Free Skool's topics - tribe.net

FreeSkool In The UK

2008-01-24T13:41:30Z

Anyone interested in setting up a UK FreeSkool?

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Intro and questions

2007-10-23T08:20:27Z

Hello ! I just joined the free skool tribe. I am associated with a community-based nonprofit that offers basic English, GED, computer skills training, etc, to low and moderate income clients with little or no fees. OK, so what makes our organization NOT a free skool or what makes me a free skool ?

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Free Skools Around the Country and beyond

2007-08-06T03:13:02Z

Here are the ones I know about. What are we missing?

Anarchist U in Toronto, Canada
http://anarchistu.org/

Free Skool Santa Cruz, California, USA
http://santacruz.freeskool.org

Portland Freeskool, Oregon, USA
http://portland.freeskool.org

Ashland FreeSkool, Oregon, USA
http://rogueimc.org/en/2004/01/2103.shtml

Olympia Community Free School, Washington, USA
http://www.freeskoolco-op.org

Prescott Freeskool, Arizona, USA
http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2005/02/25078.php

Missoula Free School, Montana, USA
http://www.missoulafreeschool.org

Brooklyn Free School, New York, USA
http://brooklynfreeschool.org

WoGAN FreeSkool, Worcester, Massechusetts
http://wogan.org/freeskool05.php

Barrington Collective Freeskool, Berkeley, California, USA
http://barringtoncollective.org/wiki/index.php/FreeSkool

Sudbury school, Framingham, Massachusetts, USA
http://www.sudval.org

http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/pages/index.html
Summerhill School, UK

Modern School of Stelton, New Jersey
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/modern_school/modern.shtml

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Santa Cruz Summer 2007 Calendar is Available!

2007-07-17T20:49:17Z

The Free Skool Summer 2007 calendar is out! We'll post it on the website soon, but you can still download a PDF of the calendar as well.

Summer 2007 Calendar (PDF)
http://santacruz.freeskool.org/news.php

It is a slimmer calendar with fewer classes, but more closely reflects the desire of Free Skool to be a force of inspiration, community-building, and resistance.

We've printed a lot of calendars and have already distributed them. Look for it in cafes, community centers, bulletin boards around town. Reliable locations where you can pick up a paper calendar are posted on the website.

If you would like to distribute calendars, you can pick up calendars from the Big Yellow House (742 N Branciforte Ave). There is a box labeled Free Skool on the front porch. (We'll also be having a disto day soon at the Farmer's Market.) As usual, we'd especially like to hit the south county, far east and west sides, the beach flats, UCSC, and all the points in between.

About Free Skool Santa Cruz

Free Skool Santa Cruz is a completely grassroots effort, a bunch of individuals deciding to act collectively and autonomously to create a skill-sharing network, a school without institutional control. Classes are informal, egalitarian, and are held in homes, social spaces, and parks. It is your opportunity to learn from others and share what you know, to help create self-reliance, vital communities, and beauty in the world. If you are willing to learn, teach, or help organize Free Skool, then we’d like you to be part of it. We are all students and we are all teachers here.

freeskoolsc@riseup.net
( 831.335.3109
http://santacruz.freeskool.org

Get updates and stuff by signing up to the Free Skool email list. Send an email to freeskool-sc-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
To get off the list, send email to freeskool-sc-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net

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colourschool collaborations

2007-03-14T04:00:43Z

(sorry if this message got repeated. i'm new to the site and haven't gotten fully operational yet.)
...

come one, come all to colourschool

colourschool is a collaborative art project that exists as a free school within a school dedicated to the speculative exploration and celebration of five colours: red, yellow, black, white, and brown.

since you are all interested in free schools, please consider yourselves warmly invited to browse, post, and contribute to the colourschool website at:

www.colourschool.org

if you would like to do or create a new colourschool assignment (similar to learning to love you more.com), go to:

colourschool.org/wiki.cgiw

looking forward to discussing colour and free education with you ...

