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Contents

  1. Logistics
  2. Checkins
    1. Anthony
    2. Brian
    3. Caitland
    4. Patty
    5. Kiran
    6. Zoe
  3. Introduction to the East Bay FreeSkool Project
    1. Barrington Collective and The East Bay FreeSkool
    2. Free Schools in General
  4. Class Locations
    1. Discussion
    2. Decision
  5. Benefit Show
    1. Discussion
    2. Decision
  6. Non-profit Paperwork for Patty
  7. Community Meetings
  8. Flyers
  9. Public Calendars
  10. People to Contact
    1. Berkeley Parents Network
  11. Upcoming Dates
    1. April 18th: EBMUD Free School Supply Giveaway
    2. April 30th: Fruitvale Community Meeting
    3. May 5th: Annual Youth Summit
  12. Next Meeting

Logistics

Checkins

Anthony

I confirmed the World Ground Cafe for the Fruitvale community meeting. It will be Saturday, April 30 at 4-6pm. It holds 20 people max.

Last I checked, Caesar Chavez Library has a spot that Saturday from 4-5:30pm. It can hold 50 people but it will cost us $15.

There is place in Fruitvale called the Soul House. We may be able to use their place to hold the community meeting as well as to hold workshops/classes for the FreeSkool.

Brian

I'm interested in the FreeSkool because I'm studying to become a yoga teacher. I want to teach yoga classes in the evenings and the weekends. I'm pretty flexible as far as scheduling but I would prefer to hold classes in North Oakland or Berkeley.

Caitland

Girl Army does not have the energy to do a FreeSkool class this summer. However, Sharon from Girl Army said she is going to wait until the current basic training course is done and, if they have energy, she will get back to me. But it looks like Girl Army is out.

I've posted a quick flyer to a few email lists using the text that John posted on the email list last week. Brian and Patty are here as a result.

Patty

I have two sons who are have seats on the Berkeley school commission. We're trying to look for alternative ways to educated ourselves. I have a long history associated with schools and all I can say I want to be a part of something that will do something substantially different for our children.

Kiran

Anthony and I found out that Long Haul still has a FreeSkool screen to do FreeSkool t-shirts and patches. As long as we bring them free clothes they will print them for free.

I got a response from an herbalist for an herbal class. But I'm swamped right now so I'll have a better idea about it in time.

I saw this incredible flyer from a group doing classes in Indianapolis. Somehow the flyer made itself all the way down to the Easy Bay! Anyways, they had huge poster size flyers, as well as they two-color (black and light blue) handouts that were totally cool. The two-color handouts were very effective in explaining their project and how to get in contact with them.

One thing I noticed is that even though they're doing something similar to us, they're even further behind schedule. However their flyer seems to be making up for some lost time by appealing to the community and fellow teachers. All this inspired me to design a flyer for our FreeSkool using their flyers as a model. We should also think about making a really, really good poster-sized flyer.

Yesterday I made a flyer for the community meetings. I really dislike it--it looks like something made by some campus group. I hope somebody has the energy to do something better.

Zoe

I got no love from Golden Gate and Washington schools to hold the North Oakland community meeting. So we currently don't have a North Oakland community meeting location. I talked to a center near Mosswood park that looks promising to hold the meeting as well as do FreeSkool classes. There's also Carter school nearby to where I live that I'm going to contact.

Patty noted that, from her experience, it will be very difficult to find public schools that will allow us to use their space for classes or meetings. This is partially due to liability reasons.

Introduction to the East Bay FreeSkool Project

Brian and Patty were new to the FreeSkool project so we gave them an introduction.

Barrington Collective and The East Bay FreeSkool

The BarringtonCollective is a collective composed mostly of, but not entirely of, current or ex-Berkeley students. We have done projects like the DoItYourselfFestival, a skill sharing festival, and the DisorientationZine, an alternative (non-UC propaganda) introduction to the East Bay for Cal students.

We have also held a summer session of FreeSkool classes which were mostly skill-sharing classes. For example, we had things like a beer brewing class, a jam and preserve class, crocheting class, etc. Most of the people involved were the younger activist folks.

A couple months ago people in the BarringtonCollective wanted to do another FreeSkool for the upcoming summer. A few people had the idea of using the Oakland school crisis as a vehicle for trying to do something larger.

Our currently plan is to connect with the local community (parents and kids) to make the upcoming summer FreeSkool adopt a larger focus. We're going to hold a couple community meetings at the end of April to collect ideas and suggestions. The actual classes will start in June and they will run until the end of August.

We're currently in the midst of organizing everything from ground up. We're trying to organize the community meetings which is proving to be difficult. At the same time, we're still trying to organize locations for the classes and confirm teachers. There is a lot of work to do...

Free Schools in General

There's a long history associated with Free Schools that stretches over the last hundred years. Interest in Free Schools have tended to be cyclical over this time. They're often formed when a group of parents get together and decide that they don't like what the public schools are offering children. Other instances arise as a natural off-shoot of home-schooling. Parents who are home-schooling their children sometimes realize they can pool their resources together and form a school of their own. There is often a radical flavor to the formation of Free Schools.

The Albany Free School is perhaps the clearest example of a successful Free School for children (less than 18 years of age). It was formed in 1969 by a woman who had kids whom were doing poorly in the public schools. She bought some property in a fairly poor area of the city, and, over time, she and the school was able to expand into a really nice building to act as the school. The school also bought old homes next to the school and fixed them to provide free living quarters to teachers and families. Financially speaking, the school collects donations or sliding-scale payments for tuition. Nobody is turned away for lack of funds.

