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Archive for October, 2007

ANARCHY AND ART: An Anarchist Tour of the National Gallery, hosted by EXILE

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

Join EXILE INFOSHOP for an anarchist tour of the National Gallery. The tour will be the official release for the new EXILE Press zine UNLEASHING THE IMAGINATION, written by Allan Antliff.

The zine details the lives and art of several anarchists whose works are featured in the Gallery’s permanent collection. It gives an account of their lengthy political and social involvements with groups established along anarchist principles of voluntary-association, egalitarianism, mutual aid, and the refusal of authority.

Some of the individuals included in the zine are Marcel Duchamp, Gustav Courbet, Camille Pissarro, Francis Picabia, Bartlett Newman, and Les Automatistes.

An objective of the tour will be to discuss the social and political role of anarchism in presenting and/or contributing to social transformation. We will also highlight the political environments where the art was produced; emphasizing the principles, ethics and radicalism that made it possible.

The tour will take approximately 2 hours.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25th
6pm
NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA
FREE (but the zine costs 2$ if you want it).

Please email info@exilebooks.org, or call 613.237.9270 to RSVP and receive details.

PLEASE RSVP!!!!!

ANARCHY AND ART: An Anarchist Tour of the National Gallery, hosted by EXILE

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
2007/10/25
18:00

Join EXILE INFOSHOP for an anarchist tour of the National Gallery. The tour will be the official release for the new zine UNLEASHING THE IMAGINATION, written by Allan Antliff.

The zine details the lives and art of several anarchists whose works are featured in the Gallery’s permanent collection. It gives an account of their lengthy political and social involvements with groups established along anarchist principles of voluntary-association, egalitarianism, mutual aid, and the refusal of authority.

Some of the individuals included in the zine are Marcel Duchamp, Gustav Courbet, Camille Pissarro, Francis Picabia, Bartlett Newman, and Les Automatistes.

An objective of the tour will be to discuss the social and political role of anarchism in presenting and/or contributing to social transformation. We will also highlight the political environments where the art was produced; emphasizing the principles, ethics and radicalism that made it possible.

The tour will take approximately 2 hours.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25th
6pm
NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA
FREE (but the zine costs 2$ if you want it).

Please email info(at)exilebooks.org, or call 613.237.9270 to RSVP and receive details.

PLEASE RSVP!!!!!

unSchooling Oppression Conference – Day6

Sunday, October 21st, 2007
2007/11/10
16:30to23:30

Saturday, November 10, 2007 – 2 events
All conference activities are FREE!
__________________

4:30pm (doors at 4pm)
Keynote: Matt Hern, co-founder of Vancouver’s Purple Thistle Centre and editor of Deschooling Our Lives
Location: University of Ottawa campus, Colonel By Building, 161 Louis-Pasteur St, room C03
Topic: Possibility in the Face of Probability

Our institutions, especially those we build for children, both reflect and construct society. If we want a more democratic, respectful and equal world, then we need to create relationships and institutions that reflect that. We cannot just be telling, or teaching children how to behave, or what good citizenship looks like, they need to be living it right from the start. They need to be experiencing and learning how to create democracy, respect and egalitarian relationships.

Community is the most important arena for political and cultural life: it is in the experience of place, of neighbourhood and local community that genuine, participatory democracy can flourish. Thus we need to be creating semi-permeable institutions, integrated into community and family life, not isolated. Women, children and families need to be involved in every level of community life, not warehoused away from active life.

We need to be moving towards diversity, not away from it. A good community can accept and integrate a pluralism of values: that is a diversity of viewpoints and values, and not just about minor things, but fundamental things. Thus in every community there should be a variety of institutions for kids reflecting a diversity of viewpoints, needs and learning styles. Educators, families and kids need to come together to create democratically controlled sites reflecting the wide variety of children.

We cannot reduce learning, however, to the practice of teaching. Learning cannot just be about filling kids up with canonical knowledge: we need to be constantly asking what it will take for these kids to thrive. Not the abstract kids of theory, but the actual kids right in front of us.

