A quick report from our first day...

...and our plans for tomorrow!

We met this morning at 9:30 at the Austin AMP space at 411 W. Monroe St. After introductions, the kids acquainted themselves with the space. Bernadette then started us off with some prompted writing on self and self-image interspersed with conversation—a long get-acquainted session, if you will. We broke for lunch and then braved the drizzle and walked through the neighborhood and down to one branch of Bouldin Creek, collecting seeds and identifying plants as we went. On the route home we discussed architecture and the controversy over house-size in central Austin. When we returned, we focused on a group drawing on the theme of the drought while we discussed water use, its importance to our daily routines and thoughts about water conservation. We broke up around 3:00.

We ended the day buzzing with anticipation, a little winded and damp with sweat and rain. Felix's shirt was filthy. Signs of victory, all. "This is so much better than regular school," was repeated throughout the day by kids and adults alike.

Tomorrow we will convene at 9:30 at Butler Park for some birding and a half-round of golf for those interested. We will break at 11:30 and relocate to Martine & Félix's home for lunch, some free time and an introduction to the kitchen for Monday's Family Lunch & Planning Meeting. We will go to the AMP at around 1:00 for Algebra, group drawing /discussion on what we eat, and the menu and task-distribution plan for Monday's lunch.

Smart in our time!

Martine

DIY Schooling

So we live in a city (Austin, Texas) with a terrible school system. In particular, the middle schools, or junior highs as they are sometimes called, are disastrous. Whether a student manages to muddle through a poor-quality elementary school and amass a fairly good set of basic skills or is fortunate enough to attend one of the handful of decent elementary schools in the district, s/he will be funneled into an overcrowded, poorly performing, dispiriting and even scary school where behavior problems set the agenda.

So, when our son reached the fourth grade and we started looking at the middle school options ahead of him, what we found had us on the verge of panic. We have a bright, sweet, sensitive, well-behaved boy whose interests range from deejaying to golf to cooking to soccer and who still believes, albeit it with some scepticism, in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. No way were we sending this child into the psychological war zone that is the public middle schools of our city and, I suspect, most.

I talked about it to other parents, expecting that they would share my horror and join me in trying to think of solutions. But you know what I heard most often? " I know, I know middle school was horrible but we survived it." Wow. We survive war and disease, too, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't do everything we can to stand between our children and those experiences. Or that's what I thought, anyway.

Not finding any allies among the parents of my son's friends and schoolmates, I decided to branch out on my own...in my mind. I remembered an article I had read a few years before in Harper's Magazine entitled "Against School" that I had found persuasive on the point that, rather than failing at their mission, schools were failing kids by doing exactly what they were designed to do. I dug it up. I found it even more persuasive the second time around, so went online to research its author, John Taylor Gotto. Jackpot! Googling his name was a portal to a world of alternative education so foreign to me it was like walking from Kansas into the land of Oz. Nothing was as expected, much of it was beautiful, some of it was dark, even scary, all of it was fascinating and it stirred in me deep, powerful longings. What to do now?

Join the DIY Schooling movement! And thus was born the idea for a home-school hybrid called Community Middle and the birth of The Austin Free School project. Our first parent-organizer-student meeting is tomorrow so stay tuned!

Smart in our time,

Martine

Thinking about knowledge

Le monde est divisé en deux. Ceux qui savent se servir d'un outil, et ceux qui ne savent pas. —Jean-Louis Dumas, Chairman, Hermès

The French house of Hermès produces some of the finest, most elegant and best made luxury goods in the world. In the quote above, Jean-Louis Dumas is referring specifically to the tools associated with the legendary artistry and craftmanship of Hermès products and the knowledge of their skilled use as passed down from artisan to artisan since the mid-nineteenth century. But he is also playing the philosopher. For though his observation is true on its face it is truer still when one extrapolates to the use of tools in the broadest sense of the word, not least the tool of critical thinking.

