Full Zine Issue #1 - Up!

Very excited to bring you the full, final Free Skule Zine Issue #1, which explains our philosophy, and operations. Hope you enjoy 

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1IkI_kc7L_cN0M5YkZ6NDBtS0k

(to print: double-sided, portrait, facing left)

Zine Issue #1 2012: Mission

 We use education as a tool for self-liberation and collective resistance. 

Free Skule is a space for critical education that facilitates the holistic development of the self, and the transformation of our communities.

•               We are dedicated to an education based not in the organization from the top, but rather the participation of ALL!

•               Grounded in respect for everyone’s knowledge

•               For the development 
of knowledge 
of self and 
self-love

•               Centered on creating and engaging with community. In that, we aim to develop community tools for emancipation

•               A space for collective resistance

Resources Needed for ReOccupation

Hey Skulers,

Here are a list of things that free skule needs to run well on the 2nd. If you donate, or help acquire any of these materials please contact octologistics@gmail.com
Paper
Chart Paper
Construction Paper
Cue-cards or post-it-notes
Pens
Pencils
Markers
Pencil Crayons
Tape
Scissors
Hero Tents or Tarps and Rope
Money for flyers/schedules/zines **contact free skule directly at occupyfreeskule@gmail.com

We also ask that you all bring good spirit, and an open mind!
Peace and Love,
Occupy Free Skule

Zine Issue #1 2012: Vision

   To understand the nature of the Occupy Free Skule, we must also   

   understand the larger contexts within which we all exist, 

   work, and form resistance.

The pedagogy of the mainstream, institutional education

system revolves around respect for authority, the

creation of indifference, and the establishment

of hierarchy.

We are taught

social roles that we must

fill, and learn to specialize our

knowledge into as narrow a focus as possible.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                        This type of education

                                                                        dispossesses people of

                                                                        their knowledge and

                                                                        history, imposing a culture

                                                                        of domination.

                                                            Nowhere is this more apparent

                                                than the relations of colonialism and

                                    imperialist expansion. How did Canada’s

                        residential schools work to suppress First Nations?

            How does Canada’s current education system continue this

  process of active disappearance? How do we resist?

  We actively challenge th  s pedagogy, using education as a tool for

self-liberation and collective resistance!

  To live is to know - we intend to place life,

  community life, back at the

  center of education.

  We promote a diversity of methods

  and knowledges, using

  discussions and first hand

  experience as our learning guides.

Teachers and students work together to learn and teach...

That’s why we call ourselves a Democratic Space!

Zine Issue #1 2012: More On Organizing

Safe space:

We adopted the Occupy Toronto General Assembly Safe Space Agreement with one amendment: The freedom to be emotional over emotional issues

“Occupy Toronto’s Safe Space policy is based in our commitment to a safe, healthy, positive, and productive environment in which to organize. In order to make changes in the world at large we acknowledge that our working environment must be both actively seek to be in accordance with the world we want to create as well as commit to not further perpetuating the problems we have identified. Through this agreement, we aim to build our capacities to ally with each other and our communities in struggle.

As Occupy Toronto participants we are committed to creating spaces in which all participants have...

*  The responsibility to work toward an equal space free from verbal, physical, mental, and emotional violence

*  The freedom to work in an equal space free from verbal, physical, mental, and emotional violence

*  The recognition and acknowledgment of systemic inequality and injustice

*  The freedom to associate and work with others in a productive and mutually respectful way

*  The freedom to organize events and campaigns

*  The freedom from language and behaviours, which compromise safety and/or well being of the individual and/or group.”

As free skule...

If someone is creating an unsafe space: To be revised. Ideally, we will be able to look to the Anti-Oppression group for mediation and direction. For now, members feeling uncomfortable with an individual in the group should bring this issue to the core team, who will, as a group, talk to the problem individual, and implement a process of mediation.

Reintegration Process: To be revised. For now: must write a letter to the group explaining why you were expelled, and what you will do differently. Then, you must complete the membership requirement x2: you must attend 4 meetings and complete 8 hrs of work before you are welcomed to the decision making table again.

Zine Issue #1 2012: How Do We Organize?

Our definition of success is to be totally public

The Core Team: administrative / co-coordinating roles, including, but not limited to: student co-coordinator, space finder, course-coordinator, zine editor, web administrator, and supply director. In short, the core group keeps the wheels spinning, and co-ordinates volunteers. Each member of the core group is responsible to mentor a, of team of, successor(s) within a 6 month period. An individual must be a part of the student union to become a member of the core team. In this way, we stay fluid and collective.

