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Dear Education Revolution
E-Newsletter Readers:
If you have trouble viewing
this newsletter, visit
www.educationrevolution.org/fre.html for the online
version.
Table of Contents:
1.) Democratic Schools, The
Documentary
2.) Detailed Conference
Information Packet Released!
3.) The Richest Man...by John
Taylor Gatto
 1.)
Democratic Schools
A Film About the Desire to
Learn
At democratic schools pupils
themselves can decide, what and how they want to learn.
There are no curricula, no censorship, and examinations are
voluntary. Pupils and teachers have the same rights and
organize their schools together. Everyone has a voice in the
decisions. Can that be done well?
The film was produced by
award-winning film-maker, Jan Gabbert. It was financially
sponsored by the German National Ministry for Education and
Research and is a project of KinderRÄchTsZÄnker (a group of
young people campaigning for children's rights) who hosted
the 2005 International Democratic Education Conference. You
can obtain more information and pre-order a copy of this
exciting new film (Ships May, 2006):
http://www.educationrevolution.org/demdocumentary.html
U.S. Premier to be held Friday, June 30th 3:00-4:00pm at the
AERO
CONFERENCE @ Russell Sage College in Troy! Q & A to
Follow!
 2.)
Detailed Conference Information Packet Released!
A detailed 12-page information
packet has just been released. In the packet you will find
detailed information on all keynote speakers, panels,
schedule, workshops, and lots, lots more!
Please forward this to members
of your school, group, or organization.
Download the packet today
by visiting:
http://www.educationrevolution.org/packet.html
 3.)
The Richest Man in the World Has Some Advice for Us about
College...
(P.S. He didn't take it
himself)
by John Taylor Gatto
1. William Faulkner
On April 12, 2005, the August "New York Review of Books"
pronounced William Faulkner "the most influential innovator
in the annals of American fiction," a man well-deserving of
his Nobel Prize.
Faulkner, a high school dropout, was later able to enter the
University of Mississippi on a special waiver for ex-WWI
servicemen. After a single year there he dropped out with a
`D' in English. Between that time and his Nobel Prize he
never returned to college.
2. Bill Gates and China
On February 28 of this year, Bill Gates of Microsoft, told a
gathering of the 50 American state governors that the United
States has reached a competitive crisis which we were
losing. This could best be combated by making college prep
the sole function of secondary schooling, college prep for
everyone, and college, too. Those who couldn't afford it
should be subsidized by the states. In Erving Goffman's
chilling locution, college was to become a "Total
Institution," controlling all work in the economy. Gates'
speech was headlined in the European press, where I read
about it the following day at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam,
which I was leaving for Guangzhou, China. When I landed
there, it was big news in China, too, if the English
language "China Daily" can be believed.
It was the first thing my Chinese hosts wanted to talk about
-- this radically utopian idea of college for all.
3. But . Do As I Say, Not As I Do
I asked my hosts to consider this: If Gates' proposal was
such a great idea, then how was it that Gates, like
Faulkner, dropped out of college his freshman year? And why
didn't he ever go back? And how was it that from among
millions of college-trained techies, Gates decided to hook
up with another dropout, Paul Allen, to found Microsoft?
That could have been a million-to-one coincidence, of
course, except for the fact that Steve Jobs, the brains
behind Apple, dropped out of Reed College after one
semester. And never went back to college, not for a single
day! Was it only an accident that Jobs chose to partner with
another dropout, Steve Wozniak, in the founding of Apple?
Continue the Article at:
http://www.EducationRevolution.org/richestman.html |