If thinking is both a tool and, at least in Descartes estimation, what makes us human, can it be said then that one who is not knowledgeable in the use of tools has not yet learned what it is to be fully human? Does using tools make us smarter? I think the answer is, yes! This is why convenience living dumbs us down. We need a certain amount of difficulty of the sort that can be nutted out in order to keep our thinking sharp. Tone or atrophy, right? The DIY movement just might save humanity...futurecraftcollective.com

Smart in our time!

Think. Be.

Welcome to Austin Free Community Middle School (Community Middle)

I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience. —Anne Sullivan

Community Middle will launch in September 2009 as a consortium of homeschool families who will pool their resources to offer group learning in a variety of subjects in order to augment what's being learned at home, provide social and peer-learning opportunities and give homeschool families more flexibility in their schedules.

Our structure will be democratic, based on the Free School concept developed by the Spanish revolutionary schools and drawn from the tried and true successes of Summerhill School and the Brooklyn Free School. Our process will be rooted in principles of unschooling, using the asking and answering of questions (Socratic method) and self-directed learning (Montessori method). We will rely heavily on "real books" (Charlotte Mason without the religion) and will emphasize integrated studies and applied learning through the development of life skills, guided by the Foxfire books and others. (Below is an outline of the syllabus I'm working on for the fall. It's far from finished or final, but you’ll get the idea.)

This coming fall will be experimental. Our objective is to allow the kids to set goals for themselves and then to choose how they get there. The adult facilitators will provide explanation, demonstration, guidance and support, rather than teaching in a conventional sense, and group work and mentoring will be strongly encouraged. We will at least touch upon all of the materials and subjects shown in the syllabus outlined below. We hope to try as many different approaches as is practicable in order to discover the best fit for each child in any given field of interest.

By the fall of 2010 we plan to have a board in place, an application for 501(c)3 (non-profit) status in the works, grant-writing and other fundraising underway and to be looking for a permanent home.

We welcome interested families of current or soon to be middle school-age children to contact Martine Pèlegrin for more information here or by calling 512 916-0138.

Community Middle 2009-2010 "World Cup Prep"

In anticipation of South Africa’s being the first African nation to host the Soccer World Cup in the summer of 2010, we will use the continent’s vast and varied terrain, its rich history and cultural diversity and its troubled and hopeful political present as the basis for our inquiries into each of the subject areas outlined below.

Middle school-age children begin to develop identity and to place themselves in relation to the people and structures around them. They are beginning to get a sense of the larger world and their place in it. Their newly-awakened sense of their relative powerlessness can be a source of great frustration but also often allows them to be keenly aware of and sympathetic to injustice and the struggles of the underdog. This is an ideal time to introduce them to the complicated Mother Continent and to cultivate in them a sense of our interconnectedness as citizens of the world.

Academics

Language Arts & Literature

English from the Roots Up: Help for Reading, Writing, Spelling and S.A.T. Scores by Joegil Lundquist, Literacy Unlimited (www.literacyunlimited.com)

Writing for 100 Days: A Student-Centered Approach to Composition and Creative Writing by Gabriel Arquilevich, Fairview Publishing (www.homeschoolstockroom.com)

Writing the Natural Way: Using Right-brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers by Gabriele Rico, Ph.D., Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam (www.penguinputnam.com)

Writing with a Point by Jeanne B. Stephens and Ann Harper, Educators Publishing Service (www.epsbooks.com)

Stone Soup, The Magazine of Young Writers & Artists (www.stonesoup.com)

Tree Shaker: The Story of Nelson Mandela by Bill Keller, Kingfisher (www.houghtonmifflenbooks.com)

Open the Door to Liberty: A Biography of Toussaint L’Ouverture by Anne F. Rockwell and R. Gregory Christie, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (www.amazon.com)

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, HarperCollins, (www.amazon.com)

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork, Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic (www.amazon.com)

The Olympians: The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan, Hyperion (www.percyjacksonbooks.com)

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, Hyperion (www.talkmiramaxbooks.com)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Breathe by Cliff McNish, First Avenue Editions (www.lernerbooks.com)

Math

The Complete Book of Algebra and Geometry

Science

An Inconvenient Truth, The Crisis of Global Warming (Youth Edition) by Al Gore, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (www.amazon.com)

