Jacobs, Donald Trent 1946-

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JACOBS, Donald Trent 1946-

(Donald Four Arrows-Jacobs)

PERSONAL:

Born June 13, 1946, in St. Louis, MO; married Beatrice A. Jacobs (an artist), August 17, 1985; children: Jessica. Education: Southwest Missouri University, B.S., 1967; Columbia Pacific University, M.A., 1979, Ph.D., 1980; Boise State University, Ed.D., 1998. Hobbies and other interests: Navigating the northern Pacific Ocean in a sloop, whitewater kayaking, training and racing wild horses, playing ragtime piano.

ADDRESSES:

Home—P.O. Box 2187, Flagstaff, AZ 86001. Office—Department of Teaching and Learning, Northern Arizona State University, P.O. Box 5774, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5774; fax: 928-523-1929.

CAREER:

Marin County Fire Department, Mill Valley, CA, firefighter and EMT, 1975-85; University of California at Berkeley, adjunct professor, 1980-83; Columbia Pacific University, San Rafael, CA, adjunct professor, 1982-85; Hope Counseling Services, Petaluma, CA, counselor, 1988-93; Idaho Youth Ranch Residential School, Rupert, ID, director, 1993-95; Living Skills International, Boise, ID, associate, 1995-97; Boise State University, Boise, ID, secondary education and foundations instructor, 1995-97; Oglala Lakota College, Kyle, SD, dean of education, 1998-2001; Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, associate professor, 2001—; Fielding Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA, mentoring faculty, 2002—. Worked as an adviser for the California Governor's Council on Wellness, director for motivational seminars, trainer of wild horses, counselor for at-risk teens, secondary school teacher, and lecturer throughout the United States and Australia. Has appeared in documentaries, including The Sacred Hunt, 1997, and Half Lives, 1994; and produced videos, including Hypnosis for Medical Emergencies, 1992, and The Shaman's Message, 1999. Military service: U.S. Marine Corps, served during Vietnam War; pilot.

MEMBER:

American Association for Higher Education, National Council for the Social Studies, North American Association for Environmental Education, Social Science Research Council, Association for Experimental Education, American Indian Higher Education Consortium, Institute of General Semantics, California Society of Clinical Hypnosis (vice president, 1988-89); American Indian/Alaskan Native Special Interest Group, Arizona State Communications Association, Arizona Tri-Universities for Indian Education.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Received grants from Ray Foundation, 1995, Kellogg Foundation, 2000, and the U.S. Department of Education, 1999 and twice in 2000; Moral Courage Award, Martin-Springer Institute, 2004.

WRITINGS:

Physical Fitness and the Fire Service, National Fire Protection Association (Boston, MA), 1976.

Ride and Tie: The Challenge of Running and Riding, World Publications (Mountain View, CA), 1978.

Physical Fitness and Public Safety, National Fire Protection Association (Boston, MA), 1980.

Happy Exercise: An Adventure into the World of Fitness for Children, illustrated by Sandy Speidel, Anderson World (Mountain View, CA), 1981.

Getting Your Executives Fit, Anderson World (Mountain View, CA), 1981.

Patient Communication for First Responders and EMS Personnel: The First Hour of Trauma, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1991.

The Bum's Rush: The Selling of Environmental Backlash; Phrases and Fallacies of Rush Limbaugh, Legendary Publishing (Boise, ID), 1994.

Primal Awareness, Inner Traditions International (Rochester, VT), 1998.

(With daughter, Jessica Jacobs-Spencer, and others) Teaching Virtues: Building Character across the Curriculum, Scarecrow Education (Lanham, MD), 2001.

American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone, Vox Pop (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to journals, magazines, and Web sites, including Paths of Learning, Issues in Indigenous Bilingual Education, American Indian Culture, ERIC Digest, Great Expeditions, Backpacker, Western Horse, and Native Culture. Also writes under the name Four Arrows.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

The Language of Conquest: First Nations Scholars Talk Back, under contract with University of Texas Press, scheculed for publication in 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Donald Trent Jacobs, also known as Four Arrows, has an eclectic background that he has translated into books on subjects as varied as horseback riding and tying, physical fitness for firefighters and executives, building character in education, patient communication in EMS services, and self-discovery. His book analyzing the linguistic and rhetorical tactics of conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh attracted considerable critical attention. Jacobs, a licensed hypnotherapist and popular lecturer, has avocational interests just as diverse as his literary interests, ranging from whitewater kayaking to playing ragtime piano.

Jacobs wrote Physical Fitness and the Fire Service after learning of the high rate of heart attacks among his fellow firefighters. His next book was about his experiences riding and tying wild horses. He produced four other books on fitness and based his education text, Teaching Virtues: Building Character across the Curriculum, on a holistic, American Indian ethical world view. Primal Awareness is an account of Jacobs's own whitewater journey of self-discovery through the treacherous Copper Canyon in Mexico, a journey that mirrored an ancient Indian initiation rite. Lori Colomeda in Tribal College wrote that this work could be considered either "dynamic and filled with adventure" or "a fantastic tale of unbelievable magnitude."

A specialist in psycholinguistics as well as environmentalism, Jacobs examines what he perceives to be conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh's manipulative and dishonest use of language in The Bum's Rush: The Selling of Environmental Backlash; Phrases and Fallacies of Rush Limbaugh. He discusses Limbaugh's favorite rhetorical strategies, among them name-calling, double binds, circular reasoning, and generalization. According to an overview of the book published on Webpak.net, "The book is not so much about Limbaugh and his pontificating, as it is about the use of persuasive language." Furthermore, it is less an attack on Limbaugh than it is a challenge to the reader to "think independently."

The book is full of concrete examples of the ways Limbaugh uses logical fallacies, persuasive techniques, and outright untruths to mislead his audience on environmental issues. For example, Limbaugh claims that no genocide of Native Americans ever occurred in the United States because the country today has more Indians than it did in 1492; yet census records show a drop in the Native American population from 1.1 million in 1492 to 25,734 in 1870. Limbaugh also asserts that there is no ozone depletion of the atmosphere, using a quotation from a NASA scientist to support his argument. Jacobs contacted the same scientist, who told him that indeed "there are reasons for extreme human concerns" regarding ozone depletion. Limbaugh, Jacobs says, also uses loaded questions such as "Hasn't unfettered capitalism furnished us with the cleanest environment on earth?"—a question that assumes a positive answer.

Maria Falbo, a reviewer for the Humanist, criticized Jacobs for his own occasional "inaccurate generalization[s]" and "sloppy proofreading" but had a favorable impression of the book overall. Dan Millman, quoted on the Webpak.net Web site, called The Bum's Rush "a breath of fresh air that brings clarity out of confusion."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Jacobs, Donald Trent, The Bum's Rush: The Selling of Environmental Backlash; Phrases and Fallacies of Rush Limbaugh, Legendary Publishing (Boise, ID), 1994.