Research around schools and education has long been self-reinforcing, primarily giving reasons for its own existence. Some anarchists fall into the same traps and rigidly support the school as a necessary socialising measure. In order to discuss and debunk these reformist views, we’d like to organise some sessions using the book Schooling in Western Europe: A Social History by Mary Jo Maynes (1985) as an outline for discussion topics.

The sessions have a common goal of sharing experiences through our conversations. Our experiences can spring from our practices, our own upbringing or any other knowledge that can support building revolutionary educational alternatives outside modern schooling. We want to emphasise the importance of our own educational experiences that are valuable to the development of a range of collective learning spaces.

These sessions will be held once a month until the end of the book.This book can be found online at archive.org or on zLibrary, but you are welcome to contact us for individual chapters as necessary.

The first discussion will be around Chapter 1: Introduction. It is not mandatory to read it, though it can help to provoke thoughts about your own experiences and those you continue to see in the world around you.

For more information about us, visit our website at anarchistpedagogies.net.