There is no method, no guru, no system that we can turn to for the answers. No one knows how kids grow up best: there are many models and examples we can use for inspiration, but we have to be creating and recreating our own pedagogies of liberation. As Paulo Freire said: “Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world and with each other.” Families and children need every opportunity to pursue that constructive inquiry within community life.

This suggests a pedagogy that is not child centred, but community centred, one that seeks to liberate the family and community, not just the child. The practice of freedom has to be about social freedom, that is a freedom towards something, not simply an individualist freedom from something. Pedagogical and political freedoms are closely linked: they are the practice of self determination.
__________________

Dynamic and captivating speaker Matt Hern holds a Ph.D in Urban Studies, and writes and lectures throughout North America on the topics of both Urban Studies and Education. He co-founded and currently operates the Purple Thistle Centre, a youth-oriented, collectively-run drop-in, arts, and activism space in East Vancouver, which also refers to itself as a “deschool.”

Notable written works:

· Deschooling Our Lives (editor; 1996)
· Field Day: Getting Society Out of School (2003)
· Watch Yourself: Why Safer Isn’t Always Better (2007)

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7pm
Event: Informal Dinner & Caucus
Location: University of Ottawa campus, Colonel By Building, 161 Louis-Pasteur St, room C03
Cost: donations welcome

Topic: All interested participants will come together to discuss how we can take action to effectively “unschool oppression”

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Love to learn, but hate school?
Think there must be something better than this?
Want to arm yourself against the weapons of mass instruction?

unSchooling Oppression at the University of Ottawa
Conference, November 5-10, 2007
Registration Cost: FREE, but donations are encouraged to cover speakers’ travel and accommodation costs
See the full schedule and speaker bios at: http://unschoolingoppression.wordpress.com/

This is not your average conference! unSchooling Oppression is an original, student-led initiative designed not only for academic professionals, but for students, teachers, professors, activists, and community members alike. It is both a critical examination of the various forms of oppression within traditional schooling models and a hopeful exploration of liberating educational alternatives.

Five evening keynote presentations will feature speakers on a broad range of topics, each concluding with a period for questions and discussion. Various aspects of their talks will touch on the historical roots and purposes of traditional schooling; power, authority and oppression; institutional violence; curricular racism, sexism and homophobia; freedom and deschooling; alternative models for learning; and much more. Confirmed speakers include: David Noble, John Taylor Gatto, Cindy Milstein, Tara Guenette & Julie Lalonde, and Matt Hern. These presentations will allow attendees from the university and the broader community to critically examine current teaching practices and envision alternative education models that are student-centered and promote independent thinking, self-motivation, equity, and solidarity, both inside and outside the school. The speakers will be traveling to Ottawa from around Canada and the USA. See our website for full schedule and speaker bios.

The conference will also include a series of daytime workshops organized by members of the community as well as guests from the United States on issues that they consider relevant to the themes of education as oppression, and education as liberation. Themes will include the deschooling movement, self-motivated learning, militarization and education, and more.

The most exciting part of the conference will be the concluding caucus, wherein conference attendees will have the opportunity to brainstorm together a way forward in applying some of the ideas presented during the conference. Our goal, as conference organizers, is for this event to catalyze a new movement of projects and campaigns here in Ottawa to directly address the issues presented.

We hope you can be a part of this movement!

unSchooling Oppression Conference – Day5

Sunday, October 21st, 2007
2007/11/09
19:30to22:30

Friday, November 9, 2007
All conference activities are FREE!
__________________

7:30pm (doors at 7pm)
Keynote: Tara Guenette & Julie Lalonde, of the Miss G_ Project’s Ottawa/Carleton chapter
Location: University of Ottawa campus, MacDonald Hall Auditorium, 150 Louis-Pasteur St, room 146

Topic: 12 Million Voices: Intersectionality in Education

Our goal is to reclaim the diversity of voices in Ontario secondary schools. We will examine the current reality in Ontario schools, look at possible solutions (there is hope!) and discuss the role of the Miss G__ Project in bringing equity to the current education system.

__________________

Tara Guenette, Chair of the Miss G__ Project for Equity in Education’s Ottawa/Carleton Chapter, is currently completing her B.A. Honours in Law with a minor in Women’s Studies at Carleton University. She is Metis, and hails from a small town in Northwestern Ontario. Tara’s interests in her field of study include gender differences within the law, with a particular interest in gendered and racialized discrimination within the law and society in general. Passionate about feminism, government and politics, as well as her family and friends, Tara plans on furthering her studies by doing graduate work at the Masters level.