Big Ideas: Linking Food, Culture, Health and the Environment, Center for Ecoliteracy (www.ecoliteracy.org)

Fun with Foods, AIMS Education Foundation (www.aimsedu.org)

Backyard Scientist, AIMS Education Foundation (www.aimsedu.org)

The Anatomy Coloring Book by Wynn, Elson, Kapit, Harper Collins (www.harpercollins.com)

How to Draw Plants: The Techniques of Botanical Illustration by Keith West and Wilfrid Blunt, A & C Black Publishers Ltd. (www.acornnaturalists.com)

Urban Water Quality Test Kit, Acorn Naturalists (www.acornnaturalists.com)

History, Social Studies & Geography

The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge

The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide by Maggie Hogan and Cindy Wiggers, Bright Ideas Press (www.brightideaspress.com)

Big Ideas: Linking Food, Culture, Health and the Environment, Center for Ecoliteracy (www.ecoliteracy.org)

The Omnivore’s Dilemma for Young Readers by Michael Pollan (out in October 2009)

An Inconvenient Truth, The Crisis of Global Warming (Youth Edition) by Al Gore, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (www.amazon.com)

The New York Times

Austin American-Statesman

National Geographic

Open the Door to Liberty: A Biography of Toussaint L’Ouverture by Anne F. Rockwell and R. Gregory Christie, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (www.amazon.com)

From Punk Rock to Perestroika: The Mid 1970s to the Mid 1980s (Modern Eras Discovered) by Sean Sheehan and Pat Levy, Raintree Publishers (www.amazon.com)

Tree Shaker: The Story of Nelson Mandela by Bill Keller, Kingfisher (www.houghtonmifflenbooks.com)

Foreign Language

The Rosetta Stone- French I, Fairfield Language Technologies (www.rosettastone.com)

Logic/Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking: Problem Solving, Reasoning, Logic & Arguments, Book 1 by Anita Harnadek, Critical Thinking Co. (www.criticalthinking.com)

Writing with a Point by Jeanne B. Stephens and Ann Harper, Educators Publishing Service (www.epsbooks.com)

Life Skills/ Integrated Studies

The Foxfire Book Edited by Eliot Wigginton, Doubleday (www.amazon.com)

Foxfire 2, Edited by Eliot Wigginton, Doubleday (www.amazon.com)

Knots for the Outdoors by Cliff Jacobson Globe Pequot Press (www.acornnaturalists.com)

Land Navigation Handbook: The Sierra Club Guide to Map, Compass and GPS by W. S. Kals, Sierra Club Books (www.amazon.com)

First Aid Field Guide, Acorn Naturalists (www.acornnaturalists.com)

Arts & Crafts

How to Draw Plants: The Techniques of Botanical Illustration by Keith West and Wilfrid Blunt, A & C Black Publishers Ltd. (www.acornnaturalists.com)

Illustrating Nature: Right-Brain Art in a Left-Brain World by Irene Brady, Acorn Naturalists (www.acornnaturalists.com)

Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad by Mark Kistler, Fireside Books/Simon & Shuster (www.simonsays.com)

Outside Classes, Symposia & Internships

Health: Barbara Christman, RNP

Art: Jennifer Prichard, J Prichard Design

Music Theory: Bob Kasenchak, PhD candidate in Music Theory, UT School of Fine Arts

Drum lessons: Adam Berlin, original 8-1/2 Souvenirs drummer

Introduction to Legal Concepts/Debate: Margaret Tucker, Attorney-at-law

Animal husbandry/Horticulture: Erin Flynn, Green Gate Farms

Practical geography, economics & mechanics through learning the art of coffee roasting: Joe Lozano, Third Coast Coffee Roasters

Concrete & Metal Construction/Welding: Brian Frisbie, Frisbie Design Concern

Beekeeping: Peter Williams

Other Projects

Personal almanac

Writing journal

Bat house

Garden

Chicken coop?

Beehive?

Sports

Swimming: East Community YMCA

Golf: First Tee of Austin

Soccer, Basketball, Flag football: South Austin Recreation Center

Yoga?