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As the conversation around abolition begins to include schooling, I see people wondering what could exist instead. In this culture many have come to believe that schooling is irreplaceable, a fundamental feature of life. But there are so many examples prove it's not...
First has to be the recognition that Indigenous peoples the world over have had approaches to "education" for millennia that look nothing like Western models of schooling.
"Sami children were not placed in classrooms and given formal lessons, but instead were allowed to learn through experience. This was viewed as the only way to learn since one cannot truly acquire knowledge unless they have experienced it...
"The Sami system of education has been dubbed the “Sami University” since the whole world serves as a classroom, and all of the people act as teachers.”
https://www.laits.utexas.edu/sami/dieda/hist/suffer-edu.htm
https://www.laits.utexas.edu/sami/dieda/hist/suffer-edu.htm
Andrea Landry, Anishinaabe mother & teacher, writes "Children learned from our kinship systems. They learned from their mothers, fathers, aunties, uncles, kokums, moshums, and older relatives..."
"They learned from the Land by being fully integrated and immersed into most processes and practices." https://indigenousmotherhood.wordpress.com/2020/03/16/traditional-indigenous-kinship-practices-at-home-being-child-centered-during-the-pandemic/?fbclid=IwAR1IINUFordsvoXazY5D5zfSDRS7-u5rcXmmfTcaiHjKtip5GLIdjb7iq8U
And Manish Jain, co-founder of Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development says “I can no longer accept a narrative of education that sees my links to my land, to my local languages, to my seeds, to my rivers, to my trees..."
"...to my histories and herstories, to my body, to my inner voice, to the spirit world, to my community all as a barrier to modernization and development which must at best be destroyed if we are to progress, and at worst be condemned to a multicultural day festival in school.”
(From Declaration of Decolonizing Education http://shikshantar.org/initiatives/walkouts-network/declaration-decolonizing-education-draft-comments)
And in the powerful essay Ours First, Dr. Kelly Limes-Taylor Henderson makes it clear that "Marginalized groups have been learning the world for a long time, and without school...
...Before and throughout this colonialist era, it is the way we learned to manage our food systems and organize communities." https://www.self-directed.org/tp/ours-first/
Schools have been and continue to be a tool of colonization, a deliberate attempt to destroy cultures and peoples, & half-hearted reforms have never done anything to fundamentally change that fact. https://www.survivalinternational.org/factoryschools
Many have turned to unschooling as a path to decolonizing education, & this article provides an excellent overview, sharing multiple valuable perspectives. https://nextcity.org/features/view/is-unschooling-the-way-to-decolonize-education?fbclid=IwAR0eZE6QCO3uFwtrwUqjYHOzWKR-PUT12UhiNeD5gkkMQTmEfzBDm8ShHJI
Unschooling is what I experienced growing up, & what I've spent years writing about http://yes-i-can-write.blogspot.com/
It is, however, just one of many lifestyles, models, and ways of pursuing "education."
I was always inspired by the Purple Thistle Center, a youth run arts and activism center that ran for 15 years. https://vimeo.com/208059591
There are Agile Learning Centers (ALCs) who "believe that all people–and children are people–have a right to self-determination and freedom from oppression...
...Part of the work of a facilitator at an ALC is that of constantly seeking to remove obstacles keeping learners from realizing their full potential, obstacles from unmanageable shoelaces to systemic inequity." https://agilelearningcenters.org/
(Taking a break because migraine, but planning on being back with more examples when I'm feeling a bit better...)
Also: shout out to @ecomentario and @cblack__, I know I saved multiple of those above links from one of you!
