Self-Edu @ Occupy, Meeting Thursday

[Jasmine Z]

Hi all,

I apologize for using your emails indiscriminately one last time. I promise not to send any more emails on this subject unless you explicitly express interest.

Based on the schedules of people who replied, let's meet this Thursday (10/20) at 8pm to figure out how we can educate ourselves and each other within Occupy. If the GA is a system developed to facilitate collective decision-making, we can create tools and strategies that do the same for collective education within and beyond this movement. There are many ways the "internal education" idea could go, but people I have talked to agree that there needs to be a coordinated effort to facilitate deeper discussion that creates critical consciousness and critical analysis of what we are doing in this Occupation. If you want to talk about what the obstacles to this kind of discussion have been so far, and how we can overcome/circumvent/undermine them, come to the Turf Diner (200 Pike Street) at 8pm. If you are at the GA beforehand, we can meet at the corner by See's and go (the two blocks) over together.

To clarify, the priority of this meeting will be to talk about mechanisms for generating discussion and encouraging critical thought on a regular basis. Specific topics that we need to educate each other on (police, anti-racism, the financial crisis) are important to get to, but will not be the focal point of this meeting.

Solidarity,

Jasmine

On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 12:13 AM, Jasmine Z <jz....@gmail.com> wrote:

Folks,

I have word that you are all interested in radical education. Here's a chance to build something really radical and new, ground-up. The way we want to see education work.
Whether or not you have been at Occupy Seattle or following the news on any of the Occupy spots around the nation, the best thing about this movement is the fluid, restless, and self-fashioning space it is creating, where people are meeting those outside their accustomed social circles and experimenting with new ways of interacting. There has been scattered talk in the last few days about some form of Internal Education at Occupy being called for--a chance for people to intentionally come together and share their knowledge/observations/critical perspectives on everything from causes of the financial crisis to strategies for dealing with police to consensus processes and basic civil rights knowledge.

I have heard multiple ideas about the kind of education we could create, both at the Occupation and in general, but everyone agrees that educating ourselves and each other is key to extending the critical potential of Occupy beyond however long the occupation itself lasts. People have proposed that we start a Freedom School that offers liberatory education, a Public School that offers decentralized/autonomous class formation, and many others have mentioned specific topics they would like to discuss or share their knowledge on. I get the sense this is something many are interested in, and what more opportune time could we have to start a system of people's education?

What we need is people to get together and hash out what we are doing about this. If you are interested, reply to this and let me know broadly what times you could meet (weekends, weekday evenings, monday at dawn, etc). Preferably include contact info.

And please share this with anyone else who would be interested.

FYI: Student Walkout tomorrow, in support of Occupy Seattle. UW students meet at noon in Red Square.

In solidarity,

Jasmine

[Cindy Domingo]

Jasmine plz keep me on this list

On Wednesday, October 19, 2011, Jasmine Z <jz....@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> I apologize for using your emails indiscriminately one last time. I promise not to send any more emails on this subject unless you explicitly express interest.
> Based on the schedules of people who replied, let's meet this Thursday (10/20) at 8pm to figure out how we can educate ourselves and each other within Occupy. If the GA is a system developed to facilitate collective decision-making, we can create tools and strategies that do the same for collective education within and beyond this movement. There are many ways the "internal education" idea could go, but people I have talked to agree that there needs to be a coordinated effort to facilitate deeper discussion that creates critical consciousness and critical analysis of what we are doing in this Occupation. If you want to talk about what the obstacles to this kind of discussion have been so far, and how we can overcome/circumvent/undermine them, come to the Turf Diner (200 Pike Street) at 8pm. If you are at the GA beforehand, we can meet at the corner by See's and go (the two blocks) over together.
> To clarify, the priority of this meeting will be to talk about mechanisms for generating discussion and encouraging critical thought on a regular basis. Specific topics that we need to educate each other on (police, anti-racism, the financial crisis) are important to get to, but will not be the focal point of this meeting.
> Solidarity,
> Jasmine
>
> On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 12:13 AM, Jasmine Z <jz....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Folks,
>> I have word that you are all interested in radical education. Here's a chance to build something really radical and new, ground-up. The way we want to see education work.
>> Whether or not you have been at Occupy Seattle or following the news on any of the Occupy spots around the nation, the best thing about this movement is the fluid, restless, and self-fashioning space it is creating, where people are meeting those outside their accustomed social circles and experimenting with new ways of interacting. There has been scattered talk in the last few days about some form of Internal Education at Occupy being called for--a chance for people to intentionally come together and share their knowledge/observations/critical perspectives on everything from causes of the financial crisis to strategies for dealing with police to consensus processes and basic civil rights knowledge.

>> I have heard multiple ideas about the kind of education we could create, both at the Occupation and in general, but everyone agrees that educating ourselves and each other is key to extending the critical potential of Occupy beyond however long the occupation itself lasts. People have proposed that we start a Freedom School <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Schools> that offers liberatory education, a Public School <http://all.thepublicschool.org> that offers decentralized/autonomous class formation, and many others have mentioned specific topics they would like to discuss or share their knowledge on. I get the sense this is something many are interested in, and what more opportune time could we have to start a system of people's education?