Reviews and Comments

the last two chapters focused on the anarchist free skool in toronto, and then a series of workshops hosted by a team including the other

the former analyzed the structure of the free skool, its ethos, and how it was reflected by the participants (who rejected the student/teacher paradigm). it also included in its appendix a short summary of some of the courses

the latter described the workshops ("radical education", and "trauma and privilege"): the goals, what went wrong, what was learned from them, and what could be worked on. incidentally, i think the author's own privilege coloured their attempt to create an open and safe space, which left them with a space that was "open but not free" (in their own words)

these chapters cited friere's pedagogy of the oppressed, illich's deschooling society, open spaces for dialogue and enquiry (and specifically andreotti's soft versus critical global citizenship education - but don't go to the link in the index cause someone domain squatted it and now you'll just see a bunch ads for online casinos with hot korean girls and zeus from age of mythology (?????))

returned it to the library because i wasn't reading it

It started strong, emphasizing the gravity of the situation Adam describes as "the Long Emergency", which is to say imminent climate and societal collapse. He describes first and second hand accounts of grassroots efforts of communities to sustain themselves in the face of disaster, despite the system failing them.

The second and third chapters felt like a long string of references that, to me, felt a bit drawn out; but I guess painted a picture.

The last chapter felt more succinct, talking about what all of the preceding information meant for us today and the near future. It was very quotable, as you might've noticed by me quoting it three times today 😅

The conclusion was also nice and hopeful