Julie Lalonde is co-chair of the Miss G__ Project’s Ottawa Chapter. With a B.A. Honours in Women’s Studies and Canadian Studies, she is currently a master’s candidate in Canadian Women’s Studies at Carleton University. Julie is also a collective member of Ottawa’s Sexual Assault Support Centre and a mentor with Big Brother Big Sister Ottawa. She is personally interested in promoting accessible feminism and is passionate about academia as a tool for social change.

The Miss G__ Project works to promote equity in education, to combat sexism and homophobia through education, and to encourage active citizenship. The Project’s current mission is to get a Women’s and Gender Studies course into the Ontario Secondary School curriculum. Equity in education is a policy commitment of the curriculum, but without recognizing gender and its implications, the curriculum fails to meet this commitment. We spend our years of mandatory formal education without ever encountering a critical study of gender and sexuality. In high school, we never encountered a fair and appropriate introduction to the very real contributions and histories of women and feminisms.

**************************************************

Love to learn, but hate school?
Think there must be something better than this?
Want to arm yourself against the weapons of mass instruction?

unSchooling Oppression at the University of Ottawa
Conference, November 5-10, 2007
Registration Cost: FREE, but donations are encouraged to cover speakers’ travel and accommodation costs
See the full schedule and speaker bios at: http://unschoolingoppression.wordpress.com/

This is not your average conference! unSchooling Oppression is an original, student-led initiative designed not only for academic professionals, but for students, teachers, professors, activists, and community members alike. It is both a critical examination of the various forms of oppression within traditional schooling models and a hopeful exploration of liberating educational alternatives.

Five evening keynote presentations will feature speakers on a broad range of topics, each concluding with a period for questions and discussion. Various aspects of their talks will touch on the historical roots and purposes of traditional schooling; power, authority and oppression; institutional violence; curricular racism, sexism and homophobia; freedom and deschooling; alternative models for learning; and much more. Confirmed speakers include: David Noble, John Taylor Gatto, Cindy Milstein, Tara Guenette & Julie Lalonde, and Matt Hern. These presentations will allow attendees from the university and the broader community to critically examine current teaching practices and envision alternative education models that are student-centered and promote independent thinking, self-motivation, equity, and solidarity, both inside and outside the school. The speakers will be traveling to Ottawa from around Canada and the USA. See our website for full schedule and speaker bios.

The conference will also include a series of daytime workshops organized by members of the community as well as guests from the United States on issues that they consider relevant to the themes of education as oppression, and education as liberation. Themes will include the deschooling movement, self-motivated learning, militarization and education, and more.

The most exciting part of the conference will be the concluding caucus, wherein conference attendees will have the opportunity to brainstorm together a way forward in applying some of the ideas presented during the conference. Our goal, as conference organizers, is for this event to catalyze a new movement of projects and campaigns here in Ottawa to directly address the issues presented.

We hope you can be a part of this movement!

unSchooling Oppression Conference – Day4

Sunday, October 21st, 2007
2007/11/08
18:30to21:00

Thursday, November 8, 2007
All conference activities are FREE!
__________________

6:30pm (doors at 6:00pm)
Keynote: Cindy Milstein, of the Institute for Anarchist Studies
Location: Ottawa Public Library Auditorium, 120 Metcalfe St (at Laurier St)

Title: “Education for Freedom”

In the 1930s, Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta wrote that our task is to embolden “people to demand and to seize all the freedom they can.” The way forward, in his view, was via “provoking and encouraging by propaganda and action, all kinds of individual and collective initiatives. It is in fact a question of education for freedom,” he asserted, “of making people who are accustomed to obedience and passivity consciously aware of their real power and capabilities. One must encourage people to do things for themselves.” Many others on the libertarian Left—from anarchists to council communists to autonomists—have stressed education as key for fundamental social transformation or revolution. But for anarchists in particular, education has always been a crucial prefigurative path for getting from “here” to “there,” from a hierarchical society to an increasingly egalitarian and humane one. The process of how we educate ourselves and others, and the organizational forms we use to do that, is already part of the better world we’re building, or minimally should point toward it. And such experiments should combine the two interrelated poles of anarchism itself: a social critique and a social vision, precisely to strive for a free society of free individuals.

