Important note: The Traveling University and the Zinn Education Project are separate organizations from My Flying University. We are promoting their classes because this is what our project is all about: building a distributed network of educators and truth-tellers who refuse to let censorship, disinformation, or political pressure define the boundaries of learning.
While My Flying University is still preparing to launch our own live classes, we are proud to highlight The Traveling University (TRU), a Bloomington-based effort with roots in the same history that inspires us.
Founded by retired university faculty, TRU was created in response to growing threats against academic freedom and the public’s right to knowledge. Like the Flying Universities of Poland in the 1970s and 1980s, TRU takes learning out of university halls and into the community, offering free and accessible courses on critical topics too often ignored or distorted in public debate.
Their tagline says it all: Higher education for the people.
This fall, TRU is hosting an impressive lineup of events, including:
Immigration and Politics (Oct. 5, Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington) with Professor Emeritus Marjorie Hersh
Courage in the Face of Hate: Hoosiers Who Stood Against the Klan (Oct. 21, First United Church) with Professor Emeritus James H. Madison
Why You Should Be Concerned About Climate Change: What the Data Tell Us (Nov. 9 & Dec. 7, First Christian Church) with Professors Emeritus Tim Londergan and Steve Vigdor
PBS: A Legacy of Service (Nov. 16, Monroe County Public Library) with Steve Krahnke, former Senior Lecturer at IU’s Media School
The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people’s history in middle and high school classrooms across the country.
Based on the lens of history highlighted in Howard Zinn’s best-selling book A People’s History of the United States, the website offers free downloadable lessons and articles, organized by time period, theme, resource type, grade, and keywords.
The Zinn Educational Project currently includes the following campaigns:
“I can understand pessimism, but I don’t believe in it. It’s not simply a matter of faith, but of historical evidence. Not overwhelming evidence, just enough to give hope, because for hope we don’t need certainty, only possibility.“
―Howard Jinn