The latest print issue (July/Aug 2005, #60) of Adbusters magazine is worth picking up at the newsstand. The primary theme of the magazine is "The Game of Life" -- and even though the whole magazine is well-designed as if it were that Milton Bradley game (by, for example, placing "Move Ahead" and "Lose a Turn" cards here and there as you page through the mag), the magazine's theme actually focuses mostly on the corruption of the educational system by corporate interest and other issues in schooling. Every few pages you'll find a little "Hey Teach!" sidebar that talks about alternative strategies for helping students. I was surprised to find a page, for example, called "John Taylor Gatto Speaks!" And in the usual Adbusters style, the magazine features personal testimony, rife with fascinating anecdotes from students and teachers about the vagaries of the educational system.

Adbusters' usual criticism of corporate culture and consumerism is central to their treatment of education. The article they've made available free online -- Rachel Cloues' "My Year With Nike" -- clearly attests to this, in its frank discussion about how Nike Corporation actively attempts to "brand" children via school programs. Check it out -- the problem is probably far worse than you'd assume. Adbusters is a politically progressive -- if not radical -- magazine, but if you are open-minded to this material, you'll definitely want to get the whole magazine -- and consider making it a part of a class discusssion on the topic of education.

What I like about this particular issue isn't just the sharp subversive criticism of the media, but also the way it explores alternatives to the status quo. This issue seems to have more hope than I've seen in other editions of the magazine. Take, for example, the eye-opening article on the "Adventurous Learning" that's taking place at schools like Aventurijn in Netherlands, which -- in a way that might make Rousseau proud -- allow children to dictate their own pathways of learning. If a student wants to learn some new subject, all they have to do is ask and the school will teach them. Teachers are just "guides" who help students learn by listening to their interests, proposing lessons or setting examples. It's quite fascinating.

[Note: Cloues' essay originally appeared in Rethinking Schools, which focuses predominantly on alternative education, new policies, and unappreciated trends.]

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