tangled webkinz and seeking the source

Hamilton area listeners will be treated to a NEW radio free school show this week, after several weeks of repeats due to computer problems - on the subject of computers we are now running on Kubuntu open source operating system (with a special thanks to Mark Wade for the constant support getting it set up and running)

This week's show features the kids exploring computer use and the Webkinz phenomenon, a song (welcome to the machine, pink floyd) and a field recording made by Evelyna during a Hamilton Naturalist Club hike to the source of Spencer Creek. Download the show here.

We are having trouble reaching the radio4all.net site to upload the show for our web listeners, not sure why we keep getting a DB error. We will monitor the situation and get the show to you ASAP

infrastructure requires funding

Dear Radio Free School listeners and supporters,

We have come to the point (February) in the annual cycle of nature when, as Randy's theory goes, people get their hair cut; but that's not why we are writing.

It is time for the annual fund-raiser at the mighty CFMU 93.3 fm in hard working Hamilton Ontario.

CFMU is one of those wonderful community places where alternative voices can be found, and where Radio Free School has been making our volunteer contribution for the past six years.

There are not many places where you will hear children taking an active role in creating media, so Radio Free School is proud to be a part of the effort to allow children to share their views, and for listeners to explore the ideas that form the basis of the show's theme: unschooling (or home-schooling, life-learning, self-design, etc.) CFMU makes it possible for listeners (both on airwaves and over the internet) to engage with alternative ideas (and music).

Community Radio relies on volunteers to produce the shows, and they also rely on listeners to take an active role in supporting the station. So once a year we come to you to request support in the form of a donation towards CFMU's goal of $21,000 dollars. So please give what you can (suggested donations $20)

All the money pledges goes to operating the station and buying equipment which then benefits the volunteers at the station.

When you make your pledge, please include "Radio Free School" in the subject line so the station bean counters know we have support out there in the community!

Thank you for supporting community campus radio and our show Radio Free School.


Thanks, from Beatrice, Randy, Madeleine, Evelyna and Bronwyn!


HOW TO DONATE TO CFMU
PRE-PLEDGE
Write a cheque to "CFMU-FM" in any amount you can afford
Write "Radio Free School" in the subject line
Send it to
CFMU-FM, Room B119, MUSC
McMaster University, Hamilton ON L8S 4S4
You can call the station at 905-525-9140 ext 27208 if you have any questions

ON-AIR
During the week of March 1 to 7, 2008 the on-air fund-raising takes place
You can call in a pledge any time during the week at 905-528-9888.
Radio Free School will be on the air live Wednesday March 5, 2008 at 12 noon to 12:30pm
Call us then and we will take your pledge over the phone.
Pledge Line 905-528-9888

CFMU regrets that they cannot issue receipts for Income Tax purposes.

KNOW SHOW

Radio Free School has been stymied by the loss (temporary) of our computer used to edit the show. It's been in the shop since last week. Once we get it back we can start catching up on lost time, and the kids are raring to go with some shows of their own devising.

We will also be running the computer on a linux system, so a bit of a learning curve will undoubtedly take place.

Thanks for your patience, we'll keep you in the know!

astonishing: bronwyn vanishes!

Gateway to Fairiedom?
By Ernest Wright, Dundas Globe News

A magic portal accidentally discovered in the woods of Dundas by nine-year old Bronwyn Hayes has the small Ontario town in Southern Canada abuzz.

These astonishing photos by Bronwyn's father, Denver Hayes seem to prove the existence of magical gateway to invisibility.


"It's not actually a portal, in the sense that it doesn't seem to lead anywhere," suggests eminent scientist Dr. James Quon, "but it is a very rare example of a fairie haven point."

Quon's multi-disciplinary research team, based at University of Southern California (Berkeley) have found only one other such "fairie haven point" (or FHP) , the other one on the west coast of Ireland, near Doolin, on the emerald Isle, now a major tourist attraction.

The Dundas FHP is just east of a tree, bent in an elegant arch, near a small wetland. A busy walking trail passes within several metres of the site.

"We have no means to seek them out, other than just these sort of accidental wanderings," says a thrilled Quon. FHP give no clues as to their existence, which some mythologists link to the "little people" or fairies, also known as leprechauns, making such findings extremely significant for study.

FHP's are theorized to have been special hiding places for fairies to elude pursuers. Fairie sightings are still occasionally reported in Ireland and northern parts of Europe and the British Isles, but very few have ever been reported in Canada.

Bronwyn's experience was nothing special, according to the young girl. Having no idea that she had vanished from sight, and that her answering calls to her worried parents could not be heard, she was unperturbed by the fuss.

Her parents say they only saw and heard her when she emerged back from under the suspected FHP.

"One second she was there, then gone. We were so relieved when she came walking towards us," says Denver.

Interestingly, the Irish FHP was discovered by another girl, named Bronwen.

