Moreu College, Your Street College, Street College Press, Lee's Landing Co., Monument Domes LTD, A Universe of Children (AUOC), The BRISCO Learning System, Integrated Humanities Immersions (IHI), Archaic Learning Theory (ALT), Short-exposure Learning, and Franchise-based Experiential Education Model are copyrighted programs & models: Francisco Luis Gonzalez/Brian Dillon/Charles Pearson: 2011
The precursor of this grassroots college began in Rhode Island's youth correctional system: the Rhode Island Training School (1999). A role-play Astronomy primer, A Universe of Children (or AUOC) had been introduced a year earlier to Charles Pearson, the science teacher. It was used in his science class whenever I was present (I was his classroom assistant). Later it was modified by special educator Brian Dillon, becoming the Brisco Learning System (named for the creators). It taught simple concepts in anthropology by means of a table game. Both programs used novel approaches such as a portable podium for short oral presentations (Pearson's idea), using tokens to identify the environmental factors necessary for the survival of early human populations (my idea), and creating the algebraic formulas to gather data, plot trajectories, and form working theses (Dillon's idea). After all of us left the RITS the AUOC/BRISCO remained dormant for a time, resurfacing periodically as an after-school program. Forms of it were taught in several Middle Schools in both RI and MA. After that period it laid dormant for several years -- all the while gathering form and substance in the restless incubator of my mind. A chance meeting with Jim Barfoot, a Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) alumnus, an enthusiastic education reformer, released it from its chrysalis. If AUOC/BRISCO was the cocoon, the MC became the emerging butterfly!
Moreu College is an elegant idea embracing a core of 10 humanities & science primers: Literacy, Design, Vocations, Astronomy, Geography, Psychology, Sociology, Civics, Philosophy, and Wellness -- leveraging them as springboards for comprehensive community-based self-journeys. Into its eclectic matrix I imbedded hard lessons from its correctional past, as well as the happy experiences of its youthful after-school immersions: the inclusion of the polar-opposite learning & retention styles of the Exceptional and the Gifted. That is its greatest strength: a street college that embraces all modes and manner of individual learning, as proposed by reformers like Howard Gardner. Like the abandoned campsites of nomadic early humans we wasted nothing, extracting from every bone its marrow -- leaving no stone unturned. Speaking with those that helped me along the way, we want for our expected learners nothing less than to supplant their knowledge of the streets, for the wisdom of the stars.
Beloved educator from San Juan, Puerto Rico -- Dean of women's studies at the Lares Polytechnic Institute, Lares, Puerto Rico: a respected public educator (High School Principal, later, College Professor) on her Caribbean island. For decades an active member of San Juan's largest teacher's organization (Union de Maestros de Puerto Rico). As world traveler Ms. Moreu's personal professionalism, large collections of cultural & natural artifacts, personal library, and wealth of knowledge were instrumental in the childhood experience of the founder (her surrogate grandchild); Paquita's love of nature, Natural History and Astronomy served as the thematic backdrop for the future college. Another grandchild, C.R. Moreu, serves as 'Friend' of the college. Our family matriarch is sadly missed but her memory endures in the college and nature sanctuary named in her honor (Francisca Moreu Sanctuary/Campus located in Dixfield, Maine).
Francisco Luis Gonzalez (Moreu)
Moreu College is an alternative learning institution which I founded in honor of our family matriarch, Francisca Moreu: a Natural History teacher from San Juan, Puerto Rico. As an alternative school designed by an alternative learner I challenged the status-quo by providing a unique one-year degree program: Human Foundations; perceiving a gap between high school graduation proficiency and college readiness inspired us to juxtapose our one-year college program in the breach: to address the identified "vacancy of meaning, critical thinking, and creativity" in our educational culture: we provide, free of charge, to anyone, street-accessible higher education.
Fluency, Mastery, Meaning, Holism, Insight, Tolerance, Advocacy, Wisdom, Creativity, and Purpose are elaborated here: Key operatives to interpret the reality around us (your fluency). Personal growth & wellness (your mastery). The search for personal & universal meaning (your meaning). The origins and interdependence of all life on Earth (your holism). Intrapersonal knowledge through logic & self-reflection (your insight). Understanding cultural and co-cultural differences amongst all social groups (your tolerance). Using socio-political knowledge to change your world (your advocacy). Engendering & integrating lasting positive/holistic belief systems (your wisdom). Changing the reality around us through theme & design (your creativity).Creating new community resources through what we do (your purpose).
Students immerse themselves in the college's 10 cores through group dialog, personal assessment, independent study, retreats, workshops, and internship assignments --earning college certificates for each completed core area. Students co-create Individualized Learning Plans (I-Plans) for required academic sets & subsets with their assigned faculty advisors. Completion of all ten certifications earns our college's one-year Human Foundations' degree.
