Dear AERO Readers:
We hope you had an interesting and productive Earth Day. Let us know what you did!
AERA Meeting, Gatto, and an Incredible "Coincidence!"
This week the American Education Research Association (AERA) had its annual conference at the Marriott Marquis in New York City with 15,000 attendees. The last time I went to the AERA was when I was a keynoter for the Holistic Education Special Interest Group in New Orleans in 2011. This year I again connected with the Holistic Education SIG. Some very remarkable and unexpected things happened in the process.
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My contact was a fascinating woman named Ida Oberman who is the Chair of the Holistic Education SIG. She is the Founder/Director of the
Community School for Creative Education
, a Waldorf Charter School in Oakland, CA. She was born in the Netherlands, graduated from a Waldorf School in Germany and then came to the United States.
John Gatto was a strong influence on her. Gatto was a keynote speaker at several AERO conferences. He had a stroke which partially paralyzed him several years ago, but last year we read a keynote he wrote for the AERO conference.
This is a letter that Ida asked me to give to John Gatto:
"Dear Mr. Gatto,..." (read the rest of the letter to John Gatto
here
)
I first met with Ida at the Open Center for Holistic Learning in Manhattan. I went to another gathering with them and their business meeting, which featured Dr.Jost Schieren. a researcher of holistic education from Germany, a professor at Waldorf Education oriented Alanus University.
An Amazing Coincidence, or was it?
I passed out flyers about the AERO conference and then went out to wander around the hotel to pass out a few extras. That’s when something truly remarkable, almost unbelievable happened:
After putting a few piles of flyers around I saw a man sitting on the side, listening to something on headphones. I walked over and handed him a conference flyer. He took off his earphones and looked at the flyer. He looked up and said, “I think I’ve heard of AERO.”
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I asked him where he was from. He said he was from Portland, OR. I asked him if he knew of the Village Free School. He said he’d heard of it. I then asked him if he knew Brian Ray, a researcher about homeschooling whom I sometimes quote, but I’d never met . He looked a little startled, then turned over his name card. I did a double take! It was Brian Ray! Out of 15,000 people at the conference!
I’d always wanted to talk to Brian Ray and we talked for quite a while. He comes from a religious homeschool background, but his research is always carefully done and peer reviewed.
Of course he thought our meeting was divinely guided. I would say it was "coincidence," but I've experienced this so much that I have concluded that some kind of force, maybe a kind of human communication we don't yet understand, is at work.
One thing I quote him about, that I always questioned, was that homeschoolers score in the 86
th
percentile on standard achievements tests, He said people often quote that, but it was just one study. He said he’d recently done a broad review of all the studies in this area that were peer reviewed and that the results ranges from homeschoolers scoring 15% higher to 30% higher than the mean, or about the 80
th
percentile. He said this study was actually recently published in a peer reviewed journal.
Here's a link to it.
Later he emailed links to two other very interesting studies he’s done.
He said he'd tell people in his network about the AERO conference. I hope everyone is doing that!
