I just received the newest Yes! Magazine issue in my mailbox today. I had heard that the fall issue would be focused on education, and I was excitedly awaiting its delivery. Sure enough, the folks at Yes! did not disappoint. The cover slogan of the issue is, “Learn as You Go,” and the issue features “13 Radical Acts of Education.”
There are articles by leading educators and thinkers like John Taylor Gatto and Ron Miller, an interview with the ever-inspiring Parker Palmer, an account of the great work of Grace Lee Boggs and the Boggs Center in Detroit, and introductions to a ton of great schools and projects like the Albany Free School (where I had the honor and privilege to teach for a year), Foxfire’s community education project running since 1966, the excellent organization Shikshantar in India, and the Reschool Yourself site that chronicles my friend Melia Dicker’s journey to re-visit and re-think her own schooling.
In short, a great snapshot of what education can and ought to be when it is grounded in our nation’s democratic values – where young people, teachers, and community members are dynamic participants in the creation of their own learning and the building of a more vibrant democratic society.
If you don’t subscribe to this incredible magazine, consider signing up or at the very least getting this issue. Yes! is one of the very few magazines out there writing powerfully about the ideas of community living, direct participation, sustainability, equity and justice, and, yes, democratic education.