PeaceMaker Virtual
Free University (t.m.)(inc.)
(c) 1972-2006 “MEDIA FREE TIMES”(t.m.) vol. 31 # 1
Virtual Free University (t.m.)(inc.)
all world rights reserved
Welcome to the world's first Virtual Free University (t.m.)
Huxley / Postman et al write "there is a race between education and disater...people need to know how to use media ..." Illich et al write "we need to de-school society..." the mandate of VFU(t.m.) is to meet these needs. If you want to learn about media ...to use it and not have it use you ...you are in the right place :
Your De-Schooling Starts Here…Enter:
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Suggested Reading on Our Principles and a Brief History:
The
Free University is not an original idea, there were many experimental
models dating back to
In 1972 our "Media Free Times" pioneered - periodical multi media random sampling. That later became what we call now hypertext web pages and was originaly designed for public open access to free thought, pacifist education and to bypass the strangle hold of institutionalized "Art and Media Mafia". Many of us remember and were friends of Ivan Illitch*. Some of us are professional educators up against the corporate agenda. Many of us are also friends of Bill W. and are open to sharing our "experience strength and hope ". Some are disenfranchised hyper intelligent Ultra creative minds, unable to function in academic meritocracies. Some have tried and succeeded in obtaining degrees but found that the original fire for the arts had been entirely extinguished in the process. Many of us have gone into debt, or suffered workaholic burnouts attempting to leap in through the hops of the socioeconomic grid. Some are completely fed up with advertising, indoctrination and corporate media monopoly control over academia. We are all intelligent enough to be aware.
The philosophical foundations date back 4000 years to Pre Vedic times and are discernible in Zen Buddhist, Taoist, Vaidila and Vedanta systems Where seekers studied under mentors. The influence of ethicists like Moses, Socrates and Platinus. The ancient ancestral oral tradition of indigenous cultures. The light passed down from generation to generation. The difference is that this time it's the virtual environment of electronic expanded media that is incorporated as part of the classroom. We pay for it, even against our wills, why not learn from it?
The early attempts at alternative Free Universities, that some of us remember, that were part of the experimental media education models failed, often underfinanced, imploded under the weight of their own idealism. We have learned from 35 years of experience. In 12 step recovery circles, we have embraced a functional benevolent anarchy. In the process of life experience, through design for the real world through activist activity we have grown. In our various professions, we innovators and pioneers have been tempered. And now a new generation of the incredibly gifted and intelligent are again going through the meat grinder of mind control machines.
I wrote Illitch once and criticized his one sentence advocating the use of computers in education. He wrote back to me, that indeed he had made an error. History has demonstrated already that this error may be irreversible. The ink has dried on the page. What is done cannot be undone, but it can be changed.
Then, when publishing on a press was a huge and expensive task, our anticipation of electronic publishing and education seemed to have a utopian quality. Everyone could connect with everyone else. Right On!!! Oh Yah.
Today with all of the Internet tools in place, we drown in information overload and only the media monopolies can get a word in. Our children in kindergarten can download ads and porn, but cannot get a book or video from the local library, or her school. A mother is not permitted to write a note to the teacher unless it is emailed.
What follows is a suggested six month foundation course in the new field of Technethics, to prepare for de-schooling. Free Speech that is intensive, difficult reading and Interactive and that means that the structure and content changes and new information providers and facilitators and students (we are all students) come and go as they please. It means that if tithing and donations due not come in, administrative costs prevent further expansion. You can also think about it another way. If the corporations are controling, the so called "accredited universities", "THEY" should pay the students a minimum wage to study there.
Mutual Aid and Common Cause.
"You pays your moneys and you gets what you pays for" Aldeus Huxley.
a Founding Member and Trusted Servant
*Freethought From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that beliefs should be formed on the basis of science and logical principles and not be compromised by authority, tradition, or any other dogma. The cognitive application of freethought is known as freethinking, and practitioners of freethought are known as freethinkers.
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© 1972-2007 Media Free Times -established 1972 - periodical multi-media random sampling of anarchic experimental communications design and technethics - v.32 n. 1 - Peacemaker Virtual Free University - All World Rights Reserved