What happens at a Next System Teach-In?
Different kinds of things can happen at a Teach-In. As we shared earlier, “Teach-ins usually are multi-day events that involve large-scale gatherings combined with smaller, more intensive sessions; they can include everything from lectures and workshops to festivals, trainings, debates, and artmaking.”
In the 1960s in the United States, events that caught everybody’s attention were sometimes called “happenings.” If something — a music festival, a protest, or a teach-in — was said to be “happening” that meant that it was something people felt they needed to pay attention to and participate in. The kinds of things that take place at your teach-in will, if you are successful, combine to make it something that gets people’s attention and participation.
- If it is useful to you to organize a major assembly, or a set of large scale assemblies, complete with speakers and topics that will draw classes and crowds, do that.
- If your team is excited to put together a festival or a fair, complete with tabling, performance art, or visual displays, do that.
- If it makes sense to align classroom courses with the teach-in, or to open up particular class discussions to the broader community, do that.
- If members of your coalition have particular workshops or skills trainings or discussions or other sessions they can offer, definitely do that.
- If you have other ideas, like a guided walking tour, or a formal debate, or a codeathon, or using open space technology, or participatory artmaking, or a world cafe-style discussion, or something else that you want to try out, try it (and less us know you did)!
What happens at your Next System Teach-In will be up to you and those who join you. Use the Teach-In to advance your local work for positive change. And keep your eyes on the prize: Reach out, bring people in, and take on the next system questions.
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