WEEK 1
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, “Land as Pedagogy: Nishnaabeg Intelligence and Rebellious Transformation,” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education, & Society 3, no. 3 (2014): 1-25.
Jonathan Lear, A Case for Irony (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011), pp. 1-41.
WEEK 2
Plato: Meno; Protagoras, excerpts (317e-328d, on teaching virtue); Republic, excerpts from Book II-III (367d-417b, on the polis and on imitation and arts), Book IV (419-445b, on the city and the soul), and Books VI-VII (486d-341b, on sophistry, and the allegory of the cave). The pdf’s here are from Plato, Complete Works, ed. John M. Cooper (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1997).
Isocrates: Antidosis, in Isocrates I, tr. David C. Mirhady and Yun Lee Too (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000), pp. 201-264.
Bernard Stiegler, Taking Care of Youth and the Generations (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010), pp. 1-93.
Judy Chicago (and others), “Womanhouse” (take a look at the primary sources; watch the 40-minute film):
WEEK 3
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education and Of the Conduct of the Understanding, eds. Ruth W. Grant and Nathan Tarcov (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1996), §31-99 and §147-216 from Some Thoughts Concerning Education, and §1-7 from Of the Conduct of the Understanding .
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Emile , tr. Allan Bloom (New York : Basic Books, 1979), Books I and II ( pp. 37-164) and part of Book IV ( pp. 211-257).
Julie L. Davis, Survival Schools: The American Indian Movement and Community Education in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013), focus on chapters 1-4.
Two short texts from Outer Coast (to set up our visitor this week, Matthew Spellberg, dean of that institution, which you can read more on here): 1) their Motto; 2) their Land Acknowledgment.
WEEK 4
John Dewey , Democracy and Education (New York: Macmillan, 1916), familiarize yourself with the book, focusing on a closer read of chapters 6 (“Education as Conservative and Progressive”), 7 (The Democratic Conception in Education”), and 24 (“Philosophy of Education”). (And here is a cleaner pdf of a more recent edition, for the accuracy of which we do not vouch.)
Danielle Allen, Education and Equality (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2016), read chapters 1 and 2 (“Two Concepts of Education” and “Participatory Readiness”).
Laurence R. Veysey, The Emergence of the American University (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965). This is a classic text. Read all (efficiently).
Henry Cowles, The Scientific Method: An Evolution of Thinking from Darwin to Dewey (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020), chapter 7 “Laboratory School.”
“The Oakland Community Learning Center (1977),” episode of the PBS/WGBH youth show Rebop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dYsjDqUdr0&t =82s
WEEK 5
Jacques Rancière, The Ignorant Schoolmaster (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991).
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Bloomsbury, 2018 [1970]).
John Carson, The Measure of Merit: Talents, Inequality, and Intelligence in the French Republics, 1750-1940 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), read PART III, “Merit, Matter, and Mind.”
Jamie Cohen-Cole, The Open Mind: Cold War Politics and the Sciences of Human Nature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014), read chapters 1-4 (“Democratic Minds for a Complex Society,” “The Creative American,” “Interdisciplinarity as a Virtue,” and “The Academy as a Model of America”).
C.L Barber et al., The New College Plan: A Proposal for a Major Departure in Higher Education (Amherst, MA: NP, 1958), skim, with a focus on the first dozen pages: https://sites.hampshire.edu/ctl/files/2014/07/New Coll.pdf
WEEK 6
bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (New York: Routledge, 1994).
Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study (Brooklyn, NY: 2013), pp. 1-99.
Howard Singerman, Art Subjects: Making Artists in the American University (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999). Available at archive.org and at Firestone and Marquand.
Thomas Hirschhorn, Gramsci Monument (New York: Dia Foundation, 2015), peruse the full volume (also available in Marquand), but read the section entitled “Fieldwork,” pp. 35-90. See also https://www.diaart.net/gramsci-monument/.
WEEK 7
Martin Duberman, Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community (New York: Norton, 1993).
