Hmmm.. anarchist principles applied to education are the basis for the Victoria Free School.
I've had a little too much experience with cooperative organizations to believe that this will work, and yet I hope that it will. If I did get involved, I'd like to "facilitate" (even though I hate that term); I am sure there are many topics I could share my knowledge about -- from web design to preparing inexpensive, healthy dinners to basic plumbing. I will give it more thought, but realistically, of course, I don't have the time and since the concept is free education, there is no remuneration to sway me. OK, so really I just like the idea. Sorry I made you read all this rambling.
[Oh, BTW, I came across the site because they are sponsoring a lecture by Matt Hearn who has written several books including Deschooling Our Lives. The talk is on Friday the 26th, and I think the suggested donation is $5... I have no idea where it is; that is not evident from their website.]
17 November 2004
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Part of me wants to offer a course on "The Law," and part of me wants to attend their courses and continually derail things until the facilitator imposes autocratic rules. Anarchy is a misnomer.
I recently had to explain to a co-op (the one I've involved in atm) that I am not a facilitator myself, but that I am a corrector or explainer. So, basically, I'm the official anal-retentive. And good God, am I happy about it.
The idea of derailing things on purpose is the only reason hubby would participate. He flat-out told me that the next "touchy-feely-leftist-commie" concept group that I pitched to him would be blocked. As I say, we've been burned a few too many times.
*sigh* My eyes have a tendency to glaze over when I see the word "anarchy". I think it's often confused with "everyone can stop asking me to do things which I find inconvenient, and start doing what I want. Without me having to tell them."
Hierarchies aren't always bad. I work for a community-based organisation run by a committee - a committee in which "everyone is equal" and no one will take the lead. I've been watching it go around and around and around in circles for about six months now, and go precisely nowhere.
At the moment I'm heavily involved in two seperate projects involving "anti-oppressive practice". I admit that I'm having a tough time winnowing the wheat from the chaff -- part of it seems like an important concept that involves identifying your own biases and perspectives, and part of it seems like an excursion into the world of gibberish, where all sorts of half-baked premises find legitimacy simply because they emerge from outside the "dominant discourse."
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