Hello! My name is Thomas Capone, Executive Director of the www.NYDLA.org  and also the Director of Sales and Marketing for the www.USDLA.org  I'd like to briefly introduce myself to you in the AERO network. This year we will be partnering with AERO to create what we hope is a really amazing and synergistic conference. It seems to me that the mission of both of our networks is very similar, but we both bring different things to the table. Of course AERO already has many noteworthy members that are involved with distant learning, some, like Goddard College, who have really pioneered it. 

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Pat Farenga Homeschool Discussion

 We're happy to announce that Pat Farenga, who worked with John Holt and ran Growing Without Schooling, will be leading a discussion group on the topic "Homeschooling Towards Positive Social Change: Challenges and Concerns for Building a Movement." Farenga, who has keynoted previous AERO conferences, will present his workshop during the last session on Sunday, May 24th at 10:30 AM.  He will bring copies of Holt's books with him,  some of which he now publishes.

Remarkable Montessori Presentation

 Maria Montessori's life and philosophy is far more central to education than the proliferation of her schools.  Physician, educator, scientist, anthropologist, Montessori stands today as the only one in pedagogical history to craft a complete primary curriculum based on scientific findings and the natural laws of learning.  Yet, her Method is most often misunderstood and misconstrued, mostly due to a concerted bureaucratic effort to oust her from America in 1915.  Discover the true story of Maria Montessori and how we can use her work to properly educate young children from 3-12 years of age.

Mimosa Jones Tunney began her career at 22 as executive speech writer to Governor Bob Miller of Nevada.  She founded the Entertainment Development Corporation of Las Vegas in 1998 and the CineVegas Film Festival in 2002.  In 2006, she began her writing career working for Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin and has also written several projects with Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, HBO, Starz, ABC and USA.  Her current project is the life story of Maria Montessori entitled "The May Number".    

A Place To Grow is a home-schooling annexe housed in a couple of yurts in a field just outside Stroud, Gloucestershire. Currently attended by 12 children aged between 6 and 10, it is open three consecutive days a week from 10 am to 3.30 pm.

It was founded two-and-a-half years ago by Sharon Gimpel, from Israel, and Jo Robins  and Becky Koos, local parents, all of whom were home educating their own children. They are known as the core group and have the ultimate decision about how things are run. The land was donated by David Michael, a local man who is very supportive of and involved with social initiatives. The place is open for five hours a day on three consecutive days a week. Albert Lamb, the principal adult, says, 'It's just enough of an alternative to home to give the children space and time away from their parents. Home-schooled children need time away from their parents, time that is theirs.' All the children are registered as home-schoolers, but the deal is that parents do not attend or influence the shape of the day.

Albert himself was a pupil at Summerhill, and later a member of staff there, but it is his experience of homeschooling his own four children that has most influenced the structure of the day and increasingly child-led projects.

What is education? What, exactly, is an educated person? There has been much screaming in the public square about education, but what are we really talking about? Intelligence, competence, common sense? Knowledge and wisdom? Book learning? And is learning ever really complete? It seems, to me, that the richest lives are marked by an endless quest for knowledge and learning. Oxford tells us that education is, "The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university." To say that someone is "high-school educated" or "college educated" is, however, very limiting and often quite misleading. At face value, these labels refer to the completion of a standardized course of study perhaps even the completion of one's 'education'. But can this measure mean the same thing for everyone? Probably not. My father, for example, is high-school educated and yet he is more thoughtful, more well read, indeed, more educated than many, if not most, college graduates that I have known. And, conversely, how many college graduates have you met who can't think their way out of a paper bag?

Educator E.D. Hirsch believes that there is a specific body of knowledge that, when digested, confers a proper education. This is his "Core Knowledge" principle and it has become quite popular and respected among educators of all stripes. Its cousin, the "Common Core Standards", has been adopted by most of the country and is getting loud, and not always friendly, press. This program dictates what every child "needs" to know, within a very specific, narrowly defined and rigorously measured curricular structure. Everyone receives the same, standardized dose of instruction meant to build an educated citizen. If a child does not master designated skills within a deadline, that child is deemed "behind", maybe even "slow", a reductionist and arbitrary result, bolstering the corporate standardization of knowledge.