Thursday, January 3, 2013

manish jain - swaraj uni & shikshantar

Manish Jain - shikshantar & swaraj uni - unschooling
via profile-shikshantar-and-swaraj/


What matters: The intention of Shikshantar and Swaraj University are to directly challenge harmful values that the founders feel are ingrained in the modern world’s approach to education and development. For these visionaries, school need not be compulsory nor based in competition. They challenge the idea of a superior “mono-culture,” (we all need to know the same things), and ask people to reconsider the power of corporations, the allure of consumption, and the monetary-basis of transactions. They do this work by nurturing both thought and action regarding the roles of collaboration, gift-culture, self-designed learning, and environmentally sustainable ways of living
On ed and his daughter, Kanku..
Amidst the chaos (and often contributing to it) is Kanku, Manish and Vidhi’s young daughter. Kanku is an un-schooler. Unlike a homeschooler, who still follows a standardized curriculum, Kanku’s emerging interests comprise her curriculum, her community is her teacher, and her environment is her classroom. Kanku knows what she is missing. Manish points out they’ve taken her to visit schools, just like one might take a child to visit a zoo. He is no shy critic of the conventional education system (of which he sees homeschooling as just another permutation). He likes to point out common aspects found in most schools that he finds unnatural, and often damaging: they are compulsory, based on competition, nurture a singular culture and viewpoint, and are geared towards equipping people with skills that support a consumption-based economy.



visual of city as school et al