Briefly, we say that The Public School is a school with no curriculum.
Which means that the curriculum comes out of the people participating
in the school, in the life of the school. Because teachers, students,
and administrators are constantly switching places, sometimes several
times in a day, it's not simply the class, but the whole curriculum,
the entire institution that is part of the regular discussions. Lots
of people make the project. The Public School works by asking people
to propose classes that they wanted to take (or teach); and then
others can begin saying their interested, having discussions, sharing
resources, etc; and then the classes that seem the most vital or
timely or provocative are scheduled. There is no disciplinary
framework (the school is not accredited and it has nothing to do with
the public school system in the US) which means the people involved
often come from different places and can have significantly different
investments in the subject matter. Unlike online learning which uses
the internet to broadcast classes, to disperse the classroom, we're
more interested in using it as a way of getting people together, in
trying to activate the radical potential of the classroom.
Although they are independent, RG and The Public School do have a
relationship that's both conceptual and technical. Practically,
classes at The Public School can use an issue from RG as a
syllabus. A few examples of this (accessible from the RG tab right
under the class title):
Kultural Kapital -- http://la.thepublicschool.org/class/1326
UC Strikes and Beyond -- http://la.thepublicschool.org/class/1856
Economies of Attention -- http://la.thepublicschool.org/class/1445
Queer Technologies -- http://la.thepublicschool.org/class/64
Performance/ Performativity/ Enactment --
http://la.thepublicschool.org/class/1515
But this also means that as classes happen at The Public School, the
people involved with that class will scan and upload readings to add
to the syllabus. On the RG side of things, if the issue is shared,
then that means anyone can add a text into it (for example, I made the
Kultural Kapital issue shared and then someone added Jason Read's
Micro-Politics of Capital text). It's a double movement into and out
of the discussion of the class.
The Public School is obviously localized (in several cities), relative
to RG. But hopefully the class webpages themselves can be a
resource to groups of people anywhere who want to do the same class.
We don't record classes or broadcast them or anything (partly because
it is usually boring to watch, but mostly because it impedes the
physical meeting as people futz with technology or hold their tongue)
but we do try and circulate the class idea itself and perhaps some
material and organizing discussion. I know that Kultural Kapital has
happened, or is happening now, in at least 2 other places!
So to respond to your question a little more generally, Renate, RG
predates The Public School by a few years, but both are motivated by a
certain tendency towards self-education and engaged autonomy (Charles
Esche?). They are both collaborative to the point that the each has a
life of its own.
Finally, I've been thinking more recently about resources, how we
might produce them and how their existence might change things. So, by
resources, I simply mean something that is shared and useful (shared
with and useful to whom is an open question). Producing resources
could just be an act of designation; or maybe it rearranges, removing
from one sphere of life and inserting into another; or by creating new
knowledge, or making restricted knowledge available. Put together,
these actions generate common resources. Given some of what has been
making the news over the past year (at California public higher
education, Middlesex Philosophy Department, for-profit colleges
absorbing federal aid, Puerto Rico, just to rattle off a scattered
few) or the larger financial trends over the past few decades, it
seems appropriate to think about - resources as a part of strategic
withdrawl.
Sean
PS: for a couple more days.
On Jun 3, 2010, at 6:52 AM, Renate Ferro wrote:
Morgan and Sean, I just read both links and am fascinated by your
project.
Can you explain both the RG and The Public School? What's the
relationship between the two specifically. And the AAARG site is
static
right now? Renate
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