Building the Freedom School

From Becca Reily, Augsburg Student and TCUSSF member:

BUILDING THE FREEDOM SCHOOL

To make a space for tolerant, uncriticizing political exploration, to open up to totally new ideas and concerns that would not be heard in anun-egalitarian setting, to connect people to resources and events that could help them act towards their political ideal, to energize and appreciate everyone who hopes that their ideals are just several possible steps away, and to help and inspire everyone without that hope,
Coalition for Student Activism (CSA) will host at least one large, open, egalitarian discussion on the Augsburg
campus.

This is partly modeled after the US social Forum, which had no agenda but a schedule with time slots. The 10,000+ people who came, brought their own activist agendas to fill the time slots of those 5 days, in which they found their own space in Atlanta and their own workshop resources. (http://ussf2007.org)

But CSA will reserve a space at Augsburg, fill it with tables and refreshments, and post a few rules for discussion at the tables, and bring moderation to the discussion after 45 minutes or so of unmoderated mingling. (More than mingling,
surely!) CSA also encourages radical self-expression here.

The loose focus of the first discussion is very relevant to both college and lifelong learners: What would the ideal school or college be like? How can individuals, schools, and society move towards that?

If this interests you at all, please come envision the new Freedom School with us!
If you are part of anything that's already moving toward your ideal school, feel
free to bring publicity materials to the Resource Table at the discussion! Bring
your whole group, if you have one, and all your friends! But, whether coming
alone or with others, please be ready to meet and sit with strangers, who may be
very different from you, but are all coming to our tables in peace.
Below you will find the rules that CSA and other organizers are working on, to
ensure peaceful talking circles. Anyone interested can help organize this. We
welcome your input on the rules before the big meeting we're hosting-- so you
can revise them with us-- but we hope that everyone who comes can abide by the
rules in their latest revision.
We look forward to hearing your views on freedom, peace, and the ideal School!

Rules so far:
Start discussion yourself
Be inclusive, open to other's points
Question points, don't attack people or push them into idealogical categories
Respectfully answer or decline others' questions
Make sure everyone at your table gets to speak