The formal education system affects us all. Not only are we forced to attend schools growing up, but academic research shapes our governments, our news, and how we view the world around us. As much as many of us want to believe in the promise of institutional education, the sad fact is that our schools and universities are undemocratic and elitist. They perpetuate inequalities instead of giving people the tools to fight them. This world is fucked.
Here at Radical Sunday School, though, we know that another world is possible. Everyone should be able to direct their own learning, to grow together with their communities, and to live as though they’re already free. There are countless examples of movements already putting these ideas into practice. This collective is trying to follow in their footsteps, organizing to explore new ways of learning based on principles of autonomy, mutual aid, and egalitarianism.
Learning Through Doing
Radical Sunday School will be a place for us all to practice anti-authoritarian ways of learning together. The schools we had to grow up in taught us to compete against one another to find the one right answer. Here, we work hard to unlearn that kind of thinking — and that won’t always be easy. The important thing is that in our community, nobody should experience the burdens, pressures, and shame that come from strictly separating so-called “experts” from ordinary people, teachers from students, and thinkers from doers. In our school, everyone has something to share, and everyone has something to learn.
Building Solidarity
Traditional education divides us, with university activists often being out of touch with their broader communities. We’re sick of that little university bubble, and we’re going to burst it. Radical Sunday School is a place for everyone to come together to share knowledge and learn from each other, regardless of background. The city is already full of collectives and organizations who are fighting for a free and equal world. Our plan is to help these groups connect with each other by organising skillshares, discussions, and other learning experiences. When we learn together, we can fight together.
Counterpower
Radical Sunday School is an anti-authoritarian political project. We’re building a space outside the schools and institutes where we’re taught to believe that we cannot change the world. We’re proving that another school is possible by making it real in the here and now. And we’re not alone. From anarchists at the Escuela Moderna in 1900s Spain, to autonomous peasants in present day Chiapas, Mexico, from Nishnaabeg activists in today’s so-called Canada to Black Panthers in 1960s Oakland, California — people are building and maintaining other ways of learning together, and showing us how it’s done. To anyone reading this who wants to learn like they’re already free, come join us.