Project 012: Brainstorm
- Posted by: GOOD
- on August 7, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Public education is part of our cultural heritage, and it’s something we need to preserve. But it’s up against some seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Fortunately, there are people like Dave Eggers. The Once Upon a School (OUAS) initiative is a project that grew out of his 2008 TED Prize—awarded by the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference—and his subsequent “wish” to collect 1,000 stories of people doing their part to involve themselves in helping public education. The program attempts to mobilize companies and individuals with creative plans to help public schools—like funding a prom or building a playground. You might not have the means to fund construction, but you can probably think up a way to help a kid or two in your neighborhood. So we’ve partnered with OUAS to hold an open call for ideas that answer the question How can you help local public-school children? Post ideas on our website and you might see your plan put to use. See you next school year.
THE ASSIGNMENT
Send us an idea to help your local public school.
THE REQUIREMENTS
Post an entry on our website.
THE DETAILS
Send your entry to projects(at)goodmagazine(dot)com or post it in the comments below. See the submissions here.
ONCE UPON A SCHOOL
See Dave Eggers’s TEDPrize acceptance speech below. It’s really worth a look.
DISCUSSION: 3 Comments
I disagree that public education is something “we” “need” to preserve.Who is this “we” you presume to speak for?Why do you assume that the government “needs” to run schools? My guess is that you’ve never really examined the problem.Compulsory public education was established not to educate children, but to indoctrinate them in obedience to supposed authority. If you don’t believe me, google John Dewey and the Prussian model of education. Public schooling in the U.S. is explicitly designed to teach us-vs.-them territorialism (ever been to a high school football game?), groupthink, and submission to arbitrary authority. Woe to the students that do not fit in the one-size-fits-all mold that tests and funding are designed around.Public schools do occasionally turn out healthy, well-adjusted children capable of independent thought, but this is more in spite of the program than because of it. I refuse to feed my children into such an enstupidating sausage grinder. They are too precious to serve as statistical fodder for the teachers unions and the federal Department of Education. They deserve better than to spend their formative years on lockdown in a dumbed-down institutional facility.The goals espoused by Good Magazine and Mr. Eggers are laudable to an extent, but ultimately serve as makeup on a corpse. I’d advise a deeper examination of your cherished, and apparently unscrutinized, assumptions.
@Anonymous – Riiiight…Did you actually think a non-profit community outreach forum was going to bash something as vital to the national community as public education? It’s nice that you have the option to offer your children alternatives to public schooling, but what do you suggest for households without stay at home parents or the monetary resources to educate their children in alternative ways? I agree with your arguments completely, but the system and its problems are far more complext than anyone realizes. If you want to reform education, you have to completely and radically reform society as a whole; the two are intertwined.Maybe it’s not that we need to preserve public education. Instead, maybe we need to preserve the idea that public education can change for the better, albeit slowly. At least Good Magazine is looking for ways to improve the situation. The arguments expressed by people like you are valid to an extent, but ultimately serve only as a bigger two-by-four with which to beat a dead horse. The question is: what can you do to make it better?
two rights!…….