Why You Should Read This E Mail!
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This is AERO's weekly e newsletter. It is our main means of communication to the people who have contacted us at one time or another. That is a total of about 12,000 people. That may seem like a lot of people but it is actually a very tiny niche of people out of over 300 million in the USA alone and billions around the world. You are the lucky ones who have discovered that you do have educational options.
AERO is the number one site on Google that comes up when you look for alternative education. In fact we are basically the only organization that attempts to network the spectrum of learner-centered educational approaches. Our mission, as you know, is the Education Revolution, making learner-centered, respectful education available everywhere. This could include democratic schools, home education, Montessori, Waldorf, higher education alternatives, some charters, some distance learning, progressive schools, etc. We always post the latest news that people send us or that we discover about what is going on with educational alternatives and learner-centered education around the world.
But we are just a small nonprofit, increasingly dependent upon our earned income. It is harder and harder to find foundations that will support the approach we believe in and know works. The mainstream gets more and more support for systems that maintain the old paradigms because they make money on them: testing, test prep, textbooks, corporate controlled charters (we are not against all charters).
Therefore we need to increasingly feature the programs we have that support learner-centered education and also help support AERO. The alternative is to close AERO for lack of funds, and our survival is always marginal. These would include the annual AERO Conference, the School Starters Online Course, the AEROx Regional, AERO memberships, advertisers on our site (we are VERY selective), and our bookstore, donations and matching funds. Because of this need we often come across as spammers and self-promoters. And therefore our percentage of people opening this e news has been dropping to under 15%. From our point of view this is very discouraging, because we are continually working hard on these projects and to put out an e newsletter each and every week, more that 50 a year!. The physical print newsletter only came out quarterly.
So that is why we are asking you to take at least another 10 seconds a week to open and scan the e newsletter and help us spread the work about learner-centered options. We really enjoy your input and feedback! Just reply to this e news or write to JerryAERO@AOL.com Thanks!
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See Workshops Planned for AEROx in MA in Less Than 2 Weeks
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| AERO Staff at last year's AEROx |
AEROx 2 is filling up but there are still several openings and several more if you want to camp.
We had so much fun at the first
AEROx at
Earthlands in Petersham, MA last year that we decided to do it again this year, but earlier, so that people can be there at the start of the fall foliage season and when it's warmer.
Peter Gray, unschooling and Sudbury expert who just keynoted the AERO in Portland will be a keynoter!
The cost is only $200, with $175 for students. But this includes everything: registration, lodging, and meals from Friday night's dinner to Sunday lunch! You can still get a group rate, and we have worked directly with school groups to make it affordable for them.
You can see pictures of last year's event here.
Enjoy living off-the-grid, in environmentally sustainable buildings for a weekend.
To read more about AEROx go here.
To register go here. See you there!
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| Microsoft Wants Autistic Coders. Can It Find Them And Keep Them? |
The day before Blake Adickman was scheduled to start interviewing at Microsoft last spring, he called his parents and kept them on the phone as he walked from his hotel to the building where his meetings were set to take place. His parents, back in Boca Raton, Florida, zoomed in on Redmond, Washington, on Google Maps and followed along. When he arrived at the building, he took a photo of its entrance and texted it to them. Then he turned around and retraced his steps to his hotel.
Adickman is autistic. He is 26 years old, with a full beard and a broad-shouldered build, but his affect-chatty, guileless, and eager to please-makes him seem younger than his age. One of the features of his autism is that he gets frazzled by unfamiliar experiences, and the practice walk to Microsoft was meant to try to diminish the newness of his surroundings. This was one of the most important moments of his life, and he didn't want to mess it up.
Read the rest here. |
| Why Punishment Won't Stop a Bully |
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By
Alfie Kohn
Bullying at school has attracted an enormous amount of attention, spurring academic studies and popular books, regulations, and training sessions for educators. By now its status as a serious problem is widely acknowledged, as it should be. We can never go back to the days when bullying was regarded as a boys-will-be-boys rite of passage, something that victims were left to deal with (and suffer from) alone.
But as with other ills, both within and beyond our schools, some responses are much less constructive than others. The least thoughtful (or useful) strategy is ...
Read the rest here. |
How to raise successful kids - without over-parenting
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School Starters Begins in One Week!
See Webinar Replay
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Only once a year we have a free school starters webinar. It was on Thursday, September 8th. You can see it here and even send in a new question which we'll respond to. Also, we have continued the sale rate for the course a few days more. It is still at the sale price of $899 right now. Plus we do have some limited scholarship funds. Reply to this e news to communicate about that, or write to jerryaero@aol.com
You can register for the course here and reserve one of the 25 spots. We have a few left.
How long have you been talking about starting a new educational alternative? We'd like to help you make that dream a reality!
The 11th AERO Online School Starter Course will begin on September 26th, 2016. That's only one week away! It will run until January. Enrollment is limited to 25 participants. Up to five people can participate from each site without additional cost.
AERO has helped start more that 100 educational alternatives. You can see a partial list
here. Since AERO's mission is the Education Revolution, we try to help people create as many learner-centered alternatives as we can. This course has been the most effective way we have discovered to help people go from their dream and vision to the reality of a new, vibrant educational alternative.
Read the rest here. |
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Ongoing
Calendar
Please send us feedback on this issue. also, we would like to have more articles written by AERO members and about AERO school and organizations.
Thank you for your ongoing support. With
your help
, we will make learner-centered alternatives available to everyone!
In Service,
Jerry Mintz
Executive Director
Alternative Education Resource Organization
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Please consider making a donation to AERO to help support our work. Thanks!
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