In this talk and discussion, I’ll explore some hopeful examples of the integration of engaged thinking and doing, such as developing horizontal models of anti-authoritarian scholarship, popular education, and radical public debate and decision-making. Some of these case studies—but not all—will include projects from my own experience, such as the Free Society Collective, the Institute for Anarchist Studies, and the Institute for Social Ecology.

__________________

Cindy Milstein is a co-organizer of the annual Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference, a board member with the Institute for Anarchist Studies, and a member of the Free Society Collective and Black Sheep Books Collective in Montpelier, Vermont. For many years, she taught at the “anarchist summer school” known as the Institute for Social Ecology, an independent institution of higher education in Vermont that incorporates directly democratic and non-hierarchical politics into its own structure and operation. Please see http://unschoolingoppression.wordpress.com/schedule/ for a description of her talk!

Her work appears in anti-authoritarian periodicals and the following anthologies:

· Globalize Liberation: How to Uproot the System and Build a Better World (2004)
· Confronting Capitalism: Dispatches from a Global Movement (2004)
· Only a Beginning: An Anarchist Anthology (2004)
· Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority (2007)

**************************************************

Love to learn, but hate school?
Think there must be something better than this?
Want to arm yourself against the weapons of mass instruction?

unSchooling Oppression at the University of Ottawa
Conference, November 5-10, 2007
Registration Cost: FREE, but donations are encouraged to cover speakers’ travel and accommodation costs
See the full schedule and speaker bios at: http://unschoolingoppression.wordpress.com/

This is not your average conference! unSchooling Oppression is an original, student-led initiative designed not only for academic professionals, but for students, teachers, professors, activists, and community members alike. It is both a critical examination of the various forms of oppression within traditional schooling models and a hopeful exploration of liberating educational alternatives.

Five evening keynote presentations will feature speakers on a broad range of topics, each concluding with a period for questions and discussion. Various aspects of their talks will touch on the historical roots and purposes of traditional schooling; power, authority and oppression; institutional violence; curricular racism, sexism and homophobia; freedom and deschooling; alternative models for learning; and much more. Confirmed speakers include: David Noble, John Taylor Gatto, Cindy Milstein, Tara Guenette & Julie Lalonde, and Matt Hern. These presentations will allow attendees from the university and the broader community to critically examine current teaching practices and envision alternative education models that are student-centered and promote independent thinking, self-motivation, equity, and solidarity, both inside and outside the school. The speakers will be traveling to Ottawa from around Canada and the USA. See our website for full schedule and speaker bios.

The conference will also include a series of daytime workshops organized by members of the community as well as guests from the United States on issues that they consider relevant to the themes of education as oppression, and education as liberation. Themes will include the deschooling movement, self-motivated learning, militarization and education, and more.

The most exciting part of the conference will be the concluding caucus, wherein conference attendees will have the opportunity to brainstorm together a way forward in applying some of the ideas presented during the conference. Our goal, as conference organizers, is for this event to catalyze a new movement of projects and campaigns here in Ottawa to directly address the issues presented.

We hope you can be a part of this movement!

unSchooling Oppression Conference – Day3

Sunday, October 21st, 2007
2007/11/07
11:30to21:00

Wednesday, November 7, 2007 – 4 events
All conference activities are FREE!
__________________

Workshop – 11:30am to 1:00pm
Location: Institute for Women’s Studies, 143 Seraphin-Marion (near Waller St), room 205
Presenter: Marymay Downing
Topic: Militarization & Education

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Workshop – 1:30pm to 3:00pm
Location: Institute for Women’s Studies, 143 Seraphin-Marion (near Waller St), room 205
Presenter: Justin Barca
Topic: Healing Oppression with the Circus Arts: A peaceful and creative approach to physical education

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Workshop – 3:30pm to 5:00pm
Location: Institute for Women’s Studies, 143 Seraphin-Marion (near Waller St), room 205
Presenter: Naomi
Topic: Infiltrating a Zionist program in the hole-y land: unveiling the truth of Palestine through self-education and exposure from within

