Saturday, June 2, 4:00 PM

University of Washington, Room 211 Smith Hall

Featuring

Sarah Knopp: Editor of Education and Capitalism and Los Angeles public school teacher

Jesse Hagopian: Contributor to Education and Capitalism and Seattle public school teacher

RSVP for this event at the Education and Capitalism Facebook page.

“Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation” has just been published by Haymarket Books. There will be a book launch and panel discussion in Seattle on June 2nd at 4:00 PM, in the UW Room, 211 Smith Hall.

A conservative consensus dominates the discussion about what’s wrong with our schools and how to fix them: scapegoat teachers, vilify our unions, and promise more private control and market solutions. In each case, students lose—especially students of color and the children of the working class and the poor.

 Education and Capitalism, written by teacher activists, speaks back to that elite consensus. It draws on the ideas and experiences of social justice educators concerned with fighting against racism and working for equality—of activists trying to recapture the radical roots of the labor movement. Informed by a revolutionary vision of pedagogy, schools, and education, the book offers a radical critique of education in Corporate America, and contributes to a vision of education for liberation.

This will be an opportunity to get beyond the immediate education reform debate that we are often consumed with and go deeper into the nature of education.

What is knowledge? What is the role of education in the vastly unequal society that American Capitalism has created? What were Paulo Freire’s ideas in his famous “Pedagogy of the Oppressed?” During periods of mass struggle and revolution, how have students and teachers remade education on completely different models? What were the biggest struggles for social justice that teachers’ unions have taken up?

These questions and others will be addressed during this panel discussion.

The photo above was taken during an era when African-Americans did not have schools in the south and with the help of community leaders and teachers, schools were opened to all children. These schools were called Freedom Schools.

This video gives a brief history of that time.

There is also an interesting article written by the director/coordinator of the Freedom Schools in Mississippi , The Freedom Schools, An Informal History.

Dora