Early Futures
Books + Reviews
Futurist Tool
An Early Futures affiliate project, MIXTUM, is releasing it’s first futurist tool (for children and adults alike).The open-ended tool is a circular mandala of symbols, organized in concentric rings, which allows a player to spin for a random arrangement of three symbols. The game is designed to create very surrealistic outcomes, focusing on the combining [...]
Books on Children’s Narratives
Not sure how much one can learn from children? Consider reading a few of these works documenting children’s stories of their experience. The books are a diverse mixture filled with inspiring, surprising accounts of a range of children’s experiences, inner, outer and otherwise.
The Spiritual Life of Children
Robert Coles
Robert Coles is a solid, long-standing figure [...]
You Think Just Because You’re Big You’re Right
By Albert Cullum.
You may know of Albert Cullum from his more popular book, “The Geranium On The Windowsill Just Died But Teacher You Went Right On” a book of poems ironically reflecting on teaching and education from a child’s perspective.
His later book, “You Think Just Because You’re Big You’re Right,” is a darker, more [...]
A Book of Dreams
A Book of Dreams by Peter Reich is an fascinating read for those concerned with education, futures or children.
Peter Reich is the son of renowned, brilliant psychiatrist and researcher, Wilhelm Reich. A Book of Dreams is his narrative on his life growing up in the midst of Wilhelm Reich’s research. As a child he was [...]
Lost Futures Language, Barcodes?
Futures alternatives can often become obsolete, lost in the landfills, forgotten or replaced by the next ‘new’ thing. However, on that rare occasion you come across an artifact that reveals a lost future, they can be fantastic entrance points for teaching and understanding the inner workings of futures.
Here is a prime example. The Sprites’ Adventures [...]
2 International Relations Books for Children
The concepts of national relations, global relations, international relations, intergalactic relations etc. are imperative to discuss with children at a young age. These two books are excellent introductions to the topics of nation/state and global/galactic relations. They each touch on topics of colonialism, war, peace, national identity and race relations.
The Butter Battle Book [...]
Inspirational Children’s Book by R. Buckminster Fuller
I felt it to be true that children had great advantage in this respect as they are not burdened with the misconceptions and obsolete propositions with which the grown-ups have been inundated by formal “education”. – Buckminster Fuller
The infamous Buckminster Fuller has already been mentioned in a previous Early Futures article as an excellent [...]
3 Inspirational Children’s Stories
On the Day You Were Born
By Debra Frasier
A classic, beautiful story which relates each child their place on Earth when they are born. It tells the story of the uniqueness which is that of being a living thing on Earth. I find it to be a wonderful way to introduce (or rather remind) your child [...]
Children of Dwell
There’s no disputing that the architecture/design magazine, Dwell, is a vanguard in the war of modernism versus the world. Page after page of spacious, shimmering structures sprinkled lightly by expensive modern furnishings seek to persuade us that Modernism is more than a style; it is a lifestyle.
Dwell’s motto, “at home in the modern world” promises [...]
10 Early Childhood + Futures Studies Resources
The following books are excellent resources for practical and theoretical applications of Alternative Early Childhood Education and Futures Studies.
1. Reframing the Early Childhood Curriculum: Educational imperatives for the future, Jane M. Page
2. Educational Futures: Dominant and Contesting Visions, Ivana Milojevic
3. Curriculum in Abundance (Studies in Curriculum Theory Series), David W. Jardine, Sharon Friesen and Patricia [...]
2 Inspirational Children’s Books
1
The Cat Who Lived One Million Times, by Sano Yoko (Translated from Japanese)
There was a cat who could live for a million years.
He died a million times, and lived a million times.
He was a great tiger-striped cat.
A million people adored the cat,
And a million people cried when that cat died.
The cat never cried, not even [...]
“If…” / By Sarah Perry
If… (Getty Trust Publications : J. Paul Getty Museum) / By Sarah Perry
One of the key arenas of future studies education is creating imaginative relations with the universe. Perry’s book, If… is an excellent example of exactly the right kind of tool to use as a building block. The book takes its readers through a [...]
Nuclear War Fun Book
Nuclear War Fun Book / By Victor Langer and Walter Thomas / Illustrated by Brent Richardson
The Nuclear War Fun Book is a spiteful child’s workbook meant to give children in a post-nuclear society ideas for something to do: “These are mostly postwar activities, but some prewar ones have been included too, so you can start [...]
Pirates role in Education
R. Buckminster Fuller’s ideas have fully integrated themselves into much of the futurist and architectural arena, but his little known works on education are just as relevant. In Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth he uses pirate history to explain how specialization in education is a form of discreet, global slavery.
pages 22-31 (to view the entire [...]
10 Education Alternatives Books
These are 10 past influential books regarding education alternatives & theory (no order) :
School is Dead (read free .pdf)
By: Everett Reimer / Published 1972
“School has become the universal church of a technological society, incorporating and transmitting its ideology, shaping men’s minds to accept this ideology, and conferring social status in proportion to its acceptance.”
Deschooling Society [...]