Chicago Conference on Popular Education, June 21-24, at Little Village High School
Sylvia, Sande and I went to this conference to participate on a panel on freedom schools: then and now. Below are some of my notes from the conference:
Friday Morning
Plenary: A brief history of Little Village High School, located in the Southwest part of town (mixed industrial/residential). School board promised a school in this area, then reneged on their promise. So at "Camp Cesar Chavez," the community rallied for a 19 day hunger strike and forced the city to build a beautiful new building divided into four small schools: World Languages; Social Justice; Multicultural Arts; and Math, Science and Technology.
We then saw a 5 minute video about
the creation of the Chicago Freedom School which is being launched this summer. After the video, three youth spoke of what CFS was all about:• to collaborate with like-minded people (social justice)
• build youth leadership
• establish a sense of community and urgency for action
• a place where youth can learn in a holistic approach what they will actually use: "how many times have you sat in a classroom and said, 'we are never going to use this'!!!!"
Charles Payne spoke briefly: This conference is about what we have in common
--- we are tired of underfunded schools that hold young people in contempt
