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Chapter 1 Practical Guidelines for Dream Education There are a number of issues to address in teaching about dreams, whether the instruction is in formal academic settings or in less-structured community environments. In this chapter, we explore the “nuts and bolts” and surrounding questions and concerns of dream education in the college classroom, and beyond. Our comments in this chapter apply in a broad, cross-disciplinary way. Subsequent chapters address specific academic fields, target audiences, and educational settings. Dream education encompasses much more than dream interpretation. The study of dreaming leads us beyond finding meaning in the dreams of individuals to theories of mind, models of culture, and accounts of imagination and creativity. Although we focus primarily on college-level courses, the same basic principles also apply to dream education in professional training (e.g., psychotherapy , counseling, or pastoral training programs), in freestanding dream institutes, and in nonacademic community settings. First we look at the environments in which dreams education takes place. These provide both opportunities and constraints. Any course on dreams is located in nested contexts, from its outer cultural and institutional environments inward to the course structure, content, and students at the center. The largest context is the dominant cultural attitude toward dreams, which in the West is a mixture of indifference, dismissal, and fear counterbalanced by a persistent interest, sense of value, and fascination. Our culture is ambivalent about dreams, to say the least. Important contexts are the educational culture and the wherewithal of the institution housing the course. In colleges and universities we find a wide range of resources, programs of study, academic standards, and student abilities. Expectations for student performance differ greatly. Students will be variously well or ill prepared, motivated, and focused. For these reasons, we need to consider the surrounding academic culture in 13 14 Dreaming in the Classroom proposing and teaching courses on dreams. Although you can always do more with better-prepared students and more lavish resources, it is possible to teach rich and meaningful courses on dreams almost anywhere. Instructor commitment , skill, and enthusiasm can make the difference. Also to be considered in putting together a course on dreams is the type of college or university. In the United States this would include 2-year (community ) colleges offering the associate of arts or sciences degree; 4-year colleges offering a bachelor’s degree; colleges or universities offering bachelor’s, master’s, and perhaps professional degrees; and full-fledged research universities offering doctoral degrees. If you are proposing a course on dreams from outside the institution, you will have a greater chance of its acceptance at colleges having a high percentage of adjunct instructors. These tend to be community colleges and 4-year colleges with fewer resources. It is easier to get a new course accepted if you are a member of the regular faculty. Faculties guard their curricula , and take their responsibilities seriously. If you are not on the inside, finding a faculty or administrative ally who will champion your course will be helpful and may be necessary. One option is to volunteer as a guest speaker on dreams in an existing course, hoping thereby to generate interest in having an entire course on dreams. There are also noncredit continuing education and adult-enrichment programs offered in otherwise degree-granting institutions. These often look for innovative courses appealing to segments of the public, such as retirees. They may have a lesser bureaucratic gauntlet to run, employ instructors from the outside , and may be more receptive to proposals for courses on dreams. Noncredit courses also are spared required assignments and products, exams, and grades. Requirements will be even less stringent in nonacademic community institutions, especially when one offers the course on a noncompensated or minimally compensated basis. Although this does not relieve the instructor from the obligation to be well prepared and to follow ethical guidelines, it is easier to get permission to offer dream education in nonacademic settings. One of our colleagues in dream education, Athena Lou, started by teaching about dreams in a community center and on the radio, moved on to assist Phil King by leading dream discussion groups in an undergraduate course, and has since done her own workshops in IASD dream conferences and taught about dreams to clients in her management training company. Educational expectations, including resource considerations, also are at play in dream teaching set in secondary or primary schools, and in institutions such as churches, community centers, prisons, and libraries. The questions to...

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