Egypt
+ Gymnastics and music were excluded.
+ Education of the lower class was minimal, with only skills relevant to their later career taught, generally by parents and relatives.
+ Priestly and warrior castes enjoyed greater educational advantages.
+ Literacy was concentrated among the scribes, an elite group.
Through creating a community space that presents informal education as something universal and equitable, this historic and current understanding of informal education can begin to be changed.
To best understand how education is functioning today you need to understand the systems that led to it. Modern education is similar to the Roman style, which evolved from the Greek beginnings of schools. Throughout history women did not recieve the same level or standard of education as men, those of lower classes didn't have time or the access to forms of education that didn't provide economic benefit to them. People with disablities of any sort would be left out if they even survived to participate in education. Conquering races would assume their education superior and the natives unable to be educated.
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All this to say, education has historically not functioned for the masses, even in modern society, spaces made for informal education have been woven into univeristy campuses as part of the new language of design. Encouraging longer use of campus facilties to create learning communities. But these types of spaces have historical and social perceptions and aren't always open to the public. They send the message that informal education, lifelong education, isn't for everyone. It is still a privileged activity meant for those able to afford it based on increased time, money, social status or the location in which they live.
Education Types
Those left out of education
Women
Throughout history, in many cultures women have been excluded from education with the only type afforded to them being passed from mother to daughter. These would be lessons of how to maintain the home and some education in religion.
Those in poverty
Education was a luxury gained through having disposable income. There were some cultures that offered free basic education and some where much
of their education occurred in the home. Higher education was by personal choice but required time and money that the lower classes didn’t have.
People with disabilities
Due to a lack of understanding, people with disabilities have been ignored and undereducated
throughout history. With a lack of compassion towards the issues they face and the impacts they have. Unless an individual was in the higher classes, they were less likely to experience fair treatment.
Aboriginal Peoples
Within many cultures the original owners of the land on which a society now resides have been disrespected and, in more cases, taken as slaves by the invading group. Specifically for aboriginal
people’s schools were used as places to either take them away from their parents or teach them how to fulfil the roles they had
been given by the ruling class.
Summary and Application to Project
“For the first time in human history, we can become conscious of our own evolution and realize we are responsible for co-creating it. Co-evolution is both conscious and collaborative.” (p.45)
Through being a part of Overflow you can stand on equal ground and participate in conversations that you might otherwise be excluded from based on the immediate interpretation of the application of your knowledge. Breaking from the continual use of the teacher and student model to forgo the power balance associated. Allowing a new interpretation of knowledge that aims to meet the intricates of the current world in which everyone has a say in the digital realm. Creating a value for education in its’ understanding, trans-disciplinary integration, and application rather than its commodification. Which works towards reducing the restrictions on information from becoming a part of the public domain. A value that encourages self-directed learning in one’s own time, pace, and by their own volition through the rejection of rigid models shackled to the physical to create a warped reality in the digital that allows Overflow to expand beyond itself. Helping people to develop the skills to “deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world” (p.5). In this way, the space operates to re-legitimize the act of learning outside the formal curriculum and move towards an integrated system of education that can benefit Australia’s attempt to gain a greater share in the global knowledge economy. Focusing on the creation of space that is defined by its community and location, rebelling against the current rush to create learning hubs and centers, and in doing so creating homogenized learning spaces. Allowing the uncertain future of education and technologically connected spaces to define the physical spaces which facilitate activities of the current and allow for the possibilities of the future.
The existing Boiler House becomes a protective shell to allow informal education to develop within a safe space, allowing the idea of interior spaces which host informal learning to begin within WBPS
