I presented this at the Annual Meeting of the New England Philosophy Education Society on October 22, 2011 at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Connecticut.

1. “Love and Rage”
in the Classroom:
Exploring Anarchist Theory and
Pedagogy
Kurt Love, Ph.D.
Annual Meeting of the New England
Philosophy of Education Society
New Britain, CT
October 22, 2011

2. WTO Protests in Seattle
• Dec 3, 1999
• “Battle in Seattle”
• Corporate
destruction and
exploitation of
humans and
environment
• Arguments very
similar to
“Occupy Wall
Street”

3. Occupy Wall Street
http://occupywallst.org/
• Started on Sep 17,
2011
• 1500 protests, 82
countries, 100 US
cities on Oct 15
• Protesting the
unchecked power of
the top 1%
• Claims to be a post-
political movement
“For the disinherited are not content to forever starve in the midst of plenty, and the
exploited are beginning to cry out against their cruel bondage.” (27) - Peter Berkman
2001. "Violence and Anarchism." Pp. 26-29 in Anarchy! An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth. Edited by Peter Glassgold. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint.

4. What is Anarchism?
Anarchism is “the philosophy of a new social
order based on liberty unrestricted by man-made
law; the theory that all forms of government rest on
violence, and are therefore wrong and harmful, as
well as unnecessary.” (Goldman, 1969, p. 50)
Emma Goldman

5. What is Anarchism?
• Fully liberated individual that voluntary participates in local, active
communal groups that are fully democratic in operation
• Participation is completely voluntary, so if an individual feels restricted s/he
may freely leave the collective whenever s/he chooses.
• Types of anarchism
• mutualism (bottom-up, small communes and workers cooperatives
eventually forming larger federations),
• collectivist anarchism or anarcho-communism (workers in small voluntary
groups have all material goods necessary from a common source),
• individualist anarchism (focusing less on a common group and more on
the freedom of the individual) (Jacker 1968), and
• anarcho-syndicalism (use of federated, decentralized labor councils as the
primary social unit that are involved in all economic and social
institutions) (Chomsky 2005; Rocker 1989)

6. “Rage” and the
Demonstration of a Just Society
• Rage is a daring to change an unjust
society right now, not in a few years, a
couple of decades, or when a
conscious evolution occurs. It is a
demonstration that a new reality is
present right now.
• Rage is anger, action, and love
combined.
• Rage is often seen as ugly,
unnecessary, juvenile, and irrational;
yet, it is rooted in nurturing beauty,
sustainability, intergenerational
wisdom, and long-term health for the
Earth and its “guests.”

7. Promethean &
Epimethean Rage
• Kahn (2009) brings attention to at least two ways of analyzing action
• Prometheus (“forethought”), suffered from the lack of afterthought is in eternal
punishment for his activism
• Direct action, protest, civil disobedience
• Epimetheus (“afterthought”), gave freely without condition, demonstrated a
level of compassion and empathetic action that could also be reflective of
anarchism.
• Rage in the sense of the afterthought might be seen less as about anger or
proactive (or reactive) actions, but more about cultivating interconnections
within community grounded in a passion for nurturance, sustainability, and
peace. To give unconditionally creates no hierarchy, elitism, or domination of
one group over another.
• An Epimethean rage might be one that enacts nurturence and reciprocity that
can topple power-driven, top-heavy, hierarchical bureaucracies that ultimately
produce widespread oppression.

8. “Love” and the
“Fully Liberated Self”
"I want freedom, the right to self-expression,
everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things."
- Emma Goldman (1931)
If I can't dance, it's not my revolution!
- Emma Goldman (1931)

9. “Love” and the
“Fully Liberated Self”
• Love is uncorrupted, pure freedom.
• Freedom of individuals and
freedom of small communal,
mutualistic groups because to
live in an anarchistic society
requires that we deeply love
one another while honoring our
differences, approaches, ways
of living, cultures,
spiritualities, and sexualities.
• We are evolving towards a state of
both freedom and peaceful
mutualism, and love is located, if
not defined, in the practices of
mutualism and freedom of the
individual.

10. Love/Rage
• Rage (actions that demonstrate the
possibility of removing injustice from a
society right now) is inextricably
coupled with love (the interwoven fully
liberated self and community).
• Love/rage is the collective movement of
anarchy.
• Love/rage helps us see ourselves as
imprisoned, something we are quick to
ignore because it is so painful to
acknowledge, as well as the causes and
sources of that imprisonment.
• Love/rage happens along a continuum of
Promethean and Epimethean paths.
• Love/rage is a key to unlock our
consciousness that empowers us to say,
“We are now free!”