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Free Skool Santa Cruz Marks Two Years

2007-02-02T17:51:54Z

Free Skool Marks Two Years of Learning Outside the System

Grassroots project has grown to include hundreds of classes and continues to blur the line between teachers and students

Santa Cruz, CA, February 1st, 2007: Two years ago this spring, Free Skool Santa Cruz started as an idea between friends. It was a resuscitation of an old idea: interactive and informal learning in a non-intuitional, non-hierarchical setting outside of the monetary economy. In other words, friends sharing what they know with others in an informal skill-sharing network. And in two years, Free Skool has offered over 260 different classes on everything from DIY-philosophy such as bike repair and knitting to more academic subjects such as local and radical history.

In fact, looking at the quarterly-produced Free Skool calendar -- with classes offered almost every single day -- it is nearly impossible to easily summarize the breadth of the subjects offered. "History of the Future" falls next to "Don't Die! Wild Foods." " Polynesian Star Navigation" cozies up to "Surveillance Camera Walking Tour" on the Free Skool calendar. More mainstay classes -- language, yoga, cooking, and art. -- also round out the schedule.

As much as possible, Free Skool works to blur the line between teachers, students, and organizers. Teachers make most of the arrangements for their classes including subject, material, timing, and location. Classes are informal, egalitarian, and are held in homes, social spaces, and parks. "We are all students and we are all teachers here," says the Free Skool website. And once a quarter, students, teachers, organizers, and community members all pitch in to put on the Free Skool Community Picnic.

Organizers view Free Skool as an intrinsically radical project. It is not only a framework in which students and teachers can share what they know, but a direct challenge to institutional control and the commodification of learning. It is a completely grassroots effort, with no outside funding or support, a bunch of individuals working collectively and autonomously to make it happen.

New Free Skool teachers are always welcome. The deadline to submit new classes for the upcoming Spring Quarter is February 10th.

Spring Quarter runs March 1st to May 31st. Calendars for the new quarter will be available mid-February on-line and at most cafes, bookstores, and community centers in Santa Cruz and beyond. The Free Skool Santa Cruz website, which offers the current calendar, class reviews, and discussion, is at http://santacruz.freeskool.org

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Free Skool Weekend in January

2007-01-21T03:04:56Z

Dear Friends,

Are you going to be able to make it to the Free Skool weekend in Santa Cruz in January? It'll be the weekend of January 20th and 21st. You might already know we're doing our quarterly Community Potluck and Running a Free Skool workshop. It's not only a good opportunity to talk about free skools, but a great excuse for us to make connections with radical folks far and wide. We've been wanting to do a lot more outreach and connection building as we hit our two year mark.

Some of this info you might already have if you have the current free skool calendar, but here it is again:

Saturday January 20th kicks off a special Free Skool weekend with our Free Skool Community Picnic noon at Ocean View Park. This is our quarterly potluck where students, teachers, organizers, and community member get together to enjoy food, music, and companionship with new and old friends. We have fun, we meet people, we eat, we talk, we have workshops, we play soccer.

The next day, Sunday January 21st, we are hosting our Running a Free Skool workshop at noon at the Big Yellow House. It is our opportunity to hear from other free skools, from students, from teachers, and to discuss what we've done right, wrong, or otherwise. We host folks from Free Skools elsewhere to come for the weekend. Last spring, folks came down from Portland, Berkeley, and Olympia. Hope you can make it!

Again, we can make a weekend of it, with a campfire on Friday night. We'll be happy to put you up at the Redwood House in Felton. Bring basic sleeping stuff. Feel free to email for directions, pickup, etc.

Actually, at the end of this quarter will be our two year anniversary and we'd like to make it a big deal, so we hope we'll see you there to help celebrate with us.

Love,
Free Skool Santa Cruz

P.S. Check out this quarter's calendar if you haven't already. 68 classes?! Taught by an amazing variety of folks. You can see the calendar on the website.

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Current Free Skool Update

2006-04-19T21:51:15Z

An incomplete list of non-authoritarian educational projects
by Santa Cruz Free Skool

Here is a scattering of Free Skooling efforts in the United States and Canada.

