| AERO in Montreal this Saturday |
This Saturday, April 26th, Jerry Mintz will be a keynote speaker at the AQED homeschool conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He will be speaking about learner-centered education and organic curriculum. Click here for more information and to attend the talk!
|
inBloom Closes Down Due to Parental Objections to Data Mining of Students
|
|
Ed. Note: The closing down of inBloom shows what grassroots organizing can accomplish. Common Core is next!
After months caught in the crosshairs of parents, advocates, and educators concerned about student-data privacy, controversial nonprofit inBloom announced Monday that it will close its doors.
|
| Conference Packages Offered |
It's hard to believe, but the AERO conference is only 2 months away! For those who are wondering, we don't know where next year's conference will be. It really depends on the success of this year's conference. We moved it a month later because many people thought last year's conference was at an inconvenient time, but, so far, registrations are only running about the same. The two conferences in Portland went very well and people are begging us to come back out west. There are additional savings if you want a group rate, need financial assistance, or would like to volunteer at the conference. Contact [email protected] to discuss these options and to arrange special group rates.
Just to remind you, here are some of the features of this year's conference:
- Keynotes by Summerhill's Zoe Neill Readhead, Free Range Kids author Lenore Skenazy, Jerry Mintz, and members of Brooklyn Free School.
- Sixty amazing workshops and presentations, many by people who have been keynoters at other conferences.
- Special school visits to Brooklyn Free School, Manhattan Free School and Pono.
- Limo pickup by Tesla.
- Special conference rates by Avis.
- Child care available.
- Musical performances.
- Special guests still to be announced!
|
| 20 Characteristics of a Good Teacher |
 Chris Mercogliano
This is in response to several Education: Reform or Remodel subscribers who requested more of my thoughts on teaching. I am very happy to oblige because my belief has always been that, especially from the vantage point of the student, who the teacher is has far more of an effect on the quality of the experience than any other factor-educational philosophy, structure, location, etc.
One subscriber in particular asked for a list of the characteristics of a good teacher, and what comes to mind is that all good teachers:
1. genuinely like children and enjoy being around them. Just like parents with their own kids, they take pleasure and pride in their students' growth and development.
11. assume it's their responsibility to present things in a way that every individual learner can understand, and not the learner's job to adapt to the teacher's methods. Good teachers continue to try different approaches until they find the key that unlocks the door to the learner's understanding.
|
 Chris Mercogliano
This was the name of the book I wrote in 2007 until Beacon Press and I compromised on In Defense of Childhood instead. By "wildness" I meant the inner kind, that luminescent spark which animates us and is the source of our uniqueness and creativity. It's wild because it dwells deep beneath the surface, out of reach of the conscious mind, and it strives mightily to resist the control of others. Without enough inner wildness, we lack the drive and the resourcefulness to overcome the obstacles in the way of becoming who we are meant to become.
Beacon Press asked me to change the title because they were concerned that referring to this wild inner energy on the cover of a book about children might scare readers away and dampen sales. Thus the book begins with the simple statement, "Childhood is in trouble," when what I really wanted to say was inner wildness is endangered because childhood no longer supports the kinds of experience that nourish and sustain it. My central thesis: childhood has become so thoroughly domesticated that virtually every dimension of a child's daily reality is now fenced in by some outside agent.
Thankfully there has been a certain cause for optimism since I wrote In Defense of Childhood. A number of more recent books have come out, such as Lenore Skenazy's Free Range Kids, that are aimed at reversing the hyper-management of children's lives. Skenazy also hosts the popular reality show "World's Worst Mom," which is the moniker she earned after making headlines by allowing her nine-year-old son to ride the subway home by himself in New York City. ( She will be one of the keynoters at the Alternative Education Resource Organization conference this summer.) There has also been a groundswell of efforts to save the free forms of play that are among inner wildness's greatest allies from extinction, which brings us to the subject of today's post-an article in last month's edition of The Atlantic magazine entitled "The Overprotected Kid." The article begins with a group of people in England calling themselves "playworkers" who are trying to resuscitate play by maintaining outdoor play spaces that haven't been scrubbed clean of risk like most modern-day playgrounds with their rounded-corner equipment with rubberized mats underneath.
In fact, in one such "adventure playground" occupying nearly an acre at the far end of a housing development in North Wales, there is no play equipment at all. Instead there is a rope swing over the creek that borders one edge and a big pile of used tires and dozens of wooden pallets at the center that can be used to build forts and clubhouses. A stack of old mattresses serves as a perfectly serviceable trampoline. There is even a metal fire pit for kids to start fires in, and a bunch of trash-picked chairs and couches to sit in while they hang out together and stare at the flames.
|
List of schools taking in students who opt-out
|
As we did last year, Monty Neill of FairTest has strongly endorsed the idea of AERO network schools offering their schools and programs as places to go for people opting out of the tests.
If YOUR SCHOOL can offer refuge to people opting out of the test, please email me at [email protected] so we can add you to the list. People will be asked to contact you first to see if you have space.
We have more than 50 schools on the list. The link below will bring you to a continuously updated list. If you are a parent and don't see an AERO school near you, write to us directly and we'll suggest one. Generally almost all of our schools would be willing to help with this.
If you are a parent or a school that has used this list, please let us know!
|
Do you have a news or resource item you think Education Revolution newsletter readers would find useful? Send it to [email protected].
New
|
 |
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
|
|
The Ten Signs You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child
| |
Many parents don't realize that the education world has changed drastically since they were in school. Schools and class sizes used to be smaller, dropout rates lower, in-school violence almost unheard of, and teachers weren't terrified of showing affection to their students, or of discussing moral values. Of course, even then, school was far from perfect, but at least the teachers-and usually the principal-knew every student by name, something that is increasingly rare today.
Because our public school system has deteriorated considerably, many parents, teachers, and individuals have taken it upon themselves to create public and private alternatives to that system; and it is important for parents to know that they now have choices.
So how do you know that it's time to look for another educational approach for your child? Here are some of the signs:
1. Does your child say he or she hates school?
If so, something is probably wrong with the school. Children are natural learners, and when they're young, you can hardly stop them from learning. If your child says they hate school, listen to them.
|
|
|
|
|
News, Resources, & Calendar
