Our friend Rajani Kanth, a strong critic of eurocentrism, has published a call for a new kind of education and schooling, which we are republishing here:

The Campus of the Living Arts: A concept for our times

By Professor Rajani Kanth , Harvard University

A General Call for Participation

February , 2015

Please read the Prospectus below and let us know how/in what capacity you might, at this initial stage, wish to contribute.

Let us have a One-paragraph Self-description to help us understand your Candidature.

One easy step is to Self-Nominate yourself to any of the Projected Committees defined in the Precis, or suggest any other capacity/function we may have omitted to include.

Pl. write to: [email protected]

Thank you.

Ad Hoc Steering Committee

A Summary:

It will be a Community of people wishing to pursue independent, non-formalistic ways of living and relating, inclusive of gaining and sharing diverse skills.
It will be a sort of a vast Skills-Exchange facility where Participants teach each other and learn from one another.
The idea is to develop ‘tools of conviviality’: the entire Campus being such a tool.
It’s schooling will be non-formal and accreditation will not be sought in its early Years.
Many of the skills to be learnt will be practical and conducive to self-employment and self-development (e.g., cooking, or basket-weaving, or quilt-making).
All participants will have a choice of donating something: their time, skills, monies to the Project as/when they choose.
Instructors will be volunteers, or recruited to serve a function.
The Campus, eventually will have residential annexes , sort of like a village .
It will ‘evolve’ over time in ecologically and societally sound ways through mutual deliberation.
It will also aim at self-sufficiency and may use its own labor-time scrip.
Initially it will seek donations of materials: land, materials, funds, etc., but eventually will finance itself.
It will be self-governing in microcosms rather than as a centralized entity.
All its norms will evolve in the making of it.

Preamble:

There is a felt-need , today, globally, to bypass formal structures based on competition and private gain in favor of institutions vested with structures/processes that are life-enhancing, based on mutuality, and co-operation, and a true regard for the public weal.

The (current) Intent:

To form a small Ad Hoc Steering Committee to Oversee the Project.

To then situate Committees/Groups that will help plan and co-ordinate such a Project over a long-run planning horizon, initially, in Utah.

The various Committees will undertake to envisage the ‘how-to’ in the areas of: Funding and Finance, Location and land, Design , Materials, Technology and Construction, Instructional Modes and Styles of Pedagogy, Phased Planning of Campus Development, Administrative and Governance Modes, Researching Key People who can Assist the Project, Media , Community, and Public Relations Strategy, Legal and Govermental Liaison, Ecological and Ergonomic Inputs, Appropriate Campus Technologies, Planned Recruitment of All Campus Functionaries

The (imminent) Target:

To set up an autonomous, residential civic Campus in a natural, semi-rural setting, in Utah, that will encourage interactive learning of civilisational and cultural skills, over a large range, to improve the Quality of Life of All.

The Sub-Aims:

The Campus of the Living Arts will be :

1. A broad Instructional facility
2. A living , self-sustaining, civic, Community entity.
3. An Economically viable unit.
4. A Self-Managing unit

The Curricula would include:

1. General Arts & Crafts (pottery, quilt-making, basket-weaving, et.al.)
2. The Culinary Arts
3. Music , Film, and Theatre
4. Philosophy, Anthropology, Architecture, and Theology
5. Ecology, Sustainability, and Human Well-Being
6. Ideas and Ideology
7. Culture, Community, and Civilisational Studies
8. Healing and Therapeutic Studies
9. Select Natural Sciences

Caveat: The Campus is not merely a pedagogical entity but a living, societal, participant, civic, community entity that will seek to model itself on the best norms available so as to be a Template, universally.

Time-Line:

1. 3 months, from now (writing in February 2015) to identify/form the various Committees ,and charge them with Responsibilities.
2. 4 months to have them complete their Assignments.
3. First General Plenary , in Salt Lake City, at the end of that period, where each Committee will Report to the Whole, after which the Next Steps can be formulated.

© R.Kanth February 2015