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Event: Film Night – 6:30pm (doors at 6:00pm)
Location: Ottawa Public Library Auditorium, 120 Metcalfe St (at Laurier St)
Title: *CHANGED* Due to technical difficulties with the previously
advertised titles, we will now be screening “Free to Learn: A Radical
Experiment in Education” http://www.freeschoolmovie.com/
Topic: A wonderful 70-minute film about the Albany Free School (Albany, NY)

**************************************************

Love to learn, but hate school?
Think there must be something better than this?
Want to arm yourself against the weapons of mass instruction?

unSchooling Oppression at the University of Ottawa
Conference, November 5-10, 2007
Registration Cost: FREE, but donations are encouraged to cover speakers’ travel and accommodation costs
See the full schedule and speaker bios at: http://unschoolingoppression.wordpress.com/

This is not your average conference! unSchooling Oppression is an original, student-led initiative designed not only for academic professionals, but for students, teachers, professors, activists, and community members alike. It is both a critical examination of the various forms of oppression within traditional schooling models and a hopeful exploration of liberating educational alternatives.

Five evening keynote presentations will feature speakers on a broad range of topics, each concluding with a period for questions and discussion. Various aspects of their talks will touch on the historical roots and purposes of traditional schooling; power, authority and oppression; institutional violence; curricular racism, sexism and homophobia; freedom and deschooling; alternative models for learning; and much more. Confirmed speakers include: David Noble, John Taylor Gatto, Cindy Milstein, Tara Guenette & Julie Lalonde, and Matt Hern. These presentations will allow attendees from the university and the broader community to critically examine current teaching practices and envision alternative education models that are student-centered and promote independent thinking, self-motivation, equity, and solidarity, both inside and outside the school. The speakers will be traveling to Ottawa from around Canada and the USA. See our website for full schedule and speaker bios.

The conference will also include a series of daytime workshops organized by members of the community as well as guests from the United States on issues that they consider relevant to the themes of education as oppression, and education as liberation. Themes will include the deschooling movement, self-motivated learning, militarization and education, and more.

The most exciting part of the conference will be the concluding caucus, wherein conference attendees will have the opportunity to brainstorm together a way forward in applying some of the ideas presented during the conference. Our goal, as conference organizers, is for this event to catalyze a new movement of projects and campaigns here in Ottawa to directly address the issues presented.

We hope you can be a part of this movement!

unSchooling Oppression Conference – Day1

Sunday, October 21st, 2007
2007/11/05
18:00to21:00

Monday, November 5, 2007
All conference activities are FREE!
__________________

6:30pm (doors at 6:00pm)
Keynote: David Noble, author of Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education
Location: Ottawa Public Library Auditorium, 120 Metcalfe St (at Laurier St)

Topic: Breaking the Rules

Rules are created by and for those who rule. Those who rule rarely follow the rules which are designed for others. These rules are taught in school. There are two paths to education. One is by learning and observing the rules (constructive theory of knowledge). The other is by breaking the rules (deconstructive theory of knowledge). The challenging of the rules reveals the rulers.

In an autobiographical account Noble will trace his own lifelong experience along the second path, what he has learned about what lays behind the rules, and how to challenge them effectively, and how to move from whining to winning.

__________________

A professor at York University, David Noble is a long-time critic of the commercialization of universities. He is best known for his opposition to the corporate takeover of post-secondary campuses and administrations. Particularly notable are his Palestinian solidarity work and his criticism of technology as an educational tool. Noble co-founded the National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest in 1983 and the York Public Access (an alternative to York University’s media relations) in 2005. Over the past few decades, his fight against the continual corruption of post-secondary administrators has been met with an all-out war, eventually leading to a settlement with Simon Fraser University over their denial of his candidacy for the J.S. Woodsworth Chair in 2001.

