MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE AND BROOKLYN FREE SCHOOL (BFS) PARTNER TO PRESENT DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION SYMPOSIUM

The 2nd Annual Democratic Education Symposium will be held at Medgar Evers College, 1650 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn on March 5, 2011, 9am to 6pm. The theme of this year’s Symposium is: Extending
Our Roots to Find Common Ground and Taking Action to Change Education.

The keynote speakers will be noted NYU professor Dr. Pedro Noguera and BFS students Semeo Doe and Naya Streeks.

The event is a one-day conference that will center on how various stakeholders are bringing change to education in their classrooms, schools, districts, to make them more democratic —
fostering greater input and involvement from students, teachers, and parents in the educational process. The symposium invites scholars, researchers, educators, parents, and students to examine and transcend the boundaries that divide them by participating in activities and discussions.

Some of the activities scheduled:
• Becoming Activist: Collaboratively documenting the work of urban youth organizers through the design
of ethical-political educational research

• ALAS (Association for Latino Studies at Medgar Evers College): Creating a Democratic Student Space at
a Public University

• Two panels composed solely of students; one from a public middle school and the other from a democratic
education school

• Promoting democratic decision-making as a lifelong process for success

• Freedom Schools and Free Schools, Hip Hop Culture and Democratic Education: Understanding our Concepts and Roots to Reach Common Ground

• Bringing democratic education methods into non-democratic schools and classrooms

• Making the case for LGBTQ inclusion: Making Connections, Building Common Cause

The conference is free and breakfast and lunch are included.

Dr. Pedro Noguera Naya Streeks
Where Children Are Free to Be Themselves

Dr. Noguera is an urban sociologist whose scholarship and research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions in the urban environment. He is the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University.

Medgar Evers College is part of City University of New York (CUNY) it was founded on the philosophy that believes that education has the power to positively transform the lives of individuals and is the right of all individuals in the pursuit of self-actualization.

BFS is part of a grassroots movement formed in the early fall of 2003, offering a true educational alternative to the traditional orthodoxy of education now dominant in most public and private schools in New York City. In January 2010, the school acquired its own building at 372 Clinton Avenue in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn. BFS was recently featured on a segment of the NPR radio broadcast of This American Life. For more information on this groundbreaking educational option, you can visit the website at:
http://www.brooklynfreeschool.org

WHAT: 2nd Annual Democratic Education Symposium
WHERE: Medgar Evers College
1650 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
WHEN: Saturday, March 5, 2011
9am – 6pm
See the flyer at http://www.brooklynfreeschool.org/news/sympflyr.pdf