11. School & Anarchism
• “The child, however, has no traditions to overcome. Its
mind is not burdened with set ideas, its heart has not
grown cold with class and caste distinctions. The child is
to the teacher what clay is to the sculptor. Whether the
world will receive a work of art or a wretched imitation,
depends to a large extent on the creative power of the
teacher.” (Goldman, 1969, p.148)
• In 1908, Francisco Ferrer (2001) wrote, “Governments
have ever been careful to hold a high hand over the
education of the people. They know better than anyone
else, that their power is based almost entirely on the
school. Hence, they monopolize it more and more” (258).

12. Some Forms of
Anarchist Education
• Unschooling
• Deschooling
• Freeschooling
• Homeschooling

13. Anarchist Pedagogy in
Mainstream Schools?
• Francisco Ferrer, founder of Modern
School (1913) provided a description:
• The most effective protest and the
most promising form of revolutionary
action consist in giving the oppressed,
the disinherited, and all who are
conscious of a demand for justice, as
much truth as they can receive,
trusting that it will direct their
energies in the great work of the
regeneration of society. (20)

14. Anarchist Pedagogy in
Mainstream Schools?
“Anticoercive and antiauthoritarian, it
stressed the dignity and the rights of the
child, encouraging warmth, love, and
affection in place of conformity and
regimentation. Among the key words of
vocabulary were “freedom,”
“spontaneity,” “creativity,”
“individuality,” and “self-
realization.” (Avrich 2006, 7)

15. Anarchist Pedagogy or
Just Critical Pedagogy?
• Share commonalities with feminist, ecojustice, indigenous,
or queer pedagogies
• The signifying difference would be that anarchist educators
would contextualize these arguments in a social, cultural,
ecological, and spiritual context of total liberation and
anti-state, anti-authoritarian perspectives and in a love/
rage duality.
• An anarchist pedagogy would not only bring in for
consideration, but would emphasize a wide range of
Promethean through Epimethean actions driven by the
interwoven duality of love/rage that challenge the existence
of a hierarchical government, a formal schooling process,
and any centralized form of controlling education.

16. Food Security
• Courses:
Health, Social Studies, English, Math or Science
• Overall Student Actions:
1) Imagine possibilities,
2) Investigate sources of injustice, and
3) Connect those who suffer from food
inaccessibility with clean food sources

17. Food Security
• Student Actions
• As part of their exploration of
“love/rage,” students would
imagine a community free of
inaccessibility to food and
actions they can take to make
that a reality.

18. Food Security
• Student Actions
• Investigate sources of the injustice and
practices that hegemonically perpetuate
insecurity such as:
• market-based thinking, hyper-
consumerism in relationship to rates of
obesity, the common practice of for-
profit food corporations relying upon
and producing addictive mindsets and
practices via advertising and inclusion
of additive chemicals like caffeine
(especially those that create addiction),
and state-sponsored agricultural funding
and subsidies including practices with
the widespread use of chemicals like
high-fructose corn syrup.

19. Food Security
• Student Actions
• As part of their exploration of both
Promethean and Epimethean “love/
rage,” students might seek out sources of
food waste that are acceptable for
“redistribution” and make that food
immediately available to those who need
it (Promethean) similar to a Food Not
Bombs process by simply making the
food and giving it away on the streets of
their community.
• They might also work with community
members to create community gardens
(Epimethean) and make sure that there
are ways to support all who need it have
access to seeds and soil.

20. References
Avrich, Paul. 2006. The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States.
Oakland, CA: AK Press.
Berkman, Alexander. 2001. "Violence and Anarchism." Pp. 26-29 in Anarchy! An Anthology of
Emma Goldman's Mother Earth. Edited by Peter Glassgold. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint.
Esteva, Gustavo. 2007. "Reclaiming Our Freedom to Learn." Yes! Retrieved September 29, 2011,
from http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/liberate-your-space/reclaiming-our-freedom-to-learn .
Ferrer-Guardia, Francisco. 1913. The Origin and Ideals of the Modern School. Trans. Joseph
McCabe. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam's Sons/Knickerbocker Press.
Ferrer, Franciso. 2001. "L' École Rénovée." Pp.257-264 in Anarchy! An Anthology of Emma
Goldman's Mother Earth. Edited by Peter Glassgold. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint.
Jacker, Corinne.1968. The Black Flag of Anarchy: Antistatism in the United States. New York, NY:
Charles Scribner's Sons.
Kahn, Richard. 2009. "Critical Pedagogy Taking the Illich Turn." The International Journal of Illich
Studies1:37-49. Retrieved September 29, 2011, from http://ivan-illich.org/journal/index.php/IJIS/
article/view/7/9 .