My present home city of Baltimore is a very antagonistic, yet at times, very hopeful place to be working. There are a number of institutions and individuals focused on alternatives here, due to the interesting, conflicting fact that there are high volumes of dissent and intense violence due to economic, racial and class conflict. The alternatives abound are numerous, some examples are: gang-run education, underground off-the-grid economies, junk playgrounds, sustainable charter schools, inner city work/live/farm ‘hearths’ or communities, transparently corrupt politicians, numerous off-the-grid music and art venues and affordable unlicensed home restaurants… to name a few. One of the most interesting institutions I’ve made use of, both in my research of futures and education, but also in my hope for sustainable alternatives comes from The Book Thing of Baltimore.

The Book Thing is a huge space with books organized by general subject. Conceptually it is a mix of a library and a bookstore, but with no exchange of money, no return date and no checkout counters. The rules: take as many books as you want. The ‘catch’: the books are stamped with “Not for resale, This is a free book.” The Book Thing is only open on Saturdays and Sundays.

Not only do they have new books donated by individuals, companies, libraries, they also have an amazing selection of old or antique books, strange, weird books, unique books no one else seems to want, and tons of encyclopedias, dictionaries, manuals, you name it….

What is so beautiful about this model is it combines intuition, instinct and will power (searching through the books for the ones you want, trusting your gut on which sections to browse through that day) with access, democracy and equality (anyone can take the books, they are free, the book thing is located in an economically and racially mixed neighborhood). It is a wonderful alternative for children, too, who can search for their own books – not limited or forced to go to the ‘children’s section’ or feel isolated by ‘developmentally appropriate sections’. Also, controversially, it allows the sacredness of books to be questioned and alternative uses to arise. The books can be taken and cut up, turned into notebooks, burned, eaten, turned into hats, used to build houses or…

Here is just a sampling of great books I’ve found related to future studies & education at The Baltimore Book Thing:

Psyche & Symbol, Carl Jung
Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Carl Jung
Deschooling Society, Ivan Illich
Shadow Work, Ivan Illich
School is Dead, Everett Reimer
The Renewal of Education, Steiner
Education as a Social Problem, Steiner
Transpersonal Education, Hendricks
The Three Astronauts, Umberto Eco
Dialectic of Enlightenment, Horkeimer & Adorno
Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson
The World of Ted Serios (thoughtography), Jules Eisenbud
Discourse on Thinking, Heidegger
On Language, Noam Chomsky
Freedom Not License, A.S.Neill
Atomic Experiments for Boys, Yate
Danger is My Business, John D. Craig
Education Automation, B.Fuller
Operation Manual for Spaceship Earth, B.Fuller
Practical Time-Travel, Colin Bennett
Selected Writings, Karl Marx
The Child in the City, Colin Ward
Workyards, Nancy Rudolph
Imaginary Worlds, Notes on a new curriculum, Richard Murphy
Democracy and Education, John Dewey
The Absorbent Mind, Maria Montessori
Spontaneous Activity in Education, Montessori
Arm in Arm, Remy Charlip
The Transendental Meditation Program, Goldberg
States of Consciousness, Charles Tart
Disturbing the Universe, Freeman Dyson
The Child’s Conception of Time, Jean Piaget (image on home page)
Simulation, Spectacle and the Ironies of Education Reform, Senese
Japanese Free Schools and Tokyo Shure

and more and more and more….

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