Another Crazy Idea.

It’s half past midnight and about 4 minutes before midnight another random, crazy idea of mine picked up momentum : organizing Malaysia’s, or perhaps, South-East Asia’s First Alternative Education (homeschooling, unschooling, deschooling) Convention. Why?

Why not!

Convention (meeting), a large gathering of people who share a common interest.

I was having a back-and-forth on facebook about – report cards.  Those weren’t the highlight of my primary school days but Canteen Day was.

Let’s play with our Imagination a little. [Yes, ee-mah-gee-na-sion!]

Let’s just imagine for a little while. Oblige me, will you ?

So, let’s say, instead of one localized school canteen day – let’s have a NATIONAL CANTEEN DAY for people who ditch school!  And why stop at food? Malaysians are famous for coming together when there’s food – all racial prejudices stop at the sight of Open House. Malaysians are not united in race, religion or politics. We are united in FOOD. Our motto might just be, “In Food We Trust.”

And when there’s a crowd you can always have a party. Let’s use this opportunity when Malaysians come united on one front (yes, food) to illuminate the masses on the alternatives to education.

We’re going to have by our homeschooling/unschooling/deschooling community:

• food stalls (yes, I think I’ve mentioned food 3 times already)
• stalls from parents who run home-businesses / hobbyists
• jumble sale (sale of used items like books, clothing, toys, etc)
• talks (by popular alternative education bloggers) – I have in mind : HomeschoolMalaysia’s Alicia Ling Horseley, Homeschool Home Frontier’s David BC Tan, Learning Beyond Schooling’s Chong Wai Leng  and at least a dozen others I don’t have their links off hand. (Readers : Please suggest speakers / writers you’d like to hear their thoughts / presentations on during the convention. Leave a comment with their info, why you would like them to speak (or on what topic) and links to their site. Thank you!)
• telematches
• Talent Time contests for our unschooled, homeschooled, deschooled kids
• cook-offs / bake-offs
• book sales by homeschooling authors / book signing, magazine subscriptions.
• relevant 3rd party vendors (non-homeschoolers, other businesses)
• NOT TO BE MISSED :

  Exhibition : Q & A : Let’s get those pesky questions on h/s and 21st Century Education answered once and for all.

i.e. ”Can I send my children to your homeschooling center?”

• Equally important exhibition : breastfeeding, animal welfare education, organic food (for special needs).

And like a Star Trek (or Star Wars) convention – everyone can come dressed in costumes. YES! Our unschooled, homeschooled, deschooled kids can dress up in ACTUAL SCHOOL UNIFORMS they have thrown out or borrowed from their relatives or bought from the Thrift Shop and have a chance to feel like how people normally think of them – out of this world! They can come dressed with badges with numbers on them and pins and school bags and trolleys. Yes, trolleys – the push cart type.

Trolleys.

I’m going to come dressed as Mrs. Trunchbull. I’d like to see a very tall, balding, middle-aged man come dressed as Roald Dahl and do a story-reading session.

Me>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Ms. Trunc

Focus. Focus. Focus. We’re going to try and give the world a glimpse of what the homeschooling/deschooling/unschooling  world looks like – i.e. NOT WEIRD! But our focus should be about bringing our networks together to meet face to face AND to have talks and workshops giving out information.

This is a completely rough draft – typed out in under 15 minutes. Let’s see where this goes!

Venue : PENANG ISLAND! (Great opportunity for the city-folk to come to Penang.) And we can also organize the matches at the beach on a 2nd day. (I’m thinking 3-day convention over a weekend.)

Ideas,input, contributions,  anyone? LOOKING FORWARD to hear what’s brewing in your imagination now!

(We) Dare to Dream!

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