WEEK 8
Eva Diaz, The Experimenters: Chance and Design at Black Mountain (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015).
Helen Molesworth, Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015). On reserve at Marquand (on Firestone C floor).
Also: bring us a primary text (or object, piece of music, etc.) that was taught at Black Mountain or made by someone who taught at Black Mountain while they were teaching there. Prepare to teach it to us in ten minutes—drawing your pedagogical inspiration from some moment in Duberman; inspiration, but not necessarily strict imitation. What does teach mean in this context? Well, what does it mean? Whatever it is, give some careful thought to what you can do in ten minutes that will feel vital, generous, and unhurried.
WEEK 9
From NB: The London Mechanics’ Institute
J.C. Robertson and Thomas Hodskin, “Institutions for Instruction of Mechanics. Proposals for a London Mechanics’ Institute,” Mechanic’s Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette no. 7 (October 11, 1823): 99-103.
“Public Meeting, for the Establishment of the London Mechanics’ Institute,” Mechanic’s Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette no. 12 (November 15, 1823): 177-182.
Thomas Hodgskin, Labour Defended against the Claims of Capital; or, the Unproductiveness of Capital Proved with Reference to the Present Combinations amongst Journeymen. By A Labourer (London: Knight and Lacey, 1825), 13-19 and 26-33.
Henry Brougham, Practical Observations Upon the Education of the People, Addressed to the Working Classes and Their Employers (London: Richard Taylor, 1825): 1-12, 15-22, and 27-33.
Charles Dickens, Hard Times Chapter I, Household Words IX, no. 210 (April 1, 1854): 141-145.
Nick also proposes a cornucopia of background sources, not required: Antonio Gramsci, “On Education,” Selections from the Prison Notebooks, edited and translated by Quentin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971 [1926]), 162-191; David Lloyd and Paul Thomas, Culture and the State (New York and London: Routledge, 1998); Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001); Dorothy Thompson, Chartists: Popular Politics in the Industrial Revolution (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984); E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1963), 235-253.
From NI: International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, Education Department
Vivian Gornick, The Romance of American Communism (New York: Basic Books, 1977 / Verso, 2020), pp. 3-9. (Complete book here.)
Arthur Gleason, Workers’ Education: American Experiments (with a few foreign examples), revised edition (New York: Bureau of Industrial Research, 1921), Chapter 1, pp. 5-17; + “Summary,” p. 60. (Complete book here.)
Fannia M. Cohn, “The Educational Work of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union,” in Report of Proceedings: Second National Conference on Workers’ Education in the United States (New York: Workers’ Education Bureau of America, 1922), pp. 52-66.
From AK: New Bauhaus/Institute of Design
László Moholy Nagy, Vision in Motion (Chicago: Paul Theobald and Company, 1969, 1st ed. 1947. Two excerpts: on photography (required) and the foreword, introduction, and first chapter (optional: they give a more general picture of the pedagogical philosophy at the New Bauhaus/Institute of Design). (Complete book here.)
WEEK 10
From TU: Gudskul
Ruangrupa and the Artistic Team, “Lumbung” and “What Is Harvest,”in documenta15: Handbook. Kassel: Hatje Cantz, 2022. (File: Documenta15Handbook)
Ruangrupa + Team Majalah Lumbung, “Editor’s Introduction lumbung Connect and Interconnect,” in Majalah Lumbung: A Magazine on Harvesting and Sharing. Kassel: Hatje Cantz, 2022. (File: IntroLumbung)
Maulida Raviola, “Probing into Gradiasi: lumbung as a Medium, for the Management of Movement Knowledge,” in Majalah Lumbung: A Magazine on Harvesting and Sharing. Kassel: Hatje Cantz, 2022. (File: Gradiasi)
Dedy Hermansyah, “Harvesting Rice, Caring for lumbung, Keeping Traditions,” in Majalah Lumbung: A Magazine on Harvesting and Sharing. Kassel: Hatje Cantz, 2022. (File: Hermansaya_HarvestingRice)
Melani Budianta, “Equal Lumbung of Culture: Poso Women’s School,” in Majalah Lumbung: A Magazine on Harvesting and Sharing. Kassel: Hatje Cantz, 2022. (File: PosoWomen’sSchool)
“Serigrafistas Queer,” in documenta15: Handbook. Kassel: Hatje Cantz, 2022. Please also google them. (File: SerigrafistasQueer)
Please consult this website and focus on the concept of nongkrong: https://documenta-fifteen.de/en/lumbung-members-artists/gudskul/.
