dead?

[TaylerD105]

is RATS dead or dying? of the 30something members i only ever see 3 posting anything. or are the other members all so busy protesting and doing stuff out there that they dont have time to keep us updated over here? didnt think so. when i joined here i felt like a part of something that was gonna GO somewhere and make a difference. ive looked around for other groups but most of em arent very helpful to outsiders, theyre all very specific to their location, which is what i liked about RATS - all over the world...

cmon ppl, lets get the show on the road!! lets make a difference!

[SoulRiser]

i must admit i was also beginning to feel that RATS isn't doing enough. i feel bad that i don't check in here often enough and post things, although since we'll be getting internet access at the college hostel soon, things will go better. but even so...

let's face the facts: there are already a lot of other groups out there with similar goals to RATS. why start yet another one? why not rather transform RATS into a centralized meeting point/discussion place to help groups from all over the place work together more easily? the groups i've come across also tend to keep to themselves and just in their area. nothing wrong with that, and it's good to KNOW everyone in your group, but even so, there's a lot of good ideas that one can get from others all over the place.

would also be really good if people could organise to have WORLDWIDE action of some sort - now that would really say something eh? it can't be done without co-ordination... so maybe RATS can help with that... what do the rest of you think?

[TaylerD105]

sounds like a plan. i'm already pretty much a 'member' of one group in my area, we're still very tiny, but it's all i could find around here. this is basically like we said before: we cant do much without the suport of other groups. so we might as well JOIN other groups and use RATS as support...

worldwide action would be RATS's ultimate goal - to help unite protesters across the globe and fight for our rights as young human beings!

soulriser, i think maybe u should take away the thing making it so only members can view the forum, make it rather so they just cant post or view our details like that other guy that spammed us long ago... the way it is it looks like we've got something to hide. sure the authorities will be able to see what we're planning, but for the time being we're not infamous enough to make them bother to come over here, so for now lets just encourage ppl to join us by makin it more open...

[Mordania]

I sure hope RATS isn't dead. What with all the fliers I'm about to hand out tomorrow!!
I really enjoy your website! It has helped me a great deal! I found one other that was pretty good except that it was a few years outdated! >.< OOPS! It's high-time students revolted! You can be sure that your viewing rate on this site will get higher in the near future.
-kt-

[SoulRiser]

don't worry, its nowhere near dead. it's just gonna change a little bit in the near future, but it's all for the better

[James Comey]

Most epic bump ever.

[brainiac3397]

RATS sounds awful.

[Chanku]

What did RATS stand for, although I do assume RATS was once the name or SS. If it was, maybe a short history on SS would be nice....

Edit: Upon Further investigation I found a link to it of sorts. I found it at the bottom of the archive of the original site, http://www.school-survival.net/about/old_site/
http://rats.school-survival.net/
HOWEVER I did find a link Here: http://www.school-survival.net/network/
Weird.....

EDIT 2: Found out a bit more about RATS, going to the mission site gives a 403 Forbidden Error.
link here (for convienience) http://www.school-survival.net/mission
This is rather interesting. It looks like the last site added was in '06 according to what I obtained.


Edit 3: The link to mission has been changed and no longer gives the 403 forbidden error, but redirects to the homepage...Soul what have you done/are doing?

[xcriteria]

Ahh, an archeological dig into the ancient ruins.

I was halfway through this thread before I looked at the date. 2002!

RATS = "Rise Against Terrible Schools"

(But, I agree, RATS isn't the most appealing name!)


Kind of interesting that now there's a BATs, Badass Teachers Association, though they're more focused on combating standardized testing and defending teachers against "corporate reform" than questioning the underlying assumptions of school.

But, that gets at the question of what's needed for change: dialogue, and sharing stories.

Education is a tangled web, with a lot of legitimate interests in play, and there are a lot of factors to it all. It's hardly a single monolithic entity, especially with all the pressures from various directions these days.

As I've said before, I think what's needed is an open course of some kind that helps people learn about all of this, including ideas like interest-based learning, and the concept of educators taking on more of a mentorship/advising/facilitation role based on individual student interests, and also teaching a more diverse range of subjects than the core academic ones.

I don't see this happening through revolt or even primarily protests, but through learners taking on the role of teachers, including taking a role in what teachers call "professional development" (classes they take to get better at teaching.)

But, teachers are often limited the the roles school provides for them, so change also needs to be discussed at the school, district, state, and federal levels.

Hidden stuff:

One challenge here is that only so much can be done at the federal and state levels. When they try to push reform, they tend to handcuff teachers and students even worse, because they want to see results, so they demand testing and standards.

One solution there is to develop a better way to represent meaningful learning experiences that are relevant to life in a form that "bean counters" (accountants and the like) can make sense of in large numbers.

Another solution is to build structures outside of the world of government funding. This would work by basically developing unschooling communities, or unschool "schools" -- but, if there are to be paid mentors, teachers, facilitators, and even a space to work in or equipment, such a "school" would have to charge or raise money somehow.

One model I've talked about with some people is charging something, say $200/week, and finding some way to connect students with work, so they could contribute toward their fees, and asking parents to contribute some as well, or perhaps find sponsors. This would basically be a "private unschool."

The cost could be justified by incorporating college-level learning, and even find a way to work toward college credits and an early graduation from college. So, it'd basically be "unschooling meets early college."

Beyond dialogue, and networking, I think we need a series that highlights various perspectives on education, and encourages viewers to join in a related conversation and learn more. Until there's some way to facilitate dialogue between multiple people in one situation (teachers, families, learners in one place), combined with everyone learning more about how learning, the mind, and life actually work... it's going to be very hard to change things.

(Even more so when a lot of students and teachers do more or less find school to be okay, or don't have the motivation to really explore how to do things differently.)

What if people could hand out flyers for a massive, open course facilitated by education researchers, that actually takes the student perspective seriously?

These courses have already been done, like DNLE and LCL --and their content is still available, but they mostly enrolled educators, when learners need to learn how educators think, and provide feedback about how some of their methods are actually working.

Thoughts?

[Chanku]

Hrm...while I didn't understand all of what you said(I'm half asleep, due to not being able to fall asleep), but I like the sound of it.

Also, just to note, I didn't even mean to find RATS, after it turned out to not be an early name for the site(via the site history thing), I just saw a link to the old main page and thought, 'Oh. cool!' and clicked on it as I was bored and decided to see what it was originally designed like, and looking through the page found RATS. Which lead to what I found out. It was more chance than anything. I just stumbled upon it.

[brainiac3397]

So I couldve made RATSASS:Rise Against Terrible Schooling And Survive School?
XD

[Chanku]

Lol

[Ky]

Yes, but even if you did I wouldn't give one about school

[brainiac3397]

RATSASS
"Because we dont give one"

[James Comey]

Rise Against Terrible Schools And Student Suppression?

[SoulRiser]

Quote:Rise Against Terrible Schools And Student Suppression?

I like this

[James Comey]

This could be a very good title