Thursday, January 14, 2010 | |

Now soliciting class proposals for any-time, all-the-time!


Who is ready to get rolling on learning all those things that you listed in your new year's resolutions? 2010 starts a decade of ABQ Freeschool.

There are so many talents and skills in the community of Albuquerque — share what you got, learn what you want! Don't hesitate to create a "class" of your own: if you're reading this, then you know something that others would like to learn. Want to study a particular topic with others? Make it a freeschool series! Important resources currently include: the Calendar, the Facebook and Duke City Fix groups, and the Teacher form! The social networking groups are useful for sharing ideas for classes, etc, on the discussion boards. You may want to browse through the links on the right side to other Freeschools for ideas on what this one could look like, directions it may move in, and potential classes.

There is no freeschool bureaucracy, no controlling organization. You are freeschool. To participate, all you have to do is share your ideas. Specifics currently needed:

  • print and distribute flyers, get the word out. UPDATE: zip of flyer files! Also needed are people to approach organizations/businesses that might be interested in offering something to the Freeschool, or plugging into it as a forum to spread free education. Talk to your groups!
  • class offerings! big or small, one workshop, or a series of a dozen academic study groups. What's your idea? Anyone can teach a class in anything they want. Didn't fancy yourself a teacher? Then re-fancy, 'cuz you are.
  • others interested in helping to manage online tasks (calendar, websites, email, etc)
  • free events already going on that could be listed on the calendar? Send 'em in! Know of a knitting club that meets biweekly at a cafe? Great, let us know! Free screening of a documentary on hippos in Africa? Let's hear it.
Send an email to freeschoolburque to help with any of these. We'll be happy to share the file for the general flyer. If you're teaching or facilitating a class, consider making flyers for your class specifically. No one else is gonna do it for you (unless you ask nicely, perhaps). Now for a relevant quote:
It's not that I feel that school is a good idea gone wrong, but a wrong idea from the word go. It's a nutty notion that we can have a place where nothing but learning happens, cut off from the rest of life. -John Holt (author and educator)
Learning is life.