Ojai Chautauqua Continuing Series on Education – Public and Private Good:
Do Mandatory Vaccinations Make Sense?
This event has been postponed to 2020. The new date will be announced.
What does the vaccination data show in general? What are the main concerns with vaccinations? Do mandated vaccinations infringe on the right to privacy? Do mandated vaccinations achieve a balance between public and private good?
Before the 2015-2016 school year, if parents in California did not wish for their children to be vaccinated, they could opt out by submitting a belief exemption form. During this period, the percentage of public school kindergarten students who were immunized was below the generally accepted threshold of community immunity (95%). In 2015-2016, California passed a law requiring every child taught in school classrooms (public or private) to be fully immunized against 10 diseases, disallowing the personal belief exemption, and making it only the third state at the time to have this requirement. Medical exceptions continued to be allowed.
After this change, medical exceptions tripled (0.2% to 0.7% of students). In September 2019, California passed legislation attempting to curb the medical exemption trend by placing a cap on how many exceptions a doctor can issue, providing state oversight on medical exemptions, and setting an investigation protocol for schools that fall below the 95% vaccination threshold.
This panel, with representatives from public health, the medical community, school leadership, vaccine safety advocacies, and legislative authorities will discuss the complicated and contentious issue of mandated vaccinations. We hope you will join us as we explore these issues in the spirit of thoughtful inquiry and civil discourse.
Watch the August 25, 2019 Panel:
What is Education For?
Download the handout in PDF format. Click here.
Ojai Chautauqua Panel Series on Education –
What is Education For?
Sunday, August 25, 2019
3:00-5:00PM – Sane Living Center
316 East Matilija Street in Ojai
We all know that education of our young is vitally important, and we hold varying opinions about how successfully we think our schools are fulfilling this priority. But when we ask What is the goal of education?, we see deep and profound differences in beliefs. Are schools in the business of job training, character formation, civic preparation, socialization, or all of the above? Is education only for the young, or does the need extend to the adult population as well? Further, there is wide disagreement on what the best modes of education are. The options of public and private schools, home schooling, self-directed learning, outdoor education, and project-based learning curriculums are just a few of the choices parents have to make. Finally, how best can we evaluate the effectiveness of our schools when we disagree about what the aims of the schools should be?
This ongoing series on Education in the Ojai Valley will explores these questions, with experts presenting the many sides of these complicated issues in the spirit of informed, civil discourse. We invite you to join us on Sunday, August 25th as we set our course by asking:
What is Education For?
Confirmed panelists:
Tom Krause – Moderator
Jim Bailey – Co-Founder of Rock, Tree, Sky
Meredy Benson Rice – Director of Teaching and Learning, Oak Grove School
Katie Braude – Executive Director, Speak UP
Tiffany Morse – Ojai Unified Superintendent
Elizabeth Reyes – Professor (tutor), Thomas Aquinas College
Richard Yao – Vice President of Student Affairs, CSUCI
Future topics in the series will address standardized testing, charter schools, funding, class sizes, community involvement, and more. $20 pre-sale and $25 at the door
The purpose of the Ojai Chautauqua is to engage Ventura County in civil discourse about controversial and highly passionate subjects. The Chautauqua was an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s.
The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers, and specialists of the day. Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was quoted as saying that Chautauqua is “the most American thing in America.” The Ojai Chautauqua is continuing this movement, with a special focus on encouraging civil discourse on controversial and highly passionate subjects. The feedback so far has been phenomenal. Civil discourse is dangerously absent from all aspects of contemporary life. The result of this failing is not only sad… it is dangerous. If we can develop this essential ability, we can begin to affect a positive change to many aspects of life that can extend far and wide.
The Ojai Chautauqua
Free Community Seminar Series on
The Foundations of Our Republic
Taking place the second and forth Monday evenings of each month
We are thrilled to offer our first free community seminar series, taking place at the Ojai Library from 5:30 – 6:30PM on the second and forth Mondays of each month, beginning August 12. Groups will be kept small (12-18 people) in order to facilitate conversation. Registrants are invited to attend as many sessions as they would like, and can begin at any time. Reservations are required and attendees read the scheduled material prior to attending each seminar. Click here to register.
What are the fundamental principles of our Republic? Are these principles based on a view of objective reality/nature, or simply the “consent of the governed”? Are these principles changeable, and if so on what grounds? What authority is given to the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary branches? What are rights? Are they based on nature or consent? Are they inalienable? We invite community members to join us as we discuss these founding and subsequent documents in an effort to better understand the principles of our ongoing American experiment.
Readings:
Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, selected Federalist Papers, selected Anti-Federalist Papers, the U.S. Constitution, selections from Democracy in American, Dred Scott Decision and Dissenting View (edited), selected Lincoln speeches, Lincoln Douglass Debates (edited), Plessy v. Ferguson and Dissenting View (edited), Brown v. Board of Education, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Proposed Equal Rights Amendment, UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Location:
The Ojai Library
111 East Ojai Avenue
Ojai, California 93023