Mischief Managed

Well, we just managed to pull the Potter show together after staying up past the bus hours with a bunch of potter fans at Bryan Prince Book Seller's Potter Party in our little part of the world.

Prince's Bookstore is a tiny narrow shop in a walkable community (Westdale) and features high shelves that patrons ascend on a movable ladder. Diagon Alley material, for sure. And of course owner operated by the marvellous man Bryan, and his wonderful staff.

He bought pizza for 500 people.

We ate it up and came up with this: Waiting for Potter

Sorry to the lady who asked me for I.D. when I was trying to interview the kids... I.D. ...at a dress up party! (I was wearing a cape and a fake moustache at the time)

Muggles! They are so suspicious.

The show is more of a dip into fandom, a brush with hype, and a bunch of nice people wearing funny clothes and buying books.

Click on the magic link (above) to find the show and download it.

Now that you've finished the book...

Potter Party

Trelawny, and many potter fans in costume partied at Bryan Prince Books in Hamilton tonight. The party included a fortune teller, games and prizes, and fodder for an upcoming radio free school show. Only one parent rescued her children from being interviewed by a grown man with a badly drawn mustache and a video camera (two kids actually approached to guess that your's truly was dressed as Professor Lupin.)
More later, since the party went on beyond midnight (as it should) and we cabbed home late late late.
Funniest was the two kids dressed as Potter who got sorted into Slytherin (which coincidentally was my house).
Like I said: more later!

ministry approved curriculum

Dolores Umbridge: Your previous instruction in this subject has been disturbingly uneven. But you will be pleased to know from now on, you will be following a carefully structured, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic. Yes?

Hermione Granger: There's nothing in here about using defensive spells.

Dolores Umbridge: Using spells? Ha ha! Well I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom.

Ron Weasley: We're not gonna use magic?

Dolores Umbridge: You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way.

Harry Potter: Well, what use is that? If we're gonna be attacked it won't be risk-free.

Dolores Umbridge: Students will raise their hands when they speak in my class.
[pauses]

Dolores Umbridge: It is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your examinations, which after all, is what school is all about.

Harry Potter: And how is theory supposed to prepare us for what's out there?

Dolores Umbridge: There is nothing out there, dear! Who do you imagine would want to attack children like yourself?

Harry Potter: I don't know, maybe, Lord Voldemort!

C, eh? N, eh? D, eh?

People say "How will the kids be part of the culture if they don't go to school?" "How will they be good citizens if they don't have a civic education from school?"

First of all, "are you talking about pop culture?" is what I'll ask. Because if you are, I can tell you, you can't avoid it (Unless you live in a basement and never see the light of day).

Believe me, I've tried. My kids don't go to school and we don't even watch tv. Yet.... they know everything about the latest fashions in clothing styles, they know Brat dolls, My scene dolls, Barbies, Sponge Bob. They know Hello Kitty and Hilary Duff. They know Disney world, Polly dolls, Build a bear, Canada Wonderland. Crocs, 'My story is makeover. I'm revealing my ignorance here- because I don't know the half of it. But you get the point.

My daughters get all the pop I can take courtesy of our neighbour. This little girl knows more about what is in then most 16 year olds. And she is 9!

So maybe you're talking Canadian culture? Maple syrup. Hockey. Cottage country in the summer. Soccer in the summer. Tobogganing in the winter? CBC radio? Canoing? But you obviously don't need to go to school to be exposed to these.

As to civic education, my response is that civics is active. It is current. Sitting in a classroom is not- that's passive and is not very empowering.

Frankly, parents who have their kids out of school are actually more likely to follow current events and expose their children to what is happening in the world. The very decision to home educate doesn't come easily. A great deal of thought is put into it. It's a responsibility that home education parents don't take lightly. If they've made that decision you can pretty much guarantee they are enlightened enough to allow their children to question everything- including authority.

More likely us not, unschooled kids are encouraged to consider how the world around them operates, how it affects them personally, what could be different about it. How can they impact it in turn.

The bigger questions are asked- the environment, freedom of speech, freedom to pursue your own education...These are not light ideas. They are powerful and empowering.

I think that's what a civic education at school might lack. It's just not dynamic enough in the sense that kids feel they can make a difference in their community - which is where it all begins right?

by BEE

Notes:

This is from my 11 year old daughter (E.K.) who likes to get her history and Geography lessons from reading fiction books. Right now she is reading Dear Canada Diaries ( all written by Canadian authors) such as Not a nickel to spare, If I die before I wake. A prairie as wide as the sea. No safe harbour. Winter of Peril. with nothing but Our Courage. Brothers far from home. Orphan at my door.

She says about this series "Awesome! So many facts. Especially No safe harbour and If I die before I wake. Both are tragic and about huge loses. If I die about the flu pandemic caused more death than the Great War. (WW1) No safe harbour tells the story of the Halifax explosion. Better than My Canadian Girl- which reaches out to young readers. The Dear Canada Diaries are more for my age."

...why?

Why Grass? Why pesticides? Why cut? Why stripes?
O, for a future that lets nature back in!

whole lotta gardens and trees and things

this week on radio free school:

plant & page
download it here

interviews
- Caleb in his garden
- Randy and Bronwyn in their container garden
- Juby Lee and James during the Dundas Tree Count Inventory (Environment Hamilton project)

reading
- Madeleine reads Ladybug Garden by Celia Godkin

music
- Daybreak, Harry Nilsson, Everybody's Talking (Very Best of)
- Field Holler, Back Roads to Cold Mountain, T.J. Chesser
- glockenspiel impromptu, Evelyna
- Bimba dagli occhi, Madama Butterfly, Puccini

(the show has really nothing to do with Robert and Jimmy, but boy, do they rock!)

Summer smile

Caleb gets into the (belated) summer solstice spirit with a berry-smeared chin and a lovely smile!

sounds

The learning curve on new sound editing software (audacity) is cresting, so we hope the quality of the show recordings are heading back into the "good" range as we figure things out.

There are always challenges to getting it right including: our recording equipment (a digital video camera) is six years old and acting older with loose connections that make the audio good or bad depending on how you shake it; competing with child-generated music and general household noise while trying to edit the show, and (partly due to the previous reason) the fact that we often edit in the wee hours after long days of work.

But when the equipment is working, and the humans at the controls are awake, we hope to get the highest possible quality sound out to the airwaves and to the net for you.

You can help by letting us know what you think, about anything we are doing with radio free school. Anytime.

radiofreeschool (at) gmail (dot) com

coming to canada

Exploring Canada Day

interviews - Making Pancakes/Crepes. Opinions on Canada (Canada Day July 1). Karl Hess from the film Anarchism in America

music - Constitution Breakdown, and Anti-Confederation Song, from Classic Canadian Songs from Smithsonian Folkways

tech - beatrice and randy

listen - download here

The real non-resistants can believe in direct action only, never in political action. For the basis of all political action is coercion; even when the State does good things, it finally rests on a club, a gun, or a prison, for its power to carry them through. -Voltairine de Cleyre