What would you like to see taught at the FS?

After the lecture last night, we briefly discussed potential topics for future lectures. At the mention of “car repair,” the place fucking erupted. What else would we like to see taught at the Free School? Post your requests here.

My requests:

The history of architecture
Jazz history
Spanish lessons
History of the American Indian genocide

HELP US FIX OUR BIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

id like to see bikes, various music topics, primitive survival…

I’m going to second bikes as well. My bike is a fucking mess at the moment.

I’ll third it for the sake of those of you who don’t have a totally awesome brother who fixes your bike for free. Also down with Taylor’s requests.

My own:

CAR REPAIR/MAINTENANCE (esp. “simple” stuff like changing a tire, changing oil, etc.)
Photography
Meditation

bike maintenance would deffinetly be beneficial to everyone I think. Honestly all the ideas I’ve heard on here and at meetings have interest to me, but in particular I’m very interested in political theories marxism, anarchism, etc…(i think learning these would be beneficial to many who dont have a general understanding of them), the latin american movements and history….but all of it sounds interesting I want to learn it all!

Bike Repair

Foriegn languege courses, brief introduction at the least.

Basic/indepth histories of various political movements from around the world.

Car Repair

arms dealing, seconding the history of architecture.. would you be willing to talk about the porn industry, as well, taylor?

Oh DAMN, I didn’t even think about that! I’ll actually talk to Kristin about that first. She might want to do a lecture on it. But yeah, I’d love to lay down a critique of pornography!

How about getting somebody from the red cross to do a presentation on how to perform CPR

HOW BOUT GETTING SOMEONE FROM THE RED CROSS TO LECTURE ABOUT PORNOGRAPHY?

I like the idea of having someone from the Red Cross come in. That would be really cool.

I can get someone frost the Red Cross involved, oddly enough I don’t know CPR and I would like to change that. But I can talk to my family members involved in that organization.

further, third on the architecture history. I would like to see more photography. I could assist in that lecture, But i would love to see a lecture on developing film.

I’d really like to have some lectures cover the life and works of some great authors. Hemingway would be a fun one :]

Hmm, I can have someone come in who trained me in CPR & First Aid over the summer, can talk to him this weekend.

Angelo: would you be willing to do a quick tutorial on mate?

Well i talked to the relative int he red cross. Seems that in order for them to teach CPR they need to issue certificates to the people being taught. That costs money unfortunately. I suppose it makes sense with the whole being a non profit organization. I can’t give you a price, but I could find out if the group would still be interested.

HAHAHAH mate 101?!?! sure, it would take a five minutes. I posted up an article about the Mate industry, too, which includes some information about the Argentinian workers’ movement. it’s a quick read if folks want to check it out.

Sure, different elements (gourd, bombilla, etc.), types of gourds, etiquette, etc. It will be bad ass.

And if anyone in the group is trained in CPR, they could do a tutorial.

Birkam, can you find out prices for the CPR shit? And if it’s at all flexible if enough people are interested—like, if they can do some kind of group price or whatnot?

Dude, Mate 101 WOULD be super fucking badass.

How about self defense class? Even just a lecture on basic defensive strategies to protect yourself from frat boys while walking down main street? I have access to resources and could gather and read/demo them if needed… I’m really interested in grief, working through it, sharing resources. Meditation was mentioned, I have some experience with that, I don’t think I could lead, but that’d be fun. With regard to first aid training, I know I have seen some anarchist training manuals out there, I think I have one buried in my garage, Angelo, I think I got it when we were at that place in Chicago before the TB Tour? Remember? Anyway, I think a demo by someone certified would be best for first aid/cpr anyway.

Okay, last night, as you all know, we passed around a sheet for stuff people could teach and stuff people wanted to learn. Unfortunately, I’m not entirely sure who wrote down what, but I’m going to do the best I can to match names with subjects based on the seating order. Apologies for any duplicates based on what people have written above. Here is the list of stuff people wanted to learn:

Angelo

Bike stuff!

Mark

Porn industry
Starting a commune/co-housing
Prison system/Justice system

Lindsay

Spanish
Bike maintenance
Marxism/anarchist theory
Literary discussions

Bror

Bike maintenance
Unions
Zapatismo

Angie

Bike stuff
Anarchy/feminism
Privilege
Permaculture (sustainable food systems)

Chris

Anarchist perspectives on currency ($)
Nutrition

Trevor

Building/construction
Literature

(?)

French
Privilege

(?)

Everything!

David

Know your rights
History of colonialism

Ethan

Gardening (vegetables and fruits)
Photography

Roberto

De-colonialism/anti-colonialism
Current Indigenous struggle
Third world feminism
Local politics
Local struggles
Local history

(?)

Current working communes
Meditation
Gardening

Apologies if I missed your name or put a question mark. Not everyone wrote something down (which is obviously okay) so it was hard for me to go by the seating chart. I’ll make a corresponding post in the discussion “what I can teach.”

Thanks everyone for coming out last night!

I’ve been brainstorming. I tried to get rid of the doubles. Maybe I should have kept them to emphasize the topics that I would like to be taught.

The North American Union
9/11 An Inside Job?
Anti-Capitalism
Corporate Ownership of the Media
Money and How it Works
The Idea That Dems/Reps Are Basically The Same/Represent The Same Interests
Sugar/Cocoa/Diamond etc. Production
Pacifism/Non-Violence/Conscientious Objection
World Spiritualities/Religions
Civil Disobedience

I think I would really enjoy a lesson on any of the topics on this whole page though.