Here is a scattering of Free Skooling efforts in the United States. Did we forget one you know about? Send us a link or contact info to info@santacruz.freeskool.org

ARIZONA

Prescott Freeskool
The Prescott Freeskool Feburary calendar. All classes are totally free and open to all ages. Includes diverse schedule of classes such as knitting, capoeira, computer basics, hip hop as radical expression, Israeli-Palestinian history, biodiesel, Spanish, and yoga. More info from aballinger©prescott.edu

BRITISH COLUMBIA

FreeSchool Vancouver, Vancouver, Canada
The FreeSchool, an alternative education project in Vancouver, Canada, is a collective-run project whose purpose is to provide the community with a space for dialogue and learning outside of the mainstream education and economic systems. Volunteers from the community have come together to organize and facilitate a small selection of learning groups at no charge to their fellow community members. We all have knowledge and skills to share with one another, the FreeSchool is an opportunity to do so in a non-hierarchical, anti-oppressive and holistic education environment where not only the academic is addressed, but also the social, political, creative and personal.

Victoria Free School, Victoria, Canada
The Victoria Free School is a volunteer-run, autonomous collective offering free courses, workshops, and lectures that cover a wide rage of topics. Education is a political act. The Victoria Free School is a community dedicated to breaking down barriers to knowledge. By deepening our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, sharing skills, and exchanging experiences in an egalitarian, non-hierarchical setting free of prejudice, we challenge disempowering habits and broaden our awareness of alternatives to the inequalities of capitalist society. Through the application of these anarchist principles, we provide a vehicle for people to develop their own sense of empowerment, autonomy, and self-determination in every sphere of life. (Unfortunately, it is also currently defunct)

CALIFORNIA

Free Skool Santa Cruz
Free Skool Santa Cruz is a decentralized network that shares skills, information, and knowledge without the limitations of hierarchy and the sterile institutional environment of formal schooling. Free Skool promotes self-reliance, critical consciousness, and personal development, helping us make living connections between ourselves, our community, and the earth. We aim to give people skills not just to survive within the institutional framework imposed but to thrive without and beyond it.

Mendocino Coast Free Skool
Mendocino Coast Free Skool, a nonprofit project which promote rural sustainable living, personal empowerment and intentional community for people of all ages through a volunteer network of agencies, individuals and local businesses offering free training and resources. Free Skool was launched on the Mendocino Coast in June 2003, and to date we�ve had over 60 local children, as well as a few children visiting the area with their parents, in attendance at successful FREE classes.

Isla Vista Community Free Skool, Santa Barbara
Isla Vista Community Free Skool, Santa Barbara provides a chance for people to teach and take workshops in areas ranging from car maintenance, to women�s do-it-yourself erotica, to a discussion group for people going through divorce. The Free Skool promotes the idea that you don�t have to be professional to teach; anybody can teach and anybody can learn.

Barrington Collective Freeskool, Berkeley
If you or anyone you know has any skills or knowledge that you'd like to share with others in a relaxed, non-structured environment. Why do you need the Barrington Collective to have a class? You don't really! But we do have some resources that might help facilitate your class. And you'll be linking in with a growing community of Free Skool students and teachers.

Libertad Skool Collective, Santa Cruz
An autonomously run group of revolutionary dreamers refusing to sit through another day of oppressive, bureaucratic schooling. Through radical experimentation and intellectual exploration, we plan to ignite educational direct action: artistic projects, workshops, reading groups, discussions, film screenings, skill shares, zines, shows and wherever else the visionary muse takes us! Whether you're a frustrated teen looking for a sanctuary, a high school drop out trying to seize your life back, a college kid looking for an escape, or an adult ally wanting to help children learn again-together we will create the resources necessary, and support one another. Our liberation doesn't just happen on the streets, it must come from within.

COLORADO

Free Skool @ DU, Denver
Free Skool is a non conventional, alternative form of education in which students learn about various subjects outside of mainstream education and economic systems. These programs are open to anyone in the community.

