Unlike the plethora of other calls to “Occupy!” specific locations with your presence, the phrase “Occupy Educated” is not a call to Be Somewhere, it’s a call to Be Something.

Simply put, if you’re going to be Occupying anything, be Educated while doing so. Having a working knowledge of the issues and their root causes is essential to effectively communicating the need for change and formulating practical solutions. Frustration alone is not enough to cause lasting change, it can only come from a place of relevant, collective literacy.

What is the purpose of OccupyEducated.org?

As the 1%’s evictions begin to successfully silence education on the streets, OccupyEducated.org is stepping up to continue the conversation where it can never be stopped — online. Being out in your communities is still essential, but so is having a universal classroom and meeting place that can’t be dispersed.

OccupyEducated provides a place for visitors to identify, share and discuss the systemic causes of the problems our society faces today, and then move on to implementing solutions. It is not our goal to tell anyone what to think, our goal is simply to give them access to information that makes them think. We want OccupyEducated to be a knowledge aggregator where the vital information needed for making informed decisions can be easily found and freely accessed.

It is also our goal to be a place of unity and collective action, not a place of division or conflict. And so we will strive to present information and facilitate dialogue in ways that are congruent with that goal. This is a place for people of all backgrounds, all political persuasions, and all demographics to come explore and discuss thought-provoking information and unite behind practical solutions.

The ultimate goal of OccupyEducated is to promote unity through the use of education to help people see that we all really want the same thing, at a basic level. We would then like to see that unity evolve into collective action that will bring about real change.

OccupyEducated provides

• A list of primer books
• Hand-selected articles and commentary
• Author interviews
• And much more to come…

You can participate by:

• Recommending Books/films/other media for “Top 5″ lists for different change-related topics
• Posting in The Forums engaging in dialogue with others about important issues and solutions
• Creating and/or attending Meetup Book Clubs in your neighborhood
• Volunteering and getting involved with our many upcoming projects; we need You!

And soon, in person or online, you can participate in

• Live author Q&A’s
• Organizing and facilitating education events in your area
• Local library donation drives to raise books and funds for struggling libraries
• Loads of original, definitive content synthesized from your top learning-material picks!
• Original online “television” programming featuring prominent voices for change
• Online courses designed in collaboration with professors, authors, and prominent speakers

Occupy Together is happening for a reason; people know that an unsustainable economic system is providing for less and less of us. Only when we are educated can we all be on the same page and take the collective actions necessary to make the change we want to see.

OccupyEducated is a project launched by Occupy Wall Street’s Practical Change Working Group, but this is a community, we need you! Please share your thoughts, ideas, and recommendations with all of us!