Ojai Chautauqua Continuing Series on Education – Addressing Declining Public School Enrollment in the Ojai Valley
Since 1999, public school enrollment in Ojai has been in decline, with attendance soon approaching nearly 50% from its peak. The potential causes of this trend include housing costs, available employment, zoning, and school performance. This panel, made up of OUSD representatives, real estate experts, business professionals, and city leadership, will explore these issues in the spirit of objective fact finding and civil discourse. Attendees will gain a greater knowledge of this complicated issue and, as a community, we can investigate next steps to supporting a sustainable valley going forward.
$10.00 presale.
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 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