MASSACHUSETTS

WoGAN FreeSkool, Worcester
A form of true education that provides a way for people to get together to share knowledge and skills! All FreeSkooling is done in a non-authoritarian, empowering way, not based on monetary or class position. FreeSkool is about encouraging positive social change by creating networks based on mutual aid and understanding. FreeSkool is open to everyone who wants to organize or attend a class in the FreeSkool way. Every teacher is a learner. Every learner is a teacher! Skill shares, discussions, and field trips that pull together themes of community autonomy, empowerment, and security.

MISSOURI

SouthSide University Free Skool Project, St. Louis' rel="external">http://SouthSide University Free Skool Project, St. Louis
No information currently available

MINNESOTA

Bat Annex Free Skool, Minneapolis
The Belfry Center is a new collectively run community space in Minneapolis that is a collaboration between the Bat Annex Free Skool, Daybreak Anarchist Newspaper, and local radical artists. The Belfry's Bat Annex Free School is a unique endeavor, currently offering classes in quilting, French and Spanish to students of all ages

WISCONSIN

Cream City Collectives Free School, Milwaukee
Many people in riverwest are currently organizing to open a combined Free School, Info-shop/Lending library, and Artspace for the community. We would like to open sometime this Spring, and intend to provide a wide range of resources for both creative endeavors and organizing.

MONTANA

Missoula Free School
We exist to create a dynamic space for the western Montana community to teach and learn from each other free of cost. The Missoula Free School began in November of 2004 as a project in free popular education. We believe that everyone should be given the opportunity to teach and learn free of cost. We believe that standardized education in the United States tends to discourage creativity and critical thought, and often fails to provide important skills and information that can be easily applied to everyday life. It is the members of the community who should be able to decide what is important to teach and learn. This community resource for education will provide one piece of the foundation needed to create the world we wish to see.

NEW YORK

Brooklyn Free School
A grassroots movement formed in the summer and early fall of 2003 with the goal of offering a true educational alternative to the traditional orthodoxy of education now dominant in most public and private schools in this city, the Brooklyn Free School is composed entirely of parents, educators and others who believe that freedom and democracy are not just textbook concepts, but a way of living and learning�for our children as well as ourselves. The Brooklyn Free School is dedicated to the belief that all students must be free to develop naturally as human beings in a non-coercive educational environment and empowered to make decisions affecting their everyday lives and that of their community.

ONTARIO

Anarchist U, Toronto
The Anarchist U is a volunteer-run collective which organizes a variety of courses on arts and sciences. Most courses run for ten weeks, and meet once a week; there are no admission fees. The Anarchist U follows the tradition of free schools in that it is open, non-hierarchic and questions the roles of teachers and students.

OREGON

Portland Freeskool
We believe that everyone has the ability to teach, and that learning is a continuous process throughout one's life. The ever-evolving, all-volunteer Freeskool creates an avenue for true education by providing a way for people to get together to share knowledge and skills in a non-authoritarian, empowering way, not based on monetary or class position. Freeskool is about encouraging positive social change by creating networks based on mutual aid and understanding. Freeskool is open to everyone who wants to organize or attend a class in the freeskool way.

Ashland FreeSkool
Free Skool, or Freeschool, is the concept of community sharing skills and learning together - the belief that we all know something that others want to learn, and that together we can learn and develop skills outside of the mainstream educational institutions.

WASHINGTON

Olympia Community Free School
The Free School works to facilitate this learning exchange as an instrument for individuals who want to learn in an open environment. We are a resource that provides free alternative educational opportunities to people of all ages and backgrounds. The FreeSchool also works for profound social change by serving as a model for education in the future.

Looking over my research, I am surprised that there are not more Free Skools in every nook and cranny of the country. No doubt I've missed tons of very worthy efforts. Drop me a line, or add a comment to this article if you know of a Free Skool or regular non-authoritarian educational project I've overlooked.

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New Member

2005-12-07T06:42:31Z

Hello everyone!

I am Kristalee, new here! I am so very interested in the skool project! I would love to take a Spanish class. Is it too late to start???

