Post by elisa on Jul 14, 2012 13:32:51 GMT -5
Some of it is culturally useful, for instance teaching history out of more proper books-- id est a peoples history of the US, how to XYZ (grow food, make clothes, whatever)
Some of it is training, more useful for needs within the cells-- tech related stuff, reading maps, etc etc.
All of this sort of by default and nature feeds into recruitment because people naturally want to get more involved as they get involved.
I essentially mean "something like this, but with a more political twist and focused towards different subjects"
It is interesting you mention Quakers so often since your educational philosophy appears to be so community oriented &... Quaker.
The Quaker school I attended was highly experimental, not approved by the state, but we all turned out okay. I took classes like "Food for People Not for Profit", we joined protests at Duke University, learned which berries we could eat in the woods, field trip to the Edgar Cayce Institute, field trip to the Appalachians, did yoga, built a solar shower... BTW, this was a very long time ago.
My point is that the "how to", academic, critical thinking, & training can be combined into one course. For example, in many ways world language teaching is simply training. I used to use the language teaching to teach content. So teach multiplication using unifix cubes in Spanish. This way they are using the knowledge instead of trying to memorize it.
My teachers probably did a better job. This is an explanation from a Chicago Friends School -not the one I attended.
PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
In project-based learning, teachers guide children through an in-depth study of real world topics. Successful project-based learning results in children who are highly motivated, feel actively involved in their own learning, and produce work of a high quality.
chicagofriendsschool.org/about-our-program/curriculum/
It is easier in adult education. Adults can come up with the content. The teacher can write out the course content & objectives, break it down, & assign it to students in groups to research & present.
You mentioned history from better books. You could teach history using original sources instead. The teacher would decide the product, so if it involved creating a blog or interpreting statistics or creating a sod house, the student would have to use targeted training to achieve the objective.
You mentioned teaching people to hack. My brother taught me to hack this game called "Hack" many years ago. According to him, that was the object of the game. Okay, maybe it wasn't, but it wouldn't have been nearly as fun. You just list the programming & adjust the code. It was a good way to learn how the game was put together. Almost like a reverse engineering.
In college, I was lucky as I was able to take many of my courses as tutorials or seminars. I remember taking a seminar that combined quantum mechanics and evolution. Another one combined several different social sciences to study advertising. My comprehensive exams were on language & culture, applied linguistics, & linguistic literary criticism. Much of my work was done in tutorials with a Hungarian linguist, a psychologist, & an English professor & writer. My senior project was a post-modernist linguistic literary criticism of Poe's the Fall of the House of Usher which made use of Derrida deconstructionist techniques, and some Jungian psychology.
I take none of the credit for the work I was able to do. I was a horrible & unappreciative student & did nothing to deserve the attention & support I received from the faculty. At a mainstream university, I would never have graduated. Imagine what a good student could have done.
Last thing, I promise...
I often wonder how many people affiliated w/OWS have read about Michel Bauwens & P2P culture. Occupy looks so much better when it is focused on innovation than it does when it focuses on violence.
Here's a P2P education related link. p2pfoundation.net/Category:Education