Your Street College, A Universe of Children (AUOC), The BRISCO Learning System, and Archaic Anxiety are copyrighted programs & models: Francisco Luis Gonzalez/Brian Dillon/Charles Pearson: 2009
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
"We believe that the need to learn is a basic (primal) drive to survive, therefore we remove all economic and political barriers from our methods -- things which create problems for those who have difficulty navigating social networks. Furthermore, we radically interpret the eclectic vision of the 'Multiple Intelligences Model' by removing school, text, and testing protocols. Leaving only the unadulterated core of knowledge; the bigger picture of meaning which needs little effort to retain"
Earn your
Human Foundations Preparatory Degree
(Your Street College's one-year degree offering)
Our YSC academic core areas:
ASTRONOMY -- GEOGRAPHY -- SOCIOLOGY -- PSYCHOLOGY -- PHILOSOPHY
YSC
Your Street College
The precursor of this grassroots college began in Rhode Island's youth correctional system: the Rhode Island Training School (1999). A role-play Astronomy primer, A Universe of Children (or AUOC) had been introduced a year earlier to Charles Pearson, the science teacher. It was used in his science class whenever I was present (I was his classroom assistant). Later it was modified by special educator Brian Dillon, becoming the Brisco Learning System (named for the creators). It taught simple concepts in anthropology by means of a table game. Both programs used novel approaches such as a portable podium for short oral presentations (Pearson's idea), using tokens to identify the environmental factors necessary for the survival of early human populations (my idea), and creating the algebraic formulas to gather data, plot trajectories, and form working theses (Dillon's idea). After all of us left the RITS the AUOC/BRISCO remained dormant for a time, resurfacing periodically as an after-school program. Forms of it were taught in several Middle Schools in both RI and MA. After that period it laid dormant for several years -- all the while gathering form and substance in the restless incubator of my mind. A chance meeting with Jim Barfoot, a Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) alumnus, an enthusiastic education reformer, released it from its chrysalis. If AUOC/BRISCO was the cocoon, the YSC became the emerging butterfly!
Your Street College is an elegant idea embracing a core of five science primers: Astronomy, Geography, Sociology, Psychology, and Philosophy -- leveraging them as springboards for comprehensive community-based self-journeys into the Humanities. Into its eclectic matrix I imbedded hard lessons from its correctional past, as well as the happy experiences of its youthful after-school immersions: the inclusion of the polar-opposite learning & retention styles of the Exceptional and the Gifted. That is its greatest strength: a street college that embraces all modes and manner of individual learning, as proposed by reformers like Howard Gardner. Like the abandoned campsites of nomadic early humans we wasted nothing, extracting from every bone its last marrow -- leaving no stone unturned. Speaking with those that helped me along the way, we want for our expected learners nothing less than to supplant their knowledge of the streets, for the wisdom of the stars.
F.L. Gonzalez
