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The Baby Steps of the Family Educators Commons

on Fri, 11/12/2010 - 18:45

I just tweeted this: Article on Family Educator Commons http://bit.ly/bPbcRR is a beautiful example of how ppl R reclaiming the #commons in every area of life!

Here are some paragraphs of the essay that I particularly enjoyed reading.

We intend to explore family education from the perspective of the commons, tracing values that lead to particular patterns in making and sharing of resources in communities and networks of family educators. To guide their changes, many institutions and networks are starting to adapt these community-building and learning patterns: the know-how of family educators. I plead to look at the deeper level of values: the know-why.

Imagine an abundance of diverse, autonomous learning groups, each supporting a strong and focused agenda. If the resource and administrative cost of starting a group is close to zero, what possibilities does it open for the democracy in education? What limitations does it place on demographics with limited group-building capabilities?

 

When women predominate in a community, its economy frequently focuses oncollaborative methods. The majority of family educators have one parent who brings money home and another, usually mother, who engages in coops, barters, gifting, and other community ways of organizing work. Much like the global trouble with educational institutions brings examples of working alternatives to the limelight, the global trouble with currency-based economies calls attention to the blended methods, including those developed by family educators. Let us trace how family education economy works through a day in the life of “Matt,†a semi-hypothetical child educated in family learning communities.

Read the rest of the story, here.