Dr. Quon's team was on site only hours after the event, with the area cordoned off by police to keep the throngs of onlookers at bay.

another pressing affaire

Yay! Another small press fair, this time back in Hamilton, for the first time at the Sky Dragon Centre (27 King William St). The fair is Friday, February 8, 2008 starting at 6:30pm.

A handbill created by prolific local illustrator Gord Pullar even has a special mention of Kitty Corner.

Oui, Kitty Corner creator Bronwyn Kay will be there, as well as works by her sisters Madeleine (Curdled Way) and Evelyna (Poetry) who are elsewhere that evening performing with their band Faceless Gimmick. The Radio Free School gang diversifies...

The small press event will also feature the official launch of the SkyDragon ZINE LIBRARY!

So come down and check it out.

education crisis

Tuned-out students fuel university crisis: authors TheSpec.com - Local - Tuned-out students fuel university crisis: authors

Wade Hemsworth, The Hamilton Spectator, (Jan 12, 2008)

McMaster University proved to be friendly territory for the authors of a provocative book that warns of a crisis in Canadian universities.

Anton Allahar and James Cote, the authors of Ivory Tower Blues, received a warm reception from about 100 instructors and students yesterday.

They described a growing and widespread problem with students who work less but demand higher grades, administrations that deny the problem because they need tuition money to keep going and stressed-out professors caught in the middle.

No one spoke up to disagree.

The authors, both sociology professors at the University of Western Ontario, said university degrees and grades have lost meaning on increasingly commercialized campuses where number-crunchers refer to students as "basic income units" and students expect their tuitions alone to buy them the credentials they have been raised to think they need.

"The university has been in transition from an educational institution to a place of business," Allahar said.

"I used to have students, long ago. Today, I have customers, and in the language of our culture, the customer is always right."

When those customers demand higher grades, too often they get them, the authors said, and everyone gets hurt in the process.

Cote and Allahar said it's not all the students' fault. Parents, school teachers and society in general coddle children and teenagers in a misguided attempt to help them feel good about themselves.

"Everyone gets a gold star in this generation that's coming through," Cote said.

He described a mother who called a university administrator to ask if she could set up a cot in her son's residence room to help him with his transition to university living.

In the six months since their book was published, the authors said they have been cheered by colleagues across Canada but ignored or dismissed by administrators.

They said they are only saying out loud what others have whispered for a generation or more.

Without a universal return to common, honest and accurate standards for marks, the problem will only get worse, they said.

Meanwhile, the value of a university education is falling as stressed-out lecturers teach larger classes of tuned-out students, promoting a "gulp-and-vomit" approach to teaching and learning that favours multiple choice tests over essays and seminars, they said.

whemsworth@thespec.com

Radio Free School is settling in at the National Film Board of Canada's CITIZENSHIFT web - "Online media for social change" multi-media web site.

RFS's contribution helped start, and build, what the Citizenshift folks refer to as a dossier - a mix of media including text, audio, photos, art, and video - on the theme of UNSCHOOLING.

The Radio Free School group poured material in, the NFB workers post it, and now, you can go and check it out. It's got things like Kitty Corner artwork by (then) eight-year-old Bronwyn, a short story by(then) nine-year-old Madeleine, transcript of an interview with unschooling icon Wendy Priesnitz, a transcript of interviews on Children's Rights by (then) 11-year-old Evelyna, and four videos (produced with volunteer-labour at Dundas Independent Video Assoc. - DIVA).

The dossier is found (with more material being added) at citizen.nfb.ca/unschooling

We hope you enjoy it, and the other material from other producers.

Parallax Universe

THICH NHAT HANH
Book Reviews and Readings

Download the show here

• The Hermit and the Well, by Thich Nhat Hanh, Illustrated by Vo-Dinh Mai, read by Evelyna Kay
• Meow said the mouse, by Beatrice Barbey, Illustrated by Philippe Ames, read by Bronwyn Kay
• Under The Rose Apple Tree by Thich Nhat Hanh, read by Beatrice Ekoko
• Each Breathe a Smile, based on teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh, Story by Sister Susan, Illustrated by Nguyen Thi Hop and Nguyen Dong, read by Bronwyn Kay
• Nothing to Do, Nowhere to Go: Reflections on the Teachings of Zen Master Lin Chi by Thich Nhat Hanh, reviewed by Randy Kay
  

Music - Tuva: Voices From the Center of Asia

• Sigit With Igil [Bowed Instrument]
• Sigit With Khomuz
• Kozhamiktar (Antiphonal Quatrains)
  

tech (editing and production)

• Beatrice Ekoko
• Randy Kay
  

1) Incidental education, taking part in the on-going activities of society, must again be made the chief means of learning and teaching.
2) Most high schools should be eliminated, with other kinds of youth communities taking over their sociable functions.
3) College training should generally follow, rather than precede, entry into the professions
4) The Chief occupation of educators should be to see to it that the activities of society provide incidental education, rather than exploitation or neglect. If necessary, we must invent new useful activities that offer educational opportunities
5) The purpose of elementary pedagogy, through age twelve, should be to delay socialization, to protect children's free growth, since our families and community both pressure them too much and do not attend to them enough. Modern times pollute and waste natural human resources, the growing children, just as they do the land, air and water.