Notable written works:

· America By Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism (1977)
· Forces of Production: A Social History of Industrial Automation (1990)
· Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education (2001)
· Beyond the Promised Land: The Movement and the Myth (2005)

**************************************************

Love to learn, but hate school?
Think there must be something better than this?
Want to arm yourself against the weapons of mass instruction?

unSchooling Oppression at the University of Ottawa
Conference, November 5-10, 2007
Registration Cost: FREE, but donations are encouraged to cover speakers’ travel and accommodation costs
See the full schedule and speaker bios at: http://unschoolingoppression.wordpress.com/

This is not your average conference! unSchooling Oppression is an original, student-led initiative designed not only for academic professionals, but for students, teachers, professors, activists, and community members alike. It is both a critical examination of the various forms of oppression within traditional schooling models and a hopeful exploration of liberating educational alternatives.

Five evening keynote presentations will feature speakers on a broad range of topics, each concluding with a period for questions and discussion. Various aspects of their talks will touch on the historical roots and purposes of traditional schooling; power, authority and oppression; institutional violence; curricular racism, sexism and homophobia; freedom and deschooling; alternative models for learning; and much more. Confirmed speakers include: David Noble, John Taylor Gatto, Cindy Milstein, Tara Guenette & Julie Lalonde, and Matt Hern. These presentations will allow attendees from the university and the broader community to critically examine current teaching practices and envision alternative education models that are student-centered and promote independent thinking, self-motivation, equity, and solidarity, both inside and outside the school. The speakers will be traveling to Ottawa from around Canada and the USA. See our website for full schedule and speaker bios.

The conference will also include a series of daytime workshops organized by members of the community as well as guests from the United States on issues that they consider relevant to the themes of education as oppression, and education as liberation. Themes will include the deschooling movement, self-motivated learning, militarization and education, and more.

The most exciting part of the conference will be the concluding caucus, wherein conference attendees will have the opportunity to brainstorm together a way forward in applying some of the ideas presented during the conference. Our goal, as conference organizers, is for this event to catalyze a new movement of projects and campaigns here in Ottawa to directly address the issues presented.

We hope you can be a part of this movement!

unSchooling Oppression Conference – Day2

Sunday, October 21st, 2007
2007/11/06
18:00to21:00

Tuesday, November 6, 2007
All conference activities are FREE!
__________________

6:30pm (doors at 6:00pm)
Keynote: John Taylor Gatto, author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling and The Underground History of American Education
Location: Ottawa Public Library Auditorium, 120 Metcalfe St (at Laurier St)

Topic: “Weapons of Mass Instruction”

In this presentation, John Taylor Gatto puts forth a surgically specific critique of the damages inflicted by the structure of schooling, and then proposes a corrective based on open-source learning, which he calls “Walkabout London”.

Walkabout London, based on Richard Branson’s story of his own success, is an exploration of the idea of open-source learning– which for the computer generation would focus on the Internet. Gatto does not centre his talk on the Internet, as it forms only a piece of the answer, but draws from a variety of learning tools and resources.

This talk clarifies the distinction between education and schooling, understanding that real learning cannot be based on memorizing sets of rules and “facts” presented abstractly in a classroom setting. Instead, Gatto proposes what an alternative to this system might look like– not necessarily an alternative type of school, but abandoning the idea of schooling altogether.

__________________

Retired American schoolteacher John Taylor Gatto was named New York City Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991 before his retirement from the profession that same year, when he announced that he could no longer, in his own words, “hurt kids to make a living.” He then began a career writing and speaking about homeschooling and the problems with compulsory education, traveling all over the US and internationally to do so. Gatto is currently producing 3 parts of a 4-part documentary entitled The Fourth Purpose, which critically examines the institution of school by identifying existing problems, providing their historical context, and suggesting tactics to address these problems.

Notable written works:

· Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992)
· The Exhausted School: Bending the Bars of Traditional Education (1993)
· A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling (2000)
· The Underground History of American Education (2001)
· Against School: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids, and Why (2003)
· Weapons of Mass Instruction (forthcoming)

**************************************************

Love to learn, but hate school?
Think there must be something better than this?
Want to arm yourself against the weapons of mass instruction?

unSchooling Oppression at the University of Ottawa
Conference, November 5-10, 2007
Registration Cost: FREE, but donations are encouraged to cover speakers’ travel and accommodation costs
See the full schedule and speaker bios at: http://unschoolingoppression.wordpress.com/

This is not your average conference! unSchooling Oppression is an original, student-led initiative designed not only for academic professionals, but for students, teachers, professors, activists, and community members alike. It is both a critical examination of the various forms of oppression within traditional schooling models and a hopeful exploration of liberating educational alternatives.

