Hi Marc, I think "education" is what you find on a list like this. It's messy, completely unplanned and often happens in unexpected ways. We're here because we're learning from each other.
In the process, each person's contribution is crucial, hence the need to be "tolerant" - especially of the over-articulate who tend to dominate. (They can't help it, which is why we like them!). Your experience and perception of education no doubt accounts for your commitment to netbehaviour. I hope you find the following wisdom and humour heartening. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html Bob ________________________________ From: marc garrett <marc.garr...@furtherfield..org> wrote Sun, 10 January, 2010 15:44:25 As someone who mainly comes from a self-education position, or rather from a place where I come from a very poor and violent working class family - which spent most of the time either being put in social care, whether this be in borstals and prison, plus family members vanishing because of the failures of 70's social (un)care systems. Just think of 'Cathy Come Home' by Ken Loach - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Come_Home and may get some idea of my own personal history. Moving on from that I wish to mention that, for me education is one of the most important aspects of human development and a human right. Because I was not fortunate when younger to be able to experience a decent education, I had to discover various sneaky ways in finding information that the terrible school I was at, was not teaching me. My passion to discover what was going in the world beyond the chaos of my everyday circumstance was strong - even obsessed, whether it was in science, politics, technology, history, philosophy or art, I would bunk school regularly and spend an awful lot of my time in the Essex Library, which thankfully was in Southend-on-Sea, a town 50 miles from London. Some examples of what I read from the age of 12 and 13 and (of course) onwards, were books such as the The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich, The Divided Self by R. D. Laing, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence. Carl Jung, Fear of Flying by Erica Jong, Herbert Read - especially Education Through Art and The Paradox of Anarchism, loads of art books. I am not saying that I understood these publications, but I am saying that it encouraged me to learn more and I have not stopped since. So, when I think of education I do not immediately think of official education as in universities or colleges. For I am a strong advocate of self-education, which also involves one being self critical as well. There is larger and broader context where individuals have the choice to explore life, art and all the other equally important subjects outside institution environments as well. One of my personal worries in respect of UK culture, which may be also the same regarding USA, although influenced through different historical, political situations is that, my own class - as in, working class has turned into a mass of gibbering X Factor driven bimbos. Of course, this is not a universal issue, but the consumer orientated mediation of our cultures via neo liberal agendas have not helped. I personally do not think that individuals themselves should deny any official forms of education. For there are some good educators here and there who are decent and authentic in appreciating how to learn themselves, and are active in the process of engaging with students in ways that attempt in spirit, to transcend beyond the bland and over-efficient trappings of slack management structures that manner are dealing with. Not just this, economics is factor in the real world and gaining degrees and learning via institutional means gets you a job.. From that, if you are artist you get some proper money to fund your own projects on your own terms etc... The irony of learning outside of my school environment at that age was that, at 14 I was asked to go to college at weekends by the Essex council. Which was strange because all the other students were on average 17-20 years of age. I was told to go back to school or they would put me in a Borstal, so I did in the end. From this experience ideas around education have also been informed by writers such as 'Deschooling Society' by Ivan Illich, and other works such "Pedagogy of the Oppressed' by Paulo Friere. Yet, in contrast to all of this art (whatever medium) as a from of creative expression has always been my main agenda and always will be :-) wishing you well. marc
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