CONTEST “LIBERTARIAN PEDAGOGY”

The libertarian movement from the beginning emphasized the importance of education as a means of human emancipation. With just changing a person, his/her way of thinking and feeling, one could change this society; with just teaching values such as mutual aid, solidarity, cooperation, comradeship, one could overcome social dogmas like sick competition, hierarchization or selfishness. With the passage of time, due to the indefatigable work which a lot of libertarians did, these libertarian values were gradually included in different educational systems worldwide.

Nevertheless, the old question arises: is it possible to develop values based on freedom using non-libertarian methods? Should not the means be in accordance with the ends? In view of this situation, we wonder about the validity of the libertarian pedagogy in the world today, if it is possible in a capitalist society to develop some learning methods which allow us to transform it radically. Could the libertarian pedagogy deal with the social evils as believed in the libertarian world? In short, is the anarchist proposal for a free education no longer valid? These questions led us to announce a libertarian pedagogy contest in order to initiate a debate about if the proposal raised more than one century ago in favour of the so-called “comprehensive education” is still valid or if such a proposal should be reformulated.

1º) The submitted works -in Spanish -have to reflect, analyze and/or make proposals for libertarian pedagogy today.

2º) The authors are responsible for the presented works giving over the publishing rights to the Biblioteca La Colmena under a Creative Commons license.

Biblioteca La Colmena Apartado de Correos 618 38208 La Laguna, Tenerife Spain bibliotecalacolmena@gmail.com

7º) To participate in the contest entails to agree to the previous terms by the authors.

Comments

Meh

Submitted by Rich Gardner on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 6:05am

If this were the kind of site where we deleted posts just for being politically incorrect, this would get the boot. We have zero problems with people reading and responding to this, but please be aware that libertarianism is a right-wing ideology. "Let a thousand flowers bloom."

Politically incorrect?

Submitted by Tim G. (not verified) on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 9:59am

Rich, could you please identify for me the politically incorrect statement in the above advertisement? I re-read it and could not find it.

Libertarianism is a broad philosophy. It incorporates ideas that many would consider both "left" and "right". Many self-described Libertarians specifically identify with the "left".

See Left-libertarianism, from Wikipedia:

Left-libertarianism, as defended by contemporary theorists such as Peter Vallentyne, Hillel Steiner, and Michael Otsuka, is a doctrine that has a strong commitment to personal liberty and has an egalitarian view concerning natural resources, believing that it is illegitimate for anyone to claim private ownership of resources to the detriment of others. Some left-libertarians of this type support some form of income redistribution on the grounds of a claim by each individual to be entitled to an equal share of natural resources. Social anarchists, including Murray Bookchin, anarcho-communists such as Peter Kropotkin and anarcho-collectivists such as Mikhail Bakunin, are sometimes called left-libertarian. Noam Chomsky also refers to himself as a left libertarian. The term is sometimes used synonymously with libertarian socialism or used in self-description by geoists who support individuals paying rent to the community for the use of land. Left libertarian parties, such as Green, share with "traditional socialism a distrust of the market, of private investment, and of the achievement ethic, and a commitment to expansion of the welfare state."

(emphasis added). If only we could dismiss ideas we don't like simply by applying unsavory directional labels to them, we could spare ourselves the toil of actually thinking.

A good blog site

Submitted by Tim G. (not verified) on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 10:21am

Here is a good blog site that respectfully discusses libertarian-socialism ("left-libertarian") and anarcho-capitalism ("right-libertarian(?)") side-by-side: Little Alex in Wonderland

Interesting blog

Submitted by Rich Gardner on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 4:20pm

Lots there that left & libertarian-left can agree upon.

Very interesting to hear Chomsky is one of "them"

Submitted by Rich Gardner on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 4:14pm

I regard Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) as the definition of libertarianism as he's the most prominent advocate of same. I have no problem with him being popular within the Republican Party, but I don't see him as having any appeal to progressives or Democrats.
Interesting to hear Noam Chomsky considers himself a libertarian. Didn't know that.

Update: Ron Paul was the nominee of the Libertarian Party in 1988 and made a strong showing in the Republican debate of May 2007. Daily Kos loved his anti-war views and was a bit concerned that liberals might decide he was their guy, so the site did a lengthy piece on him. Paul caused lots of stress and heartache for the Rs, but never caused any worry or distress that he might cost the Democrats votes.

It's not that he's one of "them", it's just that...

Submitted by Tim G. (not verified) on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 9:40pm

...libertarianism is so broad. Chomsky has taken great pains to distinguish himself from "them":

I think the two philosophies share more than Chomsky is letting on here. Both share a desire to be free from forceful government regulation of people and property. I think the main differences are in how each defines property rights.

In any event, I don't believe the simply identifying one-self as libertarian is per se politically incorrect. It's not as if libertarianism is inherently racist, like neo-nazism.

No, libertarianism is not evil

Submitted by Rich Gardner on Tue, 06/02/2009 - 6:36am

I just wanted to make it clear to readers that weren't familiar with the term "libertarian" that "liberal" is a distinct and separate philosophy. As you point out, there are a number of areas where the two philosophies are in agreement.
Thanks for the video on Chomsky.

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