Elias Hicks School

More Thoughts on the Elias Hicks School 

Here are some updates from me on this exciting new project.

You see, during the 55 city tour I kept working on this idea, or these ideas kept coming to me, kind of a mix of both. Why not start an experimental college that is both spiritual and economic, that is dedicated to teaching people to transform the world, but do it using entrepreneurial, creative, revolutionary, nonviolent tools?

So, I had a good conversation yesterday with Jerry Mintz of AERO, the Alternative Education Resource Organization. Jerry teaches online classes that teach people how to start new schools. I'm planning on taking his class, starting in October.




Also, this Summer on tour I read "Black Mountain: An Experiment in Community" by Martin Duberman. I reviewed the book for Amazon, here. 

A sample of that review:

The best part of the book is the first third, the Black Mountain community was at its strongest. Spontaneous concerts were given on pianos scattered around the campus. People were painting and drawing all the time, led by star teacher Joseph Albers (a strong disciplinarian, formerly of the Bauhaus). People new to the theatre were pulled into doing plays - theatre was almost a cultural requirement. It was widely acknowledged that doing theatre helped people grow. This College was an immersion in constant intellectual stimulation, not a retreat, not a party. It was a place of real practical knowledge, a place of beauty and wisdom taking on human flesh. It was an important step forward.

I would also like to point out that in my previous blog post about this topic, the best material comes in the dialogue I had with people in the comments. To Kevin Barrett, I said,

I think we could create a wildly nonconformist new culture of innovative and life-giving enterprise. You see, I am not trying to get a job in an established university, and I am not trying to train people to have a certified official MBA. I do know that I can train people to change their thinking about money, and the role of business and production in the peace & truth revolution. An MBA is expensive, it saddles the student with debt, and the student becomes forced to work for a mega-corporation or mega-financial institution, just to service that debt. But a school that dared to step outside the system, and yet teach the same skills, would create a whole new generation of venture creators: ones who could afford to pay it forward. We need to create situations by where people have the power and ability to be more generous.