The Weekly Newsletter of Educational Alternatives - www.EducationRevolution.org
SAVE THE DATE: AERO conference, June 26-29 at LIU/Post Campus, near New York City. 
2013 Year in Review
From Jerry Mintz

Dear AERO Network:

Overall it's been a great year, although I could have done without the kidney stone! You came through when we needed to match the New Visions grant. Many new schools were started and others grew with AERO help.

Our small nonprofit does its best to support learner-centered education and counteract the "One Size Fits All," authoritarian, disempowering education that has been dominating mainstream education for far too long. We're proud to have your support in this endeavor.

This year we have had over 600,000 hits on our website. We have over 600 schools listed on the AERO member site and we have over 200 schools on our list and map of democratic schools. We have over 50 schools listed on our new map of schools AERO has recently helped to start and we have over 75 colleges and universities on our list of higher education alternatives, which includes some of our supporting advertisers. This year, over 80,000 have read our article, The Ten Signs You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child, on our website alone!

One recent challenge for us is the loss of the AERO van. In 1998 two charities combined to give us $10,000 to buy a 1994 Chevy Astrovan to support our on-the-ground work with alternative schools. We've put 196,000 miles on it, helping schools and programs from Montreal to New Orleans and all points in between. After 15 years, the transmission finally went on it so we're looking for something to replace it. All suggestions welcome. One of our interns would love to have us get an electric car!

If you are able, please also consider making a tax-deductible donation to AERO before the end of the 2013 tax year to support all of our ongoing efforts to make learner-centered education available to all. Any amount helps support our work. 
 
We wish all of you in the AERO network (and everyone else!) a wonderful and fulfilling new year! 
 
Read a partial list of our accomplishments in 2013 below

January: 
Sir Ken Robinson AERO conference talk released

10th annual AERO Conference announced, first time in New York City area

February: AERO conference keynoters announced, include Peter Gray, Nikhil Goyal, Elina Shepel, Alfie Kohn, Northstar Resource center founder and students.

April: AERO SOLD TO GOOGLE for $10 MILLION (April fools!)

May: AERO holds 10th annual conference

June: AERO offers enhanced memberships and banner ads

July: AERO conference videos and audio released

August: AERO participates in International Democratic Education Conference in Boulder, CO.

September: 
We meet Ron Paul
New Spanish School Starters course starts
Jerry gives TEDx talk in Bergen, Norway

October:
Jerry visits Summerhill, new AERO homeschool center in England
Jerry keynotes alternative higher education conference
AERO makes New Visions $10,000 match
Norway TEDx video released
Redeveloped AERO website is released (Isaac Graves)

November:
AERO has record Black Friday book sale (Kamala Bhusal)
AERO covers parent school testing protests
Bookstore expands to over 150 titles

December:

AERO releases global democratic schools map (Daniel Sage)
AERO releases global map of schools AERO helped start (Daniel Sage)
Community & education interview series launches (Isaac Graves)
AERO Announces Zo� Neill Readhead of Summerhill School to keynote 2014 AERO conference

 
First Keynote Speaker Announced for AERO's 25th Anniversary Conference
Finally, we are almost able to officially announce to 2014 AERO conference. A contract has been sent to us by Long Island University/Post, so we'll be back in the New York City area, at a better time of year, from June 26-29. And wait until you hear who our first keynoter is!

We polled members of the AERO network on the AEROlistserve and the AERO conference listserve about who they would like to see as keynoters. We got a fantastic list and we've begun to approach them. The most requested keynoter had not been in the United States for ten years, doesn't like to fly, and has recently recovered from a serious illness. She is Zo� Neill Readhead, daughter of author and Summerhill School founer A.S. Neill, and current Head of the famous school in Leiston, Suffolk, England. 

And she has agreed to keynote the AERO conference! You can find out more about the 25th anniversary conference and Zo� Neill Readhead here.
 
Community & Education Interview Series: Bill Ayers


William Ayers, is a distinguished professor of education and senior university scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (retired), member of the executive committee of the Faculty Senate and founder of both the Small Schools Workshop and the Center for Youth and Society. Ayers has written numerous books on education including To Teach, Teaching Toward Freedom, On the Side of the Child, and The Good Preschool Teacher.

 
 
Bill Ayers delivered a talk, "Democratic Education for Social Justice" at the 2003 International Democratic Education Conference in Troy, NY, organized by AERO. 

Watch this talk for free at the bottom of his interview.
 
Why Do Children Play? Dr. Peter Gray Answers
AERO keynote speaker, Dr. Peter Gray answers the question, "Why do children play?" in this concise video from the forthcoming documentary film, Schools of Trust.



Selling ADHD - Chris Mercogliano 
Chris Mercogliano, author of Teaching the Restless and co-teacher of AERO's start a school course, provides an analysis of the recent NY Times story on ADHD:
 
Here comes the good and the bad news both in the same breath: After 25 years the mainstream media is finally reporting on the ruthless marketing of ADHD by the nation's pharmaceutical companies.

A scathing and lengthy expos� in last Sunday's NY Times begins with prominent and longtime pro-ADHD psychologist Keith Conners calling the mushrooming of the ADHD diagnosis-the rate currently stands at a full 15% of American children, with the number of medicated kids soaring from 600,000 to 3.5 million since 1990-"a national disaster of dangerous proportions."

"The numbers make it look like an epidemic," continues Conners. "Well, it's not. It's preposterous. This is a concoction to justify the giving out of medication at unprecedented and unjustifiable levels."

The article reveals in lurid detail how drug manufacturers have stopped at nothing to convince easily frightened parents that ADHD is a real disease with dire consequences if left untreated. It all began in 1990 when the drug companies offered to rescue the leading professional journal in the field from bankruptcy if it reversed its founding prohibition against advertising. A decade later every issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry would contain over 100 pages of ads, nearly every one a full-page color splash for an A.D.H.D. medication. 
 

News & Resources
Do you have a news or resource item you think Education Revolution newsletter readers would find useful? Send it to jerryaero@aol.com.
Thank you for your ongoing support. With your help, we will make learner-centered alternatives available to everyone!

Sincerely,

Jerry Mintz
Executive Director
Alternative Education Resource Organization

December 30, 2013 
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