Calling the division of American communities a detriment to the development of today's youth, former vice president Al Gore addressed a group of more than 150 students in Cabot auditorium on Friday as part of a nationwide symposium on family-centered community building. During the two-hour event, which also featured a student panel, the former presidential candidate put students on the spot with tough questions as he tested a curriculum he hopes to implement in colleges around the nation.
After acknowledging that America's institution of higher education is among the world's best, Gore criticized the system for being too compartmentalized. "A whole can be larger than the sum of its parts," he said, adding that many of today's problems require multi-disciplinary solutions that cannot be taught in subject-specific classrooms. Calling America "segregated and subdivided," Gore went on to apply the same reasoning to communities. A united community, he said, can accomplish far more than the sum if its individual parts.
Following brief remarks from University President Larry Bacow and child development professor Richard Lerner, who spearheaded the event, Gore delivered an introduction riddled with self-deprecating humor that elicited frequent laughter from the audience. "I used to be the next president," he told students. "You win some, you lose some, and then there's that little-known third category." On the subject of the economy, Gore joked that as "the first one laid off last January," he was particularly affected by the downturn.
Throughout the event, Gore interacted with a panel of five youths from community-building public service organizations around the country. The audience was particularly impressed with panelist Antoine Bennett, a former Baltimore-area gang member who credits Youthville, USA - a national youth organization that strives to "improve the quality of life for vulnerable children" - with saving his life. Out of 15 original gang members, all but Bennett are either "dead or incarcerated," he said.
Also among the panelists was Tufts senior Jennifer Albertini, who took a leave of absence last January and crossed the Atlantic to fight the AIDS epidemic in South Africa.
"Gore did an excellent job moderating the debate," she said. "He is starting a whole new field of study that people can use to go out and invent their own solutions in communities."
From cookie-cutter housing developments to suburban strip malls, Gore said that American communities are becoming more and more divided. The American work ethic, Gore said, and the fact that many American parents hold more than one job, have brought about a deterioration in family interaction. He also encouraged family discussion instead of television during dinner, and pointed to statistics that correlate drug use to the number of meals eaten in front of the tube.
"The family unit needs to be preserved where it is not dangerous and where it can be preserved," he said. According to Gore, the tendency to put children in day care centers rather than having them cared for by grandparents - who are now often in their own care facilities - also has a negative impact. "I remember my grandfather teaching me to spell," he said.
Following the panel discussion, Gore took questions from the audience. After several students questioned the policy traction of his ideas, Gore addressed the "cynics" in the audience directly. That even the cynics were "actively involved" by attending the symposium, Gore said, proved that America's youth are more publicly aware than ever before in the nation's history.
The five panelists spent most of the day with Gore, and discussed their experiences with him over lunch and dinner. "It was really interesting," Albertini said of her face-time with the former vice president. "He seemed really interested in our different projects and how they related to his own work."
Tufts was the first school Gore visited aside from his professorships at Fisk University and Middle Tennessee State, where he is working to develop graduate and undergraduate curriculums in the subject of family-centered community building. By emphasizing a multi-disciplinary approach to problems such as crime, homelessness, poverty, and AIDS, Gore hopes to empower students to tackle these issues in the real world. Strong family and community ties, he said, are the best and last defense.
Other panelists included representatives from Peace Games, a Boston-based violence prevention program for children; Helping Hands, a community service organization for elementary school children; and an Omidyar Scholar from the University College of Citizenship and Public Service (UCCPS).