Please consult the lumbung rules: https://documenta-fifteen.de/en/easy-lumbung/.
From PH: Education in Ecovillages // The School of Integrated Living
Read: About SOIL / Earthhaven Mission and Goals / SOIL Values and Code of Conduct / SOIL Compositions (aka curriculum)
Marshall B. Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life, (Encinitas: PuddleDancer Press, 3rd Edition 2015), Introduction, pp. 1-14; Chapter 11 “Conflict Resolution & Mediation,” pp. 161-184; Chapter 13 “Liberating Ourselves and Counseling Others” pp. 195-208.
(and for those that prefer having a PDF, page numbers are as follows: Intro pp. 24-38, Chapter 11, pp. 208-239, Chapter 13 pp. 254-268).
Additional Reading:
M.E. O’Brien & Eman Abdelhadi, Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune (Brooklyn: Common Notions, 2022).
Benjamin Walker’s Theory of Everything, “Utopia (part ii),” 2017.
Karen T. Litfin. Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014) Chapter 6 “Consciousness: Being in the Cirlce of Life” pp 149-186.
Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality (Great Britain: Calder & Boyars, 1973).
Jason Hickel, Less is More: How Degrowth will Save the World (London: Heinemann), Chapter 1 “Capitalism: A Creation Story” pp 43-77.
From CA: Drawing Restraint
Pierre Bourdieu, “Invention within Limits,” in Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
And if you have time:
Johan Huizinga, “Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon,” in Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1949.
Alfred North Whitehead, “Lecture Two: Expression,” in Modes of Thought. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938.
WEEK 11
From LD: Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.)
Read for context: Intro from Patrick McCray, Making Art Work: How Cold War Engineers and Artists Forged a New Creative Culture, 2020
Some basic info on E.A.T (I found this a bit late in the game): The Experiments in Art and Technology Datascape (Leclercq and Girard 2011) (I stopped at “A digital method to work on E.A.T. archive?”)
Klüver’s “Fragment on Man and the System,” a short essay in Alfred Leslie’s The Hasty Papers, 1960.
“Homage to New York”
Watch 1-min Video
I love McCray’s description of this work on p. 87-90 in “Part of the machine”.
9 Evenings
General info about this project
DVD of Rachenburg’s piece with Klüver, Rauschenberg, and others talking about E.A.T. in more general terms afterward.
Check out the performance of Robert Whitman’s 1960 piece American Moon, re-staged at PACE earlier this year (scroll down for the film)
Additional Reflections (optional?):
John Blakinger on Gyorgy Kepes and his work at MIT (not an E.A.T.-er). This essay is based on this book.
Steven Shapin Making Art / Discovering Science
Fully Optional:
McCray’s full book, if you’re interested
Klüver “The Great Northeastern Power Failure”, 1966
MoMA press release of “Homage to New York”
“Some More Beginnings” exhibition
Conference organized by the Exploratorium, a science-education museum in San Francisco.
*
From CB: The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University
Basic info- The Jack Kerouac School’s about page, Poetry at Naropa: The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and Introducing the Naropa Collection, which briefly details the founding of the Naropa Institute (now university).