Student Union: anyone can become a member. All they have to do is attend two meetings, and put in 4 hours of volunteer work. We have meetings once every other week. Safe space guidelines apply; must agree to overall principles of free skule. There will also be a volunteer orientation meeting every week, or on a needs basis.

Proposals: Anyone can make a new proposal, member or visitor. Major decisions must be proposed at least 1 week in advance. Other proposals can be made on the fly. Proposals that cannot easily be amended go to an ad hoc committee or the authoring group to be re-worked and represented at the next meeting

Decision-Making: We start with full consensus. If, after much discussion, there are over 50% stand-asides or 10% blocks, we move to 90%. For major decisions, everyone must be present; quorum fluctuates with importance of decision. Different types of decisions have different decision-making processes. Changes to core documents require full participation and a super majority, while regular decisions require quorum and a simple majority; and decisions that are made and executed by a working group only need to be communicated to the larger whole

Courses: anyone can teach. Each course becomes an affinity group  - responsible for its own development; it must be approved by the student union with regular updates at least once a month. 

Skule-wide discussion: On the 2nd of every month. The whole community comes together to discuss the free skule structure, what’s working, what’s missing, how we can better ourselves, etc. No decisions are made. 

Zine Issue #1 2012: Critical Thinking

“To every complex question there is a simple answer, and it is wrong”

                                                                         - H.L. Mencken

Thinking critically means using your experience and accumulated knowledge to see problems/issues/subjects/activities from as many different perspectives as possible, to try and gain the broadest and least biased understanding. This involves breaking it down in different ways, viewing it from different angles, seeing it in relation to other problems/issues/etc., doing broad research, and discussing it with others. It also involves being aware and critical of your own situation, privileges, and biases, such as where did you grow up, how, with whom, what personality type are you, etc. Critical thinking means questioning; it means the continual search for understanding, including as many voices as possible into your analysis. 

Even in statements like 2+2=4, we must critically think:

• How did I learn this? 
• How can this be applied?
• Is THis always the case?
• If two people eat two pieces of fruit, is the end result really four?
• Think of the whole world!

Zine Issue #1 2012: Student Responsibility

Or rather, learner-teacher responsibility

• We are all responsible for our education

• Involve yourself in all levels of the process

• We refer to teachers as teacher-learners because they are constantly in a process of learning. Similarly, students are learner-teachers because we are our own greatest teacher.

• As students, value your own knowledge and experience - you have as much to contribute as the teacher

• Think critically about things you learn, both in and out of the                                                             classroom. (see Critical Thinking)

• Question your teacher-learners, and fellow learner-teachers.

BUT! Understand that there is a difference between

Challenging:                        Disrupting:

*  Question Concepts         * Aggressive

*  Question Methods           * Insults

*  Question ‘Truth‘               *Constant Interruptions

Zine Issue #1 2012: You Are Not A Teacher But A Teacher Learner

I teach as I learn, and I learn as I teach

Despite your knowledge and experience, you, like all of us, are in a constant state of learning.

Teacher-learners enter the class with the understanding that they too are there to learn from, with, and through the students.

                                           

                                Teacher-learners are not

                                the only ones who determine

                                how or what we must

                                                 know

The role of the teacher-learner is not that of expert, or explainer

but of questioner, and facilitator on the journey of     understanding

Your voice is no more, and no less important than those of the

students.

Bring your own knowledge and experience to the class; but, more importantly, explore past and current experiences of/with students as a process of drawing out existent knowledge. Contextualize notions within real-world settings.

*See Paulo Friere For More

Zine Issue #1 2012: Teaching Styles To Draw On

Outdoor learning       

o Using the natural environment as a source of learning, and an environment in which to learn.

o For example: a class on nutrition explore the outdoors, learning about edible herbs, mushrooms, and fruit in the city

o Another example: dance class in the park

Community Service Learning  

o Students participate in community service with stated learning goals.

o For example: cook and serve a meal at a shelter. The community served becomes part of the class, including discussions. Throughout the process, explore the concepts and issues surrounding food security - how do our subjective locations affect this?       

        o Another example: a music class brings holds a music workshop for kids without adequate access to musical education

Cooperative Learning  

o Students work in groups collectively complete a task

o For example: A class in Critical Thinking holds a multi-sided debate, learning what it

means to explore all sides of an issue.

o Another example: a Bike Repair class is given all the parts to a bike and must collectively

put it together.