Five evening keynote presentations will feature speakers on a broad range of topics, each concluding with a period for questions and discussion. Various aspects of their talks will touch on the historical roots and purposes of traditional schooling; power, authority and oppression; institutional violence; curricular racism, sexism and homophobia; freedom and deschooling; alternative models for learning; and much more. Confirmed speakers include: David Noble, John Taylor Gatto, Cindy Milstein, Tara Guenette & Julie Lalonde, and Matt Hern. These presentations will allow attendees from the university and the broader community to critically examine current teaching practices and envision alternative education models that are student-centered and promote independent thinking, self-motivation, equity, and solidarity, both inside and outside the school. The speakers will be traveling to Ottawa from around Canada and the USA. See our website for full schedule and speaker bios.

The conference will also include a series of daytime workshops organized by members of the community as well as guests from the United States on issues that they consider relevant to the themes of education as oppression, and education as liberation. Themes will include the deschooling movement, self-motivated learning, militarization and education, and more.

The most exciting part of the conference will be the concluding caucus, wherein conference attendees will have the opportunity to brainstorm together a way forward in applying some of the ideas presented during the conference. Our goal, as conference organizers, is for this event to catalyze a new movement of projects and campaigns here in Ottawa to directly address the issues presented.

We hope you can be a part of this movement!

Anarchist Discussion Group: The “New” Anarchism w/ Cindy Milstein

Sunday, October 21st, 2007
2007/11/11
12:00to14:00

The “New” Anarchism
A talk by Cindy Milstein

Sunday, Nov. 11 at 12 (noon)
Jack Purcell Community Centre
320 Jack Purcell Lane
off Elgin near Gilmour
Pay What You Can
Wheelchair Accessible
Child -friendly
Contact: a_ottawa@mutualaid.org

http://adg.roadnetwork.org

Over the past few years, anarchism has emerged as one of the most compelling currents within today’s anti-capitalist milieu. With its emphasis on participation and prefigurative politics, anarchism has contributed to diverse experiments in horizontal organization as well as social power, alongside or in solidarity with a variety of anti-authoritarian movements worldwide. It has also brought a refreshing wave of utopian thinking to a tired Left. And perhaps for the first time in its own history, anarchism is all that much more relevant and even workable in this era, variously labeled the network society, the information age, or simply globalization. This talk will explore the outlines of what’s been called “the new anarchism,” including whether it’s new at all, against the backdrop of the present moment, in an attempt to capture some of the vibrancy and even innovations of – and tensions within – contemporary anarchism.
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The Anarchist Discussion Group meets every second Sunday afternoon. We are local Ottawa activists and community members who share an anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist viewpoint. We are involved in diverse struggles and believe in the importance of maintaining a link between theory and practice. Discussions are based on readings, presentations or short films. If there are readings, they are optional and will be summarized at the beginning of the discussion.

EXILE presents… Live Nude Girls Unite!

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
2007/10/12
19:00

EXILE is hosting tonight’s Ottawa Cinema Politica, featuring LIVE NUDE GIRLS UNITE!

http://www.cinemapolitica.org/films/78

(USA / 2000 / 70 minutes / English)

Doors open at 7pm / Film starts at 7:30pm
MacDonald Hall Auditorium (MCD 146)
150 Louis Pasteur Street, University of Ottawa main campus.
Admission: FREE
Join the weekly announcement email list: dgr@uottawa.ca

A documentary about exotic dancers unionizing:

This first person documentary follows Julia Query, lesbian/stand-up comedian/peepshow-stripper, and daughter of a feminist activist, on her raucous journey to help organize the only union of strippers in the United States. Shot on a variety of formats, Live Nude Girls Unite! weaves backstage and dancing footage with labor organizing, street protests, stand-up comedy and comic-book style “animation” making an intelligent and dramatic cutting-edge film.

***The film presentation and post-film discussion will be hosted by members of Exile Infoshop. http://www.exilebooks.org/