You can’t postpone the life of the mind

If you read our profile or follow our tweets, you know that we promote consensual education through social media and social entrepreneurship. Rightfully so, @warhawke recently ask me what we meant by consensual education.

I want to answer this question, since it is obviously an important one. I feel there’s too much to be said about it to write one sole and only post on the topic. A book might do, but that’s not on the agenda. Yet.

The beginning of my answer is encompassed is one of my favorite quotes of all times, by Whitehead:

With good discipline, it is always possible to pump into the minds of a class a certain quantity of inert knowledge. [The rationale behind this action is that] the mind is an instrument, you first sharpen it, and then use it […] I have no hesitation in denouncing [this analogy] as one of the most fatal, erroneous, and dangerous conceptions ever introduced into the theory of education. The mind is never passive: it is a perpetual activity, delicate, receptive, responsive to stimulus. You cannot postpone its life until you have sharpened it.” (Whitehead, 1929:17-18)

Radical educators wanted!

We haven’t talked too much about our education beliefs: I mentioned a couple of times that we firmly believe in the “doing” approach to learning. Breaking news: we also believe that learning can only happen under meaningful circumstances, and that it has to be consensual.

One of the most interesting and controversial movement in education is Free Schooling. Present in many countries, it is born out of the Spanish Anarchist movement of the late 19th century and promotes a non-hierarchical schooling structure, a curriculum defined by the students and the teachers together and a democratic decisional process. One of the most famous free school is Summerhill School, founded by A.S. Neill and still ran today by his daughter. Neil wrote a cult-book, A Radical Approach to Child Rearing, which illustrates his radical perception of education and of children’s sovereignty.

The high school program of the Albany Free School, the longest running inner-city democratic free school in United States, is currently looking for a full-time teacher, and so is the elementary program. They are offering a unique opportunity to learn more about this movement, its values, challenges and hopes. They even made a movie about the school, which allows us to penetrate the very seldom daily routine of this learning community, with its ups and downs.

They also have internship positions available.

Good luck!