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Free Skool Santa Cruz Winter Quarter Begins

2005-11-07T15:10:56Z

Free Skool Santa Cruz Winter Quarter Begins

Free Skool’s biggest quarter yet: 38 different classes taught by more than three dozen teachers offering a decentralized educational network outside the system (and still $20 thousand less than UCSC)

Santa Cruz, CA, November 1st, 2005: Winter quarter is just starting. But you won’t need any student id, add/drop forms, or registration fees. There are no classrooms, professors, or administration, just people sharing what they know. This is Free Skool Santa Cruz. And the first thing you will learn is that we are all students and we are all teachers.

Free Skool summer quarter runs November 1st to January 31st and offers a variety of classes in homes, community centers, and open spaces all over Santa Cruz. In Free Skool Santa Cruz’ third quarter, classes include knitting, jazz history, Spanish, drawing, beer-making, singing, Indonesian monkey chant, oriental medicine, local history, bike and automobile repair, political history, and much more.

Free Skool is a completely grassroots effort, a collection of locals acting collectively and autonomously to create a skill-sharing network, a school without institutional control. It is an opportunity to learn from others and share what they know, to help create self-reliance, vital communities, and beauty in the world.

Free Skool teachers are ordinary folk drawn from all over the county. Artists, musicians, teachers, healers, tradespersons, activists, and community members are leading winter quarter classes.

Free Skool winter calendars are available on-line and at most cafes, bookstores, and community centers in Santa Cruz and beyond. At the Free Skool website you can browse the online calendar, read Free Skool news, teacher bios, class review, and articles. You can also take part in the discussion about Free Skool, post questions, suggestions, and class proposals. http://santacruz.freeskool.org

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Katrina relief free skool

2005-10-28T23:39:33Z

Hi. I am in Waveland, Mississippi, a community completely devestated by Hurricane Katrina. I am looking to organize something loosely based on the Free Skool concept. I'm not sure what my time commitment is in staying in the area. I've been here four weeks so far. And will likely leave around Xmas time. This limited time frame, limits what I can and cannot do here re:organizing a project like this. Therefore i am looking to keep it a little more lowkey, yet hopefully very successful, and of course, ideally something that would continue after I left. If anyone has any ideas for me on how to effectively organize the format in such a short time frame, i'd be very thankful for your input.

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What is Happening in Santa Cruz?

2005-10-17T19:20:27Z

We are just entering our third quarter. After this quarter's over, we will have been around one year. I wasn't sure we'd make it this far.

Right now, we are gathering teacher info for Winter Quarter. Lots of great classes are coming in. Some from previous teachers, others from new teachers. A very wide spectrum: yoga, carpentry, Spanish, collage, non-Western medicine, revolutionary history, art, monkey chant, and trash orchestra, to name just a few.

By the way, we run on a quarter system (trimester actually). A previous free skool incarnation in Santa Cruz did it monthly, but it seemed like they were overworked. This way, we only have to bug people and work hard three times a year.

Spring Quarter Mar-May
Summer Quarter Jul-Sep
Winter Quatrter Nov-Jan

Free Skool Winter Quarter schedules will be coming out next week. We'll be posting calendars around town and on-line on the Free Skool Santa Cruz website: http://santacruz.freeskool.org The calendar will be posted in cafés, community centers, and bulletin boards all over the county.

A few of the continuing challenges we have are:

* Keeping teachers involved beyond their classes
* Getting students involved beyond just attending classes
* Getting more students to attend classes
* Getting help doing publicity
* Getting teachers and students to use the website

About Free Skool Santa Cruz

Free Skool Santa Cruz is a completely grassroots effort, a bunch of individuals deciding to act collectively and autonomously to create a skill-sharing network, a school without institutional control. Classes are informal, egalitarian, and are held in homes, social spaces, and parks. It is your opportunity to learn from others and share what you know, to help create self-reliance, vital communities, and beauty in the world. If you are willing to learn, teach, or help organize Free Skool, then we’d like you to be part of it. We are all students and we are all teachers here.

posted in Free Skool - 1 reply