Arts-based Learning                            

o Using the arts to explore concepts and deepen learning

o For example: a class on Health Equity writes and performs a play on health care                                                 across borders

o Another example: a math class composes a song using/to better understand fractions

Get out of your seats and explore!

Visit: catalystcenter.ca  for amazing resources and activities! 

Zine Issue #1 2012: Teaching Styles

There is no

formula....

and we cannot

set guidelines.

So this is just a

rough image of

what courses

should be...

Teachers and Learners:

We ask that you take time

to create your curriculum together. Take the first class, or first minutes, to discuss what you want to learn, what the teacher can bring to the class, what sources are needed, and how learning should take place in this class

It is not up to the teacher-learner, nor the skule, nor the learner-teachers to exclusively construct the course. This is a collaborative effort; an exercise in:

            Community Learning     

              Flexibility

                                             Group Work

We ask that all classes incorporate a diversity of learning mediums, specifically the arts. Also, we ask teacher-learners to be prepared enough methods for a lesson to allow for student desires to shape the structure of the class.

There are limitless teaching styles, and each teacher-

learner, as well as each class, will trustingly be unique;

activities equally boundless and malleable.

Zine Issue #1 2012: Explicit vs. Implicit Learning in School

They think of me as empty. To be filled with what they know as truth.

They teach me history.

            But they lie - telling have truths. I learn about the signing of

            papers, but whole cultures, whole histories, are made

            invisible to me. I got an A in history, but know only the illusion.

Caged by imposed ignorance. One history. History. The cultures and generational pasts of my classmates made invisible...erased.

They celebrate our multiculturalism.

            Your home life as exoticized show and tell.

            Cultures not Canadian - what is Canadian culture but

the denial of others? - not suited for public life.

We must all put on the mask of normal. Invisibilize difference.

They sit me in rows, facing a teacher, and tell me to sit still. Listen.

            Knowledge is the property of experts. Valid knowledge          comes in the form of quotes, quote authority.

         There will always be authority, to: look to, aspire to, and

follow unquestionably. You are nothing but an empty shell- sit down. Listen. Accept. If you stir, you will be medicated.

They teach me essay structures.

            Mass produce, they whisper in my ear. Caste aside

creativity, and individuality. Express yourself in the lines.          Uniformity.

They test me, grade me.

            Memorize. Regurgitate. Forget. Memorize. Regurgitate.

Competition: You are only good if others are bad.

Only through hierarchy can success be achieved.

                        Graduate. Ready for the work force. 

Zine Issue #1 2012: The Humble Skeptic

The road to knowledge is paved with questions; the ultimate truth lying in the realization that you will never fully know.

And so we need humility - to realize our limitations, biases, and priviledges. What circumstances were you born int? What portion of the world can your sense perceive? what are the limits of your mind?

Humility is the best gift to give oneself - that, and love - it allows you to learn from past mistakes, to nurture your soul through growth, and understanding.

Humility also gives peace of mind; to sit comfortably in the unknown: 

                             it's ok not to have all the answers, or one answer...you probably never will.  

Pride, arrogance, stubbornness. Finding self-worth in dominance, in always knowing the ;Truth'.

With humility we break free: free to question everything, even our own thoughts, our own sense of knowing.

The road to knowledge is paved with questions; he ultimate truth lying in the realization that you will never fully know.

And so we search....

*see socrates for more

Letter From Us To You

Dear Reader,

We are students, teachers, workers, community members, friends, and family; we are the oppressed and the privileged.

We are the people, and we no longer consent to an education system that teaches us to compete with each other; an education system that commodifies knowledge, denying the existence of multiple truths, and multiple ways of knowing.

Education, in its current institutional form, separates us along lines of class, gender, race, sexuality, able-bodiedness, and the ‘gifted’ from the ‘slow’. It imposes a singular way of thinking that denies culture, and community. In short, it conforms us to the work force.

What do you remember from school? What languages were you allowed? Whose history did you study? What’s an IQ test? Who graduates university?

We no longer consent to this narrow concept of knowledge and of being. We are breaking free from the invisible shackles of neoliberal education.

We believe that the only way to break free, is to make visible the illusions: question truth, knowledge, power, and ourselves.

Won’t you join us on this journey of liberation?

                        Love - Occupy Free Skule