Your ideas that are coming to reality of education and action are great! I wish you guys the best. I just wish a similar Free Skool could be started in other sites throughout the city and neighboring communities. Is the rest of L.A. and O.C. listening?
From: Sean Jennings <swjennings@gmail.com>
To: Lapg@arashi.com
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 5:37:03 PM
Subject: [Lapg] Announcing the Westside FreeSkool
The Westside Permies are proud to announce the formation of a new group called the Westside FreeSkool. The Westside Free Skool is an opportunity for people of ALL AGES to come together to share knowledge in a non-commercial setting to strengthen community. We believe education is a way to achieve equality and freedom. Everybody has something to teach and something to learn. By stepping out of our traditional teacher/pupil roles, we can strengthen self-reliance and the DIY (do-it-yourself) ethic. Only by sharing our skills and talents can we break away from the commodification and
hierarchy of society.
Anyone can teach a class in anything they want. WE NEED YOU!!!
The instructor finds a space in house, park, or community center, or gets help finding a space from people who help with organizing the free skool.
Please post classes you would like to teach or find out what class you would like to take at http://westsidepermies.ning.com.
History of FreeSkool
Wikipedia has an interesting opinion
An anarchist free school, sometimes spelled free skool, can be a decentralized network in which skills, information, and knowledge are shared without hierarchy or the institutional environment of formal schooling. The open structure of this type of free school is intended to encourage self-reliance, critical consciousness, and personal development. These free schools have their roots in the anarchist Escuela Moderna of Spain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
They are, at heart, non-institutional, non-authoritarian, and counter-cultural. Generally, these are formed at a grassroots level by a group of individuals acting collectively and autonomously to create educational opportunities and promote skill-sharing within their communities. These free schools often operate outside the market economy in favor of a gift economy. Nevertheless, the meaning of the "free" of free schools is not restricted to monetary cost, and can refer to an emphasis on free speech and student-centered education.
For more ideas on classes, check out the East Bay Freeskool, our inspiration.
http://eastbayfreeskool.wikia.com/wiki/East_Bay_Free_Skool_Wiki
Happy Skooling.