially through
self awareness, self-discovery, and self-reflection.

3. To understand the nature, uses, subjective impact, and developmental benefits of 
autobiographical writing.

4. To understand the interconnectedness the physical, cognitive, emotional, and spiritual 
dimensions of the developing self.

5. To gain an appreciation of the creative, expressive self in relation to nature and others.

6. To view lives, communities, and the environment as stories, each with its own beginning, muddles, and
resolutions, as well as meanings, settings, themes, and motifs.

7. To clarify and refine personal values and goals, and one's place in society, while acknowledging
a responsibility to self, others, and the environment.

8. To understand the process of community making and community building from a personal, collective, and
theoretical perspective.

9. To increase interpersonal effectiveness by communicating openly and honestly with others, and
to appreciate diversity within a group.

10. To experience and appreciate the value of service-based learning projects, and to begin to see work as
service to others.

11. To gain an appreciation and respect for nature, in particular the sea as a natural environment
dependent upon the ecosystem, and as a place of natural wonder, beauty and power.

12. To gain a working knowledge of the arts and sciences of traditional seafaring, including 
navigation.

13. To develop a greater appreciation of the natural environment, and to gain a deeper 
understanding of the fragile and interconnected nature of the ecosystem.

14. To recognize the interconnectedness of the self, the human family and the environment, and the
global cooperation necessary for preserving the ecological balance of the earth.