Author Derrick Jensen to speak on how the current educational system perpetuates disempowerment of our children.
Every now and then a book comes along that is revolutionary enough in its critique of the dominant culture that it manages to cross all boundaries and defy all categorization. "Walking on Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution" has just been released by Chelsea Green Publishing of White River Junction, VT and this event will be Derrick Jensen's only appearance in Vermont!
"Walking on Water" is a startingly evocative examination of teaching, writing, creativity, and life. Remember the days of longing for the hands on the classroom clock to move faster? Most of us would say we love to learn but we hated school. Why is that? Derrick Jensen contends that the culture we live in is based on one great illusion, with schools central to its creation and perpetuaiton: that happiness lies outside of ourselves. By learning to submit and please those in power we freely give our lives to a system where we will always watch the clocks or calendars until the day we retire, regaining our freedom.
Derrick Jensen is a writer increasingly recognized as a major voice of cultural dissent. "A Language Older Than Words" has become an underground best seller on college campuses and "The Culture of Make Believe" was one of two finalists for the 2003 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, which cited it as "a passionate and provocative meditation onthe nexus of racism,genocide, environmental destruction, and corporate malfeasance, where civilization meets its discontents."
He will speak at the New England Youth Theater on Tuesday February 10th at 7:00 PM. THe New England Youth Theater is located at 50 Main Street (next to the Latchis Theater), Brattleboro and the event is free to the public. For more information, please contact Nancy Braus of Everyone's Books at 254-8160.
"I would urge all teachers' colleges and schools of education to get rid of their texbooks and required courses and instead give everyone preparing to be a teacher a copy of Derrick Jensen's "Walking on Water." It is a superb commentary on learning, for both teachers and students- practical and visonary at the same time."
--Howard Zinn, author of "A People's History of the United States"