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Reactions to Apple Anti-Homework Ad
Ed: More than 160 people looked at this ad. We received a variety of reactions, some positive, some negative. Here are some example
s:
My comment on the Apple ad is that it does NOT appear to be “anti-homework.” It is pro-homework, if you use the Apple Ipad. ---Elizabeth Versten. Foundation Director
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With their anti-homework ad, Apple corporate marketers co-opt an edgy no-homework buzz around the country, their motivation having little to do with social consciousness. Homework is not bad: mandatory homework and homework for homework’s sake is bad. Shall we all drop homework and fill in this discretionary time with use of Apple’s digital devices, often addictive time sinks? Many kids I know want productive times outside of school hours and are looking for mentors they trust to help them find worthy and inspiring ways to use discretionary time. The homework brand is bad right now, and Apple knows this.---
Dr. Stuart Grauer, Ed.D, Grauer School
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I watched the Apple commercial and I would disagree the message is anti-homework. My perspective is with the right technology, homework is not worksheets. In this advertisement, homework is being creative in defining a concept (gravity). Technology can be used in creative ways in developing conceptual questions and seeking the particle information to answer the question. This is a higher order thinking skill for students. I believe more of those skills need to be developed and Apple is showing how an iPad can be used for just that!. Great commercial!----
Kathy Magnusson
I do not care for the Apple ad as it shows kids playing and adding homework in with the play on Ipads/Notebooks as though most kids would be apt to do this. Not. Kids hate homework for good reason- it interferes with their life at home and at play. The schools would not like it if parents sent work from home for kids to do in school, and families resent homework for the same reason- let school work stay at school where it belongs and allow kids to learn what interests them when at home. Homework is a stealth invader that eats up a child's home life and steals precious time from family activities and play time. It also causes strife in families as there is a lot of fighting and bickering over homework, and kids are often punished at home and at school over homework. In the grand scheme of life homework is nothing but busy work and should not be allowed. I have never heard one person say they remember how important homework was for them during their school years. Not one. But I've heard plenty complain about what a waste and a pain homework had been when they were kids in school. --- Lori
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Apple's new ad is not "anti-homework." The ad perpetuates the notion that educators MUST force children to do homework, and since everyone knows children hate homework, educators should mitigate their guilt by giving children flashy tech toys to sugarcoat their oppression. Manipulating children into enjoying their oppression is anti-child and anti-educational.---Scott Noell
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Register Now Before Conference Price Increase! Contact us Directly for Special Arrangements!
Later this week we'll announce a special life coaching for students by a life coach coming from Oregon with a lot of his constituents.
We'll also announce more minitalks. But the price is going up as we get closer to the conference, June 28-July 1 at LIU/Post Campus. .
See new workshop posts
here
.
Click here
to see some of the the major features of this year's regular AERO Conference in June
You can register for the AERO Conference
HERE
. A
deposit
can hold this rate. Deposit option ends April 30.
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New Book by PONO Students!
Maysaa will be doing a mini-talk at the AERO Conference and bringing students. She sent this comment:
"
Pono is a democratic, outdoor school located in Harlem, NYC, where students ages six and older pursue long-term projects as part of a weekly mentorship program. The students wrote and illustrated The Earthsavers, an eight-chapter comic book, as one of their mentorship projects.
The book features six intrepid superheroes, who must work together to save Earth from natural disasters caused by drilling companies. Readers of all ages will delight in the adventures of the Earthsavers, who use teamwork, bravery, and creativity to save the day!
The Earthsavers
, published in August 2017, was accepted at major book stores in NYC and is now available at AERO’s bookstore!
Support Pono and AERO and buy the book
here
.
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Student Walkout Marks 19th Anniversary of Columbine
The 19
th
anniversary of the Columbine massacre was marked April 20
th
by walkouts in more than 2500 schools around the country. At Columbine, itself, the school was closed as usual for this day while students performed community service. Some of the activist students are taking the practical approach of getting new voters to register so they can vote in the midterm elections later this year. Many New York students “walked out in a demonstration against school violence,” the New York Post reported.DOE spokesperson Miranda Barbot said Thursday that kids who take part in Friday’s walkout, which is being supported through a grant by the American Federation of Teachers,
"will be cited for an unexcused absence on their record
.
"
Queens Frank Sinatra High School of the Arts student Cynthia Duran said, ““I don’t care. The fact that the schools aren’t supporting us, it baffles me,” Duran said. “If we die today, there is no need for schools because there is no student to teach.”
On Long Island last year's AERO keynoter, Patchogue-Medford Superintendent Michael J. Hynes met in assemblies with each grade where students could express their thoughts.
AERO is trying to reach students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida to see if they could speak at the AERO Conference. If you have any leads on how to contact them, please let us know.
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The Freedom to Learn Forum at Summerhill.
Exclusive for AