How it works

That’s exactly what happened one day in late May when several managers and a dozen employees from the lab and patient business services got together in a windowless, fluorescent-lit classroom at the Woodland Hills Medical Center. The drab surroundings were a contrast to the boisterous atmosphere that developed after the opening icebreaker, which involved participants stepping in and out of a circle in response to a series of rapid-fire questions, some lighthearted (“Do you have a pet?”) and some serious (“Have you experienced discrimination?”). The exercise was meant to show students what they have in common, as well as how their diverse experiences strengthen the group.

Janna Shadduck-Hernandez, a project director at the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, leads students through some of the business and economic literacy modules the center is helping to develop and test. Students play a “Jeopardy”-like game featuring questions about health care reform and learn to use terms such as “expenses” and “revenue” in order to give a five-minute presentation to the rest of the class.

临床实验室科学家、UFCW Local 770成员劳拉·洛西托(Laura Losito)说:“这都是关于你的Kaiser美元从哪里来，到哪里去。”Losito也是该医疗中心LMP领导团队的四位主席之一，他说:“这是一个大问题。”

Eleanor Arellano, a chemistry lab supervisor, says, “This will really help managers, because employees will know what we are talking about” when discussing department budgets.

随后，学生们查看了一张图表(是的，甚至在大众教育中也有图表)，图表显示了过去十年中家庭自付医疗费用的急剧上升。在这种设置下，图形不仅仅是页面上的彩色条。Shadduck-Hernandez要求他们梳理出国家趋势和他们日常经验之间的关系:这对你的工作有什么影响?

A conversation ensues about how higher premiums and co-pays can cause patients to become frustrated and respond by giving low service scores. Another question: how are your unit-based teams dealing with these issues? The students—who normally don’t work with each other—swap ideas about improving affordability and service.

“I’m realizing I should think more globally and spread my wings beyond my own little lab,” says Charisse Williams, a clinical lab scientist and member of UFCW Local 770.

一天以汇报结束。一些参与者持怀疑态度，质疑培训的目的是什么。其他人——比如埃克斯坦——将开始把他们的新知识应用到工作中，并对一种新颖的学习方式有了新的认识。

Holding out his arm and clicking on an imaginary clicker, Eckstein says, “It was better than, ‘Look at this PowerPoint and listen to what I have to say.’”

Other popular education offerings

LMP教育培训部在2012年3月的工会代表大会上首次推出了其他受欢迎的教育课程。Here’s a sampling:

• Health Care for the Rest of Us: A timeline of KP history, this is the first of five economic and business literacy modules being rolled out in the regions. The exercise involves displaying key events from each decade of Kaiser Permanente’s history and engaging participants in a discussion of their families’ histories during those time periods. The timeline connects KP’s social mission with participants’ experience. A second module on our political economy was recentlyused to launch in a National Learning Leaders Network.
• “为公平经济团结起来”:培训师主持了一个关于收入不平等的互动研讨会，其中包括一场抢椅子游戏，参与者在游戏中说明财富分配不均的问题。该组织还于9月在UBT资源交流中心举办了关于保健和经济以及如何将大众教育纳入UBT培训的讲习班。Visitwww.faireconomy.orgfor more information.
• 《You Got to Move》:这部电影讲述了在汉兰达研究与教育中心(Highlander Research and Education Center)学习的社会正义领袖，这是田纳西州一所传说中的民间学校。汉兰德的校友之一是比尔·桑德斯(Bill Saunders)， 1969年，他在南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿领导了一场关键的工会组织运动和医疗工作者罢工。在谈到高地中学的流行教育方法时，桑德斯说:“你必须对你所做的事情感到兴奋。这是伟大的工作。它将给后代带来如此大的改变。人们的情感。它能带来内心的喜悦和内心的平静。”For more information, visitYou Got to MoveandThe Highlander Center.

What’s next

Political economy will be the focus of a training session in Denver in mid-October for UFCW Local 7 and SEIU Local 105 stewards. They will pair it with the poverty simulation offered by the Missouri Association for Community Action. The five-module series will be the subject of a train-the-trainer for learning leaders programwide in October.