A Learning Village

Our action as residents together during 2015 in Church Langton secured a future for our pub. In the face of a decision for inaction by the parish council, fearful of losing our village pub to development, we demonstrated that ‘ordinary’ people can exercise some control over their lives through learning and acting together.

Our action was partly in the tradition of the long-forgotten 17th century Dissenters’ Academy in Kibworth which educated religious non-conformists. In a world of less religion but ever-more commerce, with rapidly increasing gaps between the ‘have-lots’ and ‘have-nots’, we all need to take care of each other and learn together beyond the confines of the market, and without relying upon fast-reducing local officaldom. We need to build and sustain strong local civil-society. People benefit from learning and acting together. Families and groups ‘learn’ as well as individuals. Our world requires commitment and collaboration, questioning voices of assent and dissent, and enterprising individuals and communities.

A cursory glance at what is now expected of our ten-year old children within the centrally-directed national curriculum in our local primary school underlines that today education is instrumental, conformist, and pre-determined. While curiosity is the essence of being human, the joys of curiosity, discovery and creativity are not encouraged by the dead-hand of centralised curricula. The pleasures of learning and teaching for their own sakes are lost.

Pessimism about our capacity to affect our lives for the better is too often the response to suggestions about community action (e.g. about the pub; about the proposed developments on our recreational space). Yet together, as the saga of our pub shows, we can engage actively with the world and forge new possibilities. We can challenge authority and each other, the better to understand and act. We can tell stories together and imagine different and better futures for our selves, families and communities. We can make and create, discover and learn, and tackle problems together. ‘Have-lots’, ‘have-littles’ and ‘have-nots’ can support each other to develop everyone’s talents, the better to develop their lives and the communities in which we live.

People thrive with fulfilled lives when they are and feel resourceful and resilient, with a sense of ‘agency’ in their lives born of experience and achievement, and fostered by determined optimism and strong relationships as well as knowledge and skills. Taking effective action together and learning well fosters self-respect, self-confidence and self-esteem. It tips the balance of power a little more in our favour.

Learning and acting successfully together does not require prior categories such as ‘old ’ or ‘young ’, ‘parent’ or ‘child’, ‘villager’ or ‘commuter’, ‘professional’ or ‘employee’, ‘rich’ or ‘poor’, ‘tenant’ or ‘homeowner’, ‘unemployed ’ or ‘retired’, ‘pensioner’ or ‘on benefits’. Nor does it require ‘professional’ educators – just determined and purposeful people, helped along by skilful facilitation, generous relationships and good leadership.

With library cuts and diminishing state-sponsored adult education, but no end to the individual and collective challenges before us, in our village(s) we could choose build upon the ‘Langtons Community Enterprise Group’ which we brought to life in the summer of 2015. We could create (the idea and reality) of what we might call a ‘Learning Village’ (cf the concept of the ‘learning city’), perhaps also a village Langtons-College-Without-Walls. We could break out from any fatalism of disengagement, together to enjoy conversation and companionship, secure and improve our lives, and strengthen our village community. We need not be limited bthe dead hand of government prescribed curricula, methods and cuts!

We could together with energy and enjoyment:

Be optimistic.
Be curious.
Tell stories.
Laugh.
Learn from each other.
Be generous.
Be caring.
Value assent.
Value dissent.
Respect difference.
Explore and understand (the better to)
Imagine futures.
Make, create & act.
Tip some power towards the have-nots, have-littles & those left behind — in our village and beyond

Is anyone up for that?