From Disembodied Poetics: Annals of the Jack Kerouac School –
Read Intro and Counterpoetics Statement, Declaration of Interdependence, and The Nomad Tent
Archival Documents –
Video or Transcript – Naropa Institute: First Convocation June 10 1974
Audio or Transcript – Dharma Poetics: Talk 1 June 22 1982
Audio or Transcript – Naropa Institute: Meditation and Poetics: Class Discussion August 11 1978
Audio or Transcript – Naropa Institute: Faculty Seminar: Discussion July 18 1975
The Naropa Poetry Wars – on WS. Merwin and Dana Naone’s visit to Naropa
Read – The Party: A Chronological Perspective on a Confrontation at a Buddhist Seminary
Trungpa, Naropa, and the Outrider Road
Suggested Reading/Viewing
Fried Shoes and Cooked Diamonds (1978) – Documentary about the Jack Kerouac School narrated by Allen Ginsberg
Crazy Wisdom: The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics (2010)
Video or Transcript – Naropa Institute: Poetry Reading August 9 1975
Audio or Transcript – Naropa Institute: Meeting with Poetics Faculty July 1 1982
From MG: Utilitarian Education (The Case of John Stuart Mill)
John Stuart Mill, “Letter to Samuel Bentham” in The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XII—The Earlier Letters (1812-1848), ed. John Robson (Toronto 1963), p. 6-10. (PDF HERE)
John Stuart Mill, “Autobiography,” in The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume I— Autobiography and other Literary Essays, ed. John Robson (Toronto 1963), p. 33 (starting at second paragraph, which begins “At this point concluded what can properly be called my lessons…) – p. 39; 137 – 153. [NOTE: This version of Mill’s autobiography contains the published draft and his earlier draft together; there is no need to read the pages with the “Early Draft” heading] (PDF HERE)
“Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St. Andrews” in The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXI—Essays on Equality, Law, and Education, ed. John Robson (Toronto 1963), p. 217- 257 (This is a bit long, so feel free to skim pp. 237-255) (PDF HERE)
WEEK 12
From RS: Baumschulen
The Secret Life of Plants. Directed by Walon Green. Written by Christopher Bird and Peter Tompkins. Paramount Pictures (United States, 1978).
From CF: New Architectural Schooling
V. Mitch McEwen, Cruz Garcia & Nathalie Frankowski (2023) “Reparations!,” Journal of Architectural Education, 77:1, 3-6
From EH: The Tuskegee Movable School
Thomas Monroe Campbell, The Movable School Goes to the Negro Farmer (Tuskegee Institute: Tuskegee Institute Press, 1936).
Dedication, “To My Wife”
Preface, pp. vii-viii.
Introduction, pp. xiii-xiv.
Chapter One of Part II: The School on Wheels, “Booker T. Washington: Champion of the Negro Farmer,” pp. 79-91.
P. O. Davis, Review, “The Movable School Goes to the Negro Farmer by Thomas Monroe Campbell,” in The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Jul., 1936), pp. 339-341.
Booker T. Washington, “A Farmers’ College on Wheels,” in The World’s Work, Vol. XIII (Nov., 1906-April, 1907), pp. 8352-8354.
Please explore these darning samplers belonging to the permanent collection of the Textiles Department at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, as well as this brief description
[completely optional for those interested…]
Carmen Harris, “Grace under Pressure: The Black Home Extension Service in South Carolina, 1919-1966,” in Rethinking Home Economics: Women and the History of a Profession (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997).
Susan L. Smith, “Good Intentions and Bad Blood in Alabama: From the Tuskegee Movable School to the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment,” in Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Black Women’s Health Activism in America, 1890-1950 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995).
Linda O. Hines, “George W. Carver and the Tuskegee Agricultural Experiment Station,” in Agricultural History, Vol. 53, No. 1 (Jan., 1979), pp. 71-83.
Jeannie M. Whayne, “Black Farmers and the Agricultural Cooperative Extension Service: The Alabama Experience, 1945-1965,” in Agricultural History, Vol. 72, No. 3 (Summer, 1998), pp. 523-551.