Pedagogically speaking, Free Schools adopt a variety of teaching methods. For example, some use a teaching method similar to the Summerhill model. However, a few generalities can be made. In general, Free Schools recognize that people (kids) will never really learn anything if they're being forced to learn it. In general, Free Schools tend to shy away of using teachers as authority figures.

Class Locations

Discussion

John: We're getting close to the class location confirmation deadline. We currently only have maybe, one, place? This is not cool. What are we going to do?

Anders: I've been thinking about Tinkers Workshop. I know a guy named Tim who has been talking with Nick of Tinkers. They're currently moving to a new space near Aquatic Park. From what I understand, they're open to the idea using their space for classes but demand energy and commitment. They're in a financial squeeze and have had too many people flake on them in the past.

Patty: Fran, who is with Tinkers, has a masters of education. He and the other Tinkers folk are very passionate, committed people. Tinkers is struggling financially. The people that "work" or volunteer for Tinkers could be moving to greener pastures. They're not because they believe in what they're doing.

Editor: The rest of conversation was lost due to an editing glitch. Sorry!

Decision

We are going to get confirmations of class locations by the next FreeSkool meeting (Tuesday the 19th). It may be a good idea to keep a list of Free Skool classes around when speaking with people so you can give them an idea of what kind of classes you would like to hold at their location.

Anthony: Talk to the Developmentally Disabled School and see if they have are able to hold classes. Also talk to the park folks to see if they can hold classes.

Zoe and John: Call Oakland parks and recreation center city coordinator. Call each and every recreation center in Oakland. Remember to check out the center near Mosswood Park and Carter school.

Caitland: Call people and determine the proper procedure for passing out flyers at public schools.

Anders and Patty: Connect with Tinkers and confirm if we can use their space as a class location.

Patty: Call Philip Harper Cotten and find out what places in Berkeley (or elsewhere) would be willing to act as spaces for FreeSkool classes.

Benefit Show

Discussion

Editor: Sorry, I lost the discussion!

Decision

Hold a benefit show at Spaz Port to raise money/awareness for the FreeSkool.

To raise money, we will accept donations for:

Anthony will bottom line the organization of the benefit show. John, Anders and Zoe agreed to help.

Patty brought up an interesting idea of doing a weekly raffle, possibly doing it online. People agreed that this would be too much on our plate at the moment.

Non-profit Paperwork for Patty

Patty needed help to finish an old personal project of starting an education non-profit. Specifically she wanted help filling out the paperwork.

Anders pointed out that the Cooperative Roots folks have formed a non-profit and they may be able to help.

Patty, Helen and John agreed to meet this Tuesday at 6pm to work on Patty's non-profit paperwork.

Community Meetings

Many people commented that since we don't have a North Oakland community meeting location confirmed, it would prudent to push back the North Oakland community meeting a week.

Kiran: May 7th, Saturday, for North Oakland?

Everybody: Yes!

Kiran: Okay, so regarding the Fruitvale location, has anybody been to World Ground's Cafe? I mean, jeezus, it's a cafe. What if it's some snooty hangout that discourages people from attending? Does it even make sense to have a meeting there?

Anthony and Anders: We're thinking about visiting World Ground's this Saturday. We'll let you know how it goes.

Kiran: If somebody doesn't find a better place by Monday the 18th, I'm going to assume we're going to have the meeting there. I'm going to be Orange County these next few days so I'm going to get a lot of FreeSkool work done.

Flyers

Kiran: Rusty and Claire and willing to help us go door-to-door in Fruitvale since they both speak Spanish very well. We still need volunteers to commit to North Oakland.

Anthony: One thing to consider about Oakland--it's a "post-no-bills" zone. We need to figure out other ways of distributing flyers on Oakland.

Kiran: So let's start brainstorming specific places to flyer:

Add to the list folks! Head to FreeSkoolPlanning/FlyerLocations.

Public Calendars

Patty: What about public calendars? We should use them to advertise the FreeSkool.

John: SF Guardian requires two weeks notice.

Anders: East Bay Express requires three weeks notice.

Anthony: Craigslist is online and immediate.

Kiran: I'm totally on top of Craigslist.

Anders: Indymedia also has an online calendars.

People to Contact

Berkeley Parents Network

http://parents.berkeley.edu/

Upcoming Dates

April 18th: EBMUD Free School Supply Giveaway

375 11th Street, Oakland, CA 8am; first come, first served

Patty says there will be art supplies being given for free. We need supplies so we should go and get some!

April 30th: Fruitvale Community Meeting

Tentatively scheduled. Stay tuned...

May 5th: Annual Youth Summit

Berkeley City Council Chambers 2134 MLK Jr. Way, Berkeley, CA 3:30-6:30pm

Contact: Philip Harper-Cotton, Youth Commission Secretary, Parks and Recreation Dept. Pharper-Cotton@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Topics: Voting age, alcohol/drugs, teen centers, education, turf violence, etc.

Patty says that this would be a good location to find frustrated teens willing to put energy into better alternatives.

Next Meeting

Our next FreeSkool meeting will take place Tuesday, April 19th, 8pm at Nabalom Bakery. See you there!

Barrington Collective: MeetingMinutes/FreeSkool/20050412 (last edited 2008-01-10 05:18:28 by anonymous)