ICNC Sunday School

Paul Avrich details the origins of the Modern School movement, founded by Francisco Ferrer, in his book The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States (1980, Princeton University Press). Within this movement there were “Sunday Schools”:

“The Escuela Moderna was more than a day school for children. To Ferrer education was a process that never stopped. Thus parents were encouraged not only to take a direct part in the operation of the school, but also to attend evening and Sunday afternoon lec­tures delivered by prominent scholars …. These lec­tures, open to the general public and attended by many “workers who were anxious to learn,” evolved into regular evening courses. […] For nearly a decade Ferrer dominated the movement for libertarian education in Barcelona. His experiment won favor not only among workers but also among middle-class liberals and reformers, impressed by his anticlerical views and by the respectability of the intellectuals who delivered his Sunday lectures.”

“Alexander Berkman, editor of Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth, […] started a Modern Sunday School with a group of fellow New York anarchists, the first Ferrer school in America. […] While the ultimate goal of the Ferrer Association was to or­ganize a hierarchy of schools, including Modern High Schools and Colleges, it rarely got beyond the lowest stage. Most, that is to say, remained merely Sunday Schools. Of the twenty-two Modern Schools listed, only five were Day Schools—in New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Mohegan, and Stelton. […] [Modern Sunday Schools were established in] New York (Manhattan) (2), Philadelphia (2), Chicago, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Detroit, Brownsville (Brooklyn, NY), Toronto, Paterson, NJ, San Francisco, and Gary, IN.” (Avrich, 1980)

Free Schools And Educational Liberation

The Modern School movement was succeeded by the Free School movement. Free schools are closely related to “teach-ins”; free lectures, trainings, and workshops open to the public. Free schools are also closely related to “infoshops” – dispensaries of works about liberation and counterculture.

A new interfaith movement is growing out of the old one. The new interfaith movement include people of all beliefs.

The word “faith” comes from the Latin word fideles, which means belief, or trust. The new interfaith movement takes the term “inter-faith” beyond its traditional definition, “inter-religious,” to a new definition, “inter-belief.”

We strive to advance interfaith dialogue with people from a wide array of beliefs and backgrounds, in efforts to accomplish shared objectives, such as uniting in defense against mutual adversaries and threats.

The World Is Our Classroom.

As living, evolving creatures and species, we never stop learning.

Life Is Dialogue.

Life is relationship. The existence of every thing depends upon the existence of everything else. Everything is connected. Dialogue is bigger than language, it is expression, it happens even in silence. Sometimes it happens better in silence.

Anyone Can Be Part Of The Interfaith Movement.

ICNC Sunday School is a forum for dialogue and nonviolent conflict management for people of all beliefs.