"Be Street Smarter"
"We believe that the need to learn is a basic (primal) drive to survive, therefore we remove all economic and political barriers from our methods, things which limit those who have difficulty navigating social networks. Furthermore we radically interpret the eclectic vision of the 'Multiple Intelligence's Model' by removing school, text, and testing protocols. We leave only the unadulterated core of knowledge; the bigger picture of meaning which needs little effort to retain"
ASTRONOMY
GEOGRAPHY
SOCIOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY
PHILOSOPHY
Solo-trek
Electives
Electives
Electives
MC/YSC Human Foundations Degree Program (a unique one year degree offering)
WELLNESS
I-Plan
Learning Contract
by Advisor
I-Plan
Learning Contract
by Advisor
Recruitment, Matriculation and 'Coursework':
As a start-up alternative college we do all our recruiting by word-of-mouth. Interested students look over our Moreu College syllabus booklet (pending), which states our thematic offerings, methodologies, certification timelines, mandatory retreats & workshops, and the Individualized Learning Plan (I-Plan) requirement. A student is considered to be matriculated if he/she signs the booklet's admissions page and returns it in the mail. Depending on their I-Plan students are required to attend a given number of Philosophy Circle events (essentially outdoor classrooms in parks, or at Mathewson Street Church: our partner institution).
Moreu College (your street college) is a secular organization. Interested adults with diverse beliefs, orientations, and prior learning are welcome. Our college is free but students are required to pay for travel (airfare, fuel allowances) during special or required events. As a very small grassroots college we have strict acceptance quotas, and will place unseated students in our waiting list, or to other similar organizations.
I-Plan Planning
by Advising Team
VOCATIONS
Vocational Assessments
I-Plan
Learning Contract
by Advisor
Sign Up Here !
(we'll get back to you real soon)
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I-Plan
Learning Contract
by Advisor
DESIGN
LITERACY
Communications Assessments
Learning Style Assessments
This stand-alone certificate represents your service core (learn how to change the local community and the world):
Seed ideas for college inclusion are born and nurtured here. Ideas/programs include: suicide prevention, gang homicide prevention, micro business incubation, Homelessness outreach projects, in-house publishing, and after-school program curriculum development.
Electives
Self Assessment Cores:
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F.L. Gonzalez
enter the cavern for more Information
I-Plan Planning
by Advising Team
Michael Carreiro
Angela Leone Peck
Cassandra Tribe
Melissa Howard
Faculty:
Richard Upson
Your twin academic certifications (science primer certifications): astronomy and geography are employed as master sciences; Advisors/Directors identify sub-curricular subjects/themes pertrinent to theie Core Constitutions, such as cosmology, physics, geology, and archeology (as examples) linking these to student's co-authored I-Plans.
I-Plan planning certificates (start-up promissory agreements to the college): these core areas earn our college's first academic offerings. Once completed their attainment means that the learner has been matriculated, assessed & deemed competent for for placement & continuation: ready for his/her first I-Plan in Astronomy. The Advising Team consists of the Core Advisor/Director, and Head of School (optional: Consultant & Street Educator).
Meaning-based Core:
I-Plan
Learning Contract
by Advisor
Claudia Decesare
James Barfoot
Special Program Options
by Head of School
This stand-alone certificate denotes an understand (the implications) of our introductory cores, core academics within their relationship to community service. But more than that it attempts to identify the spiritual meaning (altruistic purpose) for engendering educated (proactive) social action.
These twin certificates prepare our learners for the world of work; here it is not about attaining rote knowledge or manual skills but about understanding workplace protocol, thematic meaning, and global purpose. We navigate our learners towards meaningful work, or towards finding meaning in physically and emotionally difficult endeavor.
Strictly science-based major academic primers: currently 2 (Astronomy and Geography). Our Psychology and Sociology cores are used with limited academic scope as self-evaluatory elements (see Self-assessment Cores).
Archaic Learning Theory
First proposed by Moreu College founder -- assumes that human motivation for learning is primarily innate; that our human impulse to learn is hard-wired into our evolutionary predispositions related to early human survival. Understanding and accepting the primal nature of learning (in contrast to status-quo policy-based education) links the life experience of the Learner to our experiential learning milieu, forging harmony & meaning from primal antitheses: the theory, closely associated to Evolutionary Theory presupposes that pleasure, pain, and fear form complex conflicted predispositions requiring ongoing resolution, hence, ongoing learning.
Citizen Journalists
The idea being that non-professionals can be qualified reporters of life and life events. Moreu College encourages Learners to be non-conventional Journalists rather than conventional Interns within the Community Campus: traditional internships are used in our Foreign Field. Written or audio-journals are required of all Learners, to document the learning process.
Community Campus
The
Cores
Indefinite number of potential academic subjects, practices, skills and themes offered by Moreu College: currently there are 8 (sub-cores encompass an additional 3).
