Anarchist & Radical Book Club discussion

I'm training to be a Spanish teacher, and I was wondering if anyone can recommend any good books about learning how to be a good anti-authoritarian educator within the current system, especially when dealing with issues like discipline. Most of the "education for liberation genre" is more theory, and I'm looking for more practical advice that I could use in the classroom. Any ideas?

I don't know if it turned out to be good or not, but my teacher friend was reading Cooperative Discipline a little while ago for the same reasons. I'll try to check in with him for an opinion.

I have never read an exemplary piece on this matter, but you piece together a praxis from reading Deschooling Society and Pedagogy of the Oppressed

The Ignorant Schoolmaster by Ranciere. Also has a great story about anti-authoritarian foreign learning.

If you can read Spanish I suggest some works of Pedro García Olivo, formerly teacher ("mercenary", he says), where he throws a radical negation of the teaching institution in western societys.

Two books:

- El enigma de la docilidad: Sobre la implicación de la Escuela en el exterminio global de la disensión y de la diferencia
- El educador mercenario: Por una crítica radical de las escuelas de la democracia

I think something useful can probably be gotten out of Dewey's Democracy and Education, I remember it gave me some ideas when I read it long ago. Not super-radical perhaps, but I think Dewey has ideas about how to respect students' autonomy.

I'm an odd breed of teacher: a leftist at a Waldorf school, but I think Steiner actually was a brilliant pedagogue and had great ideas about discipline (mostly how to teach to keep a wide variety of kids engaged so you need as little of it as possible). The old man was also a radical in his way, though of course he had a huge cult of personality, flirted withheld the right as well as the left, and was irremediably idealist... BUT I still think he's worth checking out. I've picked up good classroom management techniques more on the job than in books (out have to wade through a fair amount of esoteric woo-woo nonsense to get the goods out of Steiner) but I'd recommend talking to any Waldorf teachers you know, perhaps especially those in public Waldorf charters where the range of kids would be closer to "normal".

sorry, "withheld" should say "with". Robot teacher made bad correction.

I think Steiner is really interesting too, even though he might have been a Nazi sympathizer. Are there any of his books in particular that I should check out?

Fred Jones Tools for Teaching: Discipline, Instruction, Motivation. Primary Prevention of Classroom Discipline Problems. Though it's framed as practical good sense--and it is!--the Jones system is really the only one I've found based on giving students more power, choices, active learning, and responsibility, while exploring why consistency in setting limits actually leads to a more positive classroom and stronger relationships. It accommodates cooperative learning very easily, too--in fact, I've found it to be crucial for it.

I think that John Taylor Gatto's "A Different Kind of Teacher" has some interesting stuff in it. Also, Colin Ward and David Goodway's "Talking Anarchy" has a short section on teaching.

Thanks, I'll look into this. Gatto is one of my role models, even though he is a libertarian he has one of the best critiques of the school system of any author I've read...

I'd love to teach an online project-based learning class along Gatto lines, thought I'd probably include more cooperative learning than he would. If you're curious about PBL, check out Project Based Learning by the Buck Institute for Education (2003).

Teaching with Love and Logic helped me teach and subvert some authoritarianism. It's way more of a practical guide than theory. Also anything on Montessori theory is good to cherry pick from.

L' ''Escola Moderna'' by Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia

Are you teaching Spanish or politics? Why don't you teach what you are supposed to teach and not try to brainwash. This is exactly the reason for the cretinism of society.