(Paul Goodman, 1971)

Enough Already!

I'm skating at the local rink and I'm talking to a woman who I haven't seen in years.
"Homeschooling huh? Well my son would have benefited from that. What i really would have liked him to attend though is private school."

And then, "kids need to learn how to socialize." Oh God. Here we go again. I draw her attention to 3 other families (all friends of ours) skating along side of us. "Yeah but they have to learn how to grapple with other kids. Ya know?"
No. I don't know. They need to learn how to 'grapple' with all kinds of people. They need to learn how to get along with people of all ages. Period.

When will these well meaning folk learn that it doesn't have to happen in the context of school? To live well in society with others, kids need opportunities to be in the WORLD more, not less
(that is, stuck in school).
At school you learn facts and figures (and frankly you can learn these anywhere) but school doesn't MAKE a person.
I've said it before and I'm saying it again; school is not a good place for kids. School is a contrived situation. Get it finally. School is a fake. It is not real.
BEE

back on line at r4a

Oh happy day! Radio4all is back on line! Go, and download our shows!

weather report

The latest update on radio4all -

Shawn and David are still working to get the server back. They are having to reinstall the operating system which became corrupted. I hope we'll be back soon.
Hopefully some results soon, we have grown very accustomed/dependent on this web site.

coffee signs

While we are waiting for news about the status of Radio4all.net (which is still down days after they thought they would be back on line) I wonder if anyone out there in blog land would have the skills to interpret my coffee ground remains for a sign. Should I be worried?

r4all down

Seems Radio4all.net was down yesterday morning when CFMU was trying to download our latest show, so any Hamilton area listeners would not have heard the new show, nor anyone trying to access the show from the web site. It seems that the site was back on line later in the day, and downloading will have resumed.
This is not something that is in our (i.e. radio free school's) control, and it happens occasionally - but not frequently - at radio4all.
It is an amazing service for a show like ours to have the portal of radio4all there to upload our shows to the web, so please support them if you can.

the show must go on: getting your homeschooler to the ivory tower

College Bound Homeschooler?

interview - Jon Reider, Director of College Counseling at San Francisco University High School. Former Senior Admissions Officer at Stanford University.

music - Super Sun Natural, Tom Wilson, Dog Years

tech - beatrice, randy

podcast - www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=25695

"It is improper for older people to keep saying...that activity of the young is 'counterproductive.' It is our business to do something more productive that they can join if they want to."
Paul Goodman
--

RADIO FREE SCHOOL an all volunteer show by, for and about Un-schoolers/Home Learners.
Check out our blog at http://radiofreeschool.blogspot.com or our web site at http://radiofreeschool.ca/

faceless gimmick

Another dundas independent video association production, this one featuring un-school band Faceless Gimmick: doing a cover of the Dixie Chicks' "Wide Open Spaces."

The band's first public performance...average age of band members is 12 (youngest 9-years, oldest 13-years).

mean kitty song

We had a "mean" kitty for a while...

no picnic

One of my favourite bands from the 80's - and a very cute video:

Kit Chat

Download the latest radio free school here

interview - Kit Pearson http://www.kitpearson.com/
- Toronto Small Press Fair - Bronwyn Kay

music - Careless, Drive-By Truckers, Decoration Day
-Big Boned Gal (Remix), K.D. Lang, Alberta: Wild Roses, Northern Lights

tech - beatrice and randy

"Definitions pin things down, they limit the prospects for creativity and diversity. A definition, implicitly attempts to reduce all possible variations of a concept to a single pithy phrase."

Ian Stewart, Letters to a Young Mathematician

Small Pressure

Sell sell sell. Three zine-makers with an array of zine material at the Radio Free School table at the Toronto Small Press Fair (Nov. 10) - At our table Kitty Corner proved the top seller, followed by Curdled Way, then World Wide Zine (France issue) and Poems.
We had a lovely time and our friendly neighbour Drew Simmie was a pleasure to hang out with, the un-schoolers making great use of his fine fountain pen to sign autographs!

Small Time Toronto

Any Radio Free School listeners in the Toronto area are welcome to come and visit some of the rfs team on Saturday at the Toronto Small Press Book Fair.

The kids will have their respective zines for sale: Curdled Way, Poems, and the ever popular Kitty Corner.

The event unfolds at Trinity St. Paul's Centre, 427 Bloor St W, Toronto from 11am-5pm on Saturday, November 10.