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Open-Source Teaching Clubs
Garrett has a post about a kindly old fellow in the Bronx who runs a free electrical engineering school in a dark industrial-looking basement. All you need to attend it is a clean police record and he provides you with lectures, hands-on lessons, old text books and god knows what else.
The whole thing reminds me of an idea that JK and I were kicking around before I went on vacation. He’d recently bought an old van, a 1977 Dodge Tradesman, which was a real find. Unfortunately it’s an old vehicle and neither of us knows much of anything about cars, let alone old cars. But we’d both very much like to learn. So we scouted around a bit for community college classes that teach you the basics of car repair. Oddly enough, we couldn’t find anything that wasn’t geared strictly to vocational students, people planning a career in car repair. Consequently, you had to go through a particular track, with all kinds of off-subject requirements (like English composition, etc).
Meanwhile, at a pizza place one day, the van piqued the interest of another old car connoisseur, who then went on to show us his old Dodge pick-up truck and talk to us for over fifteen minutes, showing us engine parts that he re-built and slinging all kinds of words at us that neither of us had ever heard before. But the thing was, the guy really enjoyed it, and we enjoyed hearing it. And we got to talking about how cool it would be if we could find a way to connect people like us who are enthusiastic and willing to learn about something - just for the sake of learning it - with people who are enthusiastic and willing to teach others. But to do so in a totally informal setting , outside of the strictures of school, money, careers, etc. Just strictly for the sake of learning, teaching, sharing information and experience with other people.
In other words, it would sort of be like blogging in real-life, except without the blogs. People would just talk to each other face to face instead. It seems like an idea and an aesthetic whose time is ripe to be expanded and perhaps formalized into a simple system that can be replicated anywhere. Sort of like the idea behind Fight Club, I guess, but with people getting together to talk and learn instead of kick each other’s asses (although, if they wanted to teach a class about kicking people’s asses, then that might work too).
Anyway, the more I think about this idea, the more interested I am in actually giving it a try. Only trouble is, I would have no idea how to start or organize something like this. Does anybody know of similar organizational structures that we could apply, models or examples for this type of thing? I’d really love to talk through this idea in more detail.
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July 15th, 2006 at 10:30 am
A couple of things come to mind: book clubs and community programs. I don’t know how folks go about creating book clubs, but I think you might find your local library a good resource. Ours has various kinds of groups that get together there on a regular basis–writing, business, music, etc.. Many communities also offer summer and winter programs with all kinds of activities at various locations. Here, they send out a catalog a couple times a year. I’ve seen it offer all kinds of sports, swimming, dance, travel, self-defense, art, foreign languages, crafts, dog training, computer programs, cooking, music, yoga, aerobics, finance, etc.. Some programs are free. Some have class/material fees. Perhaps your community does something similar.
Agnes
July 15th, 2006 at 10:35 am
This was supposedly how the Japanese martial arts were taught during the ’sengoku jidai’ (fuedal period) — when people had to kill eachother at times, and the general structure of society was often chaotically shifting. It seems like schools of kung fu are taught in a similar way even now. That way being more akin to casual get-togethers, in which a more experienced person would teach a, usually small, group of eager students his skills. I think the general idea is that when you live in a world where you’re actually gonna have to use this stuff, it won’t do to have excessive formalities, or strict hierarchy, or an insane learning plan that requires months of prep-learning before you get any practical working knowledge.
In an anarchist world, where there is no sense of a higher organizational structure, I imagine you’d get a more generalist approach to learning, in which, through your life experience, you meet many interesting people who are willing to teach you many interesting things, that you can actually do stuff with — free of any formal strictures.
July 15th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
I love this idea. I too am drawing a blank so far, as to how to go about it, but I think it’s worth pursuing.
July 15th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Starting it wouldn’t be difficult at all. Find someone willing to teach, a couple of people willing to learn, a place for the first lesson, and simply start it. Start small, with one or two basic classes offered, then, depending on their popularity, start offering larger classes. Advertise on Craigslist, or via flyers in coffeeshops, bookstores and libraries, and by word-of-mouth. “Looking for teachers,” or something like that. Voila!
Thing is, you’d need, at least at first, someone to take the initiative and plan the whole thing out, pick a date/time/subject/location and say “here it is, this is when it happens, be there or don’t.” I’ve found that depending on the whole group to help decide this kind of stuff doesn’t work. It’s better to just start it yourself.
If you want to start something like this in Seattle, I’d totally be game helping out/learning/teaching.
July 15th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Your best bet for Seattle would be creating a post on this forum:
http://www.seattlediy.com/forum/
and putting forth your idea. It’s sometimes a bit slow, but there should be people interested. There should at least be people involved in the DIY Academy, which is more geared towards knitting & pretty generic workshops, but they have the foundation of what you want to get set up down it sounds like…
The DIY scene is exploding in so many ways that I’m sure someone will help you develop your plans better…
July 15th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Houston has Leisure Learning (Unlimited, Inc.)
http://www.llu.com
Car repair to past life regression, it has just about everything. I’m surprised Seattle doesn’t have something similar.
July 15th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
That sounds like a very cool idea. I have to agree with JP in regards to both setting up the date of the meetings and publicizing the group. Craigslist gets pretty good results. You might also want to start a Yahoo group to help everyone stay in touch once you get enough members. Definitely don’t leave the meeting times up to the group to decide, as nothing ever gets decided that way. Good luck!
July 15th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
i don’t know, i don’t think it works that way. it seems like it was most rewarding and interesting because it just happened. you didn’t have to go on craigslist or some lame community college class. the info just kind of appears when you need it. it seems like trying to formally in-formalize it would just kill the vibe.
July 16th, 2006 at 12:13 am
In other words, it would sort of be like blogging in real-life, except without the blogs. People would just talk to each other face to face instead. It seems like an idea and an aesthetic whose time is ripe to be expanded and perhaps formalized into a simple system that can be replicated anywhere.
I bow to your subtle sense of irony.
Does anybody know of similar organizational structures that we could apply, models or examples for this type of thing?
Subversive organizations throughout history.
July 16th, 2006 at 7:59 am
Why must it be in Seattle? I mean, isnt that what the internet was designed for? I know there are many collaborative sites where instruction are given for different interests, there are entire communities, of course you might need a Chilton’s manual to learn about your particular vehicle, and you sound as you are already willing to get your hands dirty.
My husband has had 4 strokes, is not a mechanic but managed to do repairs on my Ford ranger everything from replacing water pumps to installing a new AC compressor. I am currently re-tiling a shower enclosure, although I am not a tilesetter.
There’s a real sense of DIY on the net, its just a matter of getting out of one’s comfort zone. This looks like a pretty good site to get started with
http://www.jonko.com/.
July 16th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Well, part of the point would be to connect people locally with similar interests and to transmit knowledge outside of technological channels
July 17th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
This idea was really big in the 1960s, actually. John Holt described such learning collaboratives in, IIRC, Instead of Education, which you might want to check out.
July 17th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Yeah I can’t believe we invented this idea. It seems so natural that I just must not be calling it the right thing to find the others who are doing it. Thanks for the book recommendation!
July 20th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
[…] Really, you should be able to apply this web of social and cultural connections for any activity you might like to learn, try out or get good at. Most activities, on some level, are social activities. And if they are not, maybe they sould be. That seems to be the point of the DIT “movement,” if you could call it that. And it is also the driving force behind the idea of “open-source” teaching clubs that we’re also currently exploring. […]
September 17th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
[…] [[Continued from here. Ties in threads begun here.]] […]
January 15th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
[…] We were calling this idea “open source teaching clubs” back in the day, but School of Everything is a wonderful name for it as well. More info via TechCrunch. Articles With Similar Themes: […]