Swaraj University is a bold effort to challenge and bring change to the higher education scenario. It allows young adults to create and self design their own learning paths.

At Swaraj University there is a strong focus on sustainability and green entrepreneurship as well as on healthy personal lifestyle choices, community activism, unlearning and co-learning.

Khojis’ (learners/students) from the first batch have already received job offers or are starting their own enterprises. Several have been earning+ learning in their second year and several are experimenting with different facets of the gift culture.

For example:

Jayesh has started Banyan Roots organic store in Udaipur;

Gyan is working as documentary film maker with ‘Ekta Parishad’ social movement;

Vikas is working on naturopathy and pranic healing.

Sakhi has started the Prem-Patra project to promote slow communication and the ancient art of letter-writing.

Rahul is writing and sharing his experiences in development journals.

Orientation programmes for the forthcoming July 2012 batch will be held at Udaipur on 26^th and 27^th May and at Nasik on 2^nd June. More may be scheduled in other places if a group is interested.

More details:

www.swarajuniversity.org

About the workshop:

A Jeevan Vidya workshop is an intensive 40-hour learning experience that seeks to bring one’s attention to neglected and subtle facets of life; issues related to interpersonal relations, education, society, environment, aspirations, success are discussed and participants are provided critical tools to help them explore the rich web of connections between seemingly disparate aspects of life. There is no sermonizing; the facilitator presents sets of proposals, and helps participants bring their attention to bear on the inner workings of their thoughts, fears and aspirations. Gradually one begins to interrogate hidden assumptions and get a sharper, clearer view of the whole intricate fabric of life; one begins to see new possibilities for positive human action. The idea is to trigger an empowering, self-critical inner dialogue that begins with the workshop, but doesn’t end with it…

This is a residential workshop hosted at the Swaraj University campus (Tapovan Ashram, Udaipur). We only have room for 25 people this year, so please register as soon as possible. It is important that you attend the whole workshop from start to finish as each day builds on the previous one. Participants will also be asked to participate in cooking and farming activities on the campus. There will also be some nature treks.

The facilitators:

This workshop will be facilitated by Vinish Gupta, who heads the Centre for Holistic Learning. He has been involved with various social and environmental movements in the past. Until a few years ago, when he took formal permission and left the order, he was a monk in a Buddhist monastic order for over a decade, during which time he also had opportunity to explore traditional Indian systems of thought and living.

Assisting Vinish in conducting the workshop will be his wife, Karuna Morarji. Karuna has a long-standing concern with understanding relationships between education and visions of human possibility and development. Her other current interests include food, film, processual/historical analysis and collaborative ways of teaching, learning and living.

What to bring?

Bring a bedsheet with you, water bottle, towel, hat, toiletries, any interesting materials from your organization to share and anything creative that you like to do to share with others.

As with all Swapathgami events, people are invited to contribute what they can (the cost of organizing the workshop is approximately Rs.1800 per person for food and stay); scholarships are available to those who need them. And if you can, your additional contribution will help to support other peoples’ participation.  We are proud to say that the Swapathgami Network does not take any funding, but rather is financed by its own members. for more info on the swapathgami network, check out http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/walkoutsnetwork.htm

Please feel free to forward this invitation to other youth.  Get in touch with us at <manish@swaraj.org> or call 0294-245-1303 if you are interested in coming so that we can reserve your seat.

Manish Jain,Vinish, Karuna, Reva
Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development
83 Adinath Nagar, Udaipur, Rajasthan, 313004 INDIA
Tel: 91-294-245-1303
Web: www.swaraj.org/shikshantar

Skype: manishjainudaipur

Dumbing Us Down: the hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling, written by John Taylor Gatto comes down hard on the industrial one-size-fits-all schooling model. Gatto argues that not only are schools irrelevant to the lives of children, they are in fact damaging. His central thesis is that factory schooling is causing great harm to children and communities. It is an anti-learning, anti-social and anti-democratic activity. The book reveals the shocking reality of the present day’s school system and has become a beacon for parents seeking alternatives to it.

After teaching for years John Taylor Gatto reached the sad conclusion that schooling has nothing to do with learning but has the hidden agenda to teach young people to conform to the economic and social order.

About the author:

John Taylor Gatto has taught for over 30 years in Government Public Schools and is recipient of the New York City Teacher of the Year Award and New York State Teacher of the Year.  He is much sought after speaker on Education. Recently he has started Bartleby Project to peacefully refuse to take standardized tests or to participate in any preparation of these tests by simply writing “I would prefer not to take your test.” His other books are A Different Kind of Teacher, The Underground History of American Education and Weapons of Mass Instruction (Banyan Tree).

For orders contact:

B A N Y A N T R E E

`happiness grows naturally”
1-B, Dhenu Market, 2nd Floor,INDORE-452003
Tel. 91-731-2531488, 2532243, Mob 9425904428
email: banyantreebookstore@gmail.com
www.banyantreebookstore.weebly.com

From July 2-13, 2012 at Paro College of Education, Bhutan
On the Lhomon Education web page http://www.lhomon.bt/education/about/ you will find information about the forthcoming Curriculum Development Workshop. Lhomon Education will work with six partner organizations to develop alternative project-based curricula that will be implemented in a wide variety of learning environments beginning 2013.

Contact for feedback and more details:

Noa Jones
Education Coordinator
Lhomon Society
Email: noa@lhomon.bt

+975-1734-8878
Skype: noajones

I had no heart
to tell her that, mother,
you should let me be.
My mind goes numb
when confronted with,
my bête noire, trigonometry.

Give me a simple
sum to solve
and I am all at sea.
Calculus, algebra,
cause embarrassment
and acute mental agony.

All those with
engineering skills
have love for geometry
My world should
have no angles,
no signs of symmetry.

Constantly harassed
medical practitioners
I would rather a patient be,
Have no desire to
spend long years
learning bio-chemistry.

Agonizing, preparing
for brutal exams,
where ulcers are for free.
Wish not to spend
my balance years
dealing with human misery.

Help me be my engineer,
let me ‘doctor’ my
un-chartered destiny.
I know, dear mom,
you love me lots,
but do not plan for me.

Am aware that you want
me to lead the way
but I know what is good for me.
You lead your life,
gave me this world,
don’t steer my life for me.

(This poem with its authorship ascribed to Kapil Sibal was received by Taleemnet. If this be true and if this be the true sentiment of the minister who holds the responsible post of deciding the future of education of the children of India, there is still hope…)

EKLAVYA
E-10, BDA COLONY Shankar Nagar
Shivaji Nagar
Bhopal 462 016 (MP)
Phone (0755) 267 1017, 255 1109
www.eklavya.in

The curriculum has been prepared based on sound ecological principles for reorienting the focus of learning to a rural milieu.

The document has been prepared by Taleemnet, the Organic Farming Association of India and the Natural Farming Institute with other collaborators. It is the outcome of a yearlong research based on inputs from pioneer educators, organic farmers, thinkers, visionaries, children, rural communities and academicians from across the country.

The complete document running into nearly 300 pages can be downloaded from the following link: http://multiworldindia.org/natural-farming-institute/

We look forward to your valuable feedback at: taleemnet@gmail.com

The Year On campaign basically seeks to encourage youth to consider taking a gap year for self-reflection, travel, practical experience and community engagement. The reason we have called it a year on is to challenge the common misperception that children waste a year if they take a gap year. So rather than take a year off, we suggest taking a year on.

This campaign is timely and relevant at this time for 3 reasons:

1) It is currently exam season and there is a lot of pressure on students. A year on is a great anti-dote to this pressure.

2) Major universities from around the world, such as Harvard University, have started encouraging students to take a gap year before admissions. They feel that students who have taken a year on are more mature and can better avail of opportunities at the university level.

3) As part of this campaign in india, several school principals and guidance counselors from well-known educational institutions such as Mirambika, the Valley School, Riverside School, have started voicing their expert opinions that it is very beneficial on both pedagogical and social levels if the student takes gap year. They feel that the gap year after 8th or 10th or 12th or during college should be an essential part of the students’ educational program for the 21st century. It promotes the students’ capacities for self-designed learning. Also these principals are willing to allow students re-admission to their schools after the gap year.

Currently the biggest barrier to the year on concept is the parents. They are afraid to let the children have any space to think for themselves. They also feel that the children will waste time in a gap year if they are not supervised/controlled by a full-time teacher. We are hoping to change this perception of the parents through the year on campaign.

We have recently developed the following blog to support students in their year on explorations.

http://yearon.wordpress.com/

This blog has lots of testimonials, resources, posters which can be used in terms of a press pack for developing an article on this campaign for your publication.

There is also a very beautiful book, Free from School, written by Rahul Alvares and published by Other India Press, which highlights the learning adventures of a student when he takes a year on after 10th. Foreign produced Teenage Liberation Handbook is also an excellent resource.

Unlike many international gap year programs, there are no fees to join the Year On campaign. We believe that there is an abundance of learning resources in India just waiting to be tapped into. Some of these are shared on the blog. There also are several volunteers listed who are willing to counsel youth/parents on their gap year options.

We sincerely hope that you can help us spread this option to interested youth and parents as we believe that it will create a significant ripples in the education system.

Please feel free to contact me if you need any further information or would like to have some interviews from students, principals or educationists on the year on campaign.

Best wishes,

Manish Jain

Shikshantar and Swapathgami Network

The course is meant for academics and professionals who want to deepen and broaden their understanding of Indian psychology.

Its central focus is on the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are needed if one wants to include elements of Indian Psychology in one’s teaching, research and professional practice.

For further details and the registration form, please visit http://ipi.org.in/events/ssip2012-info.php

The last date for registration is 15 February, 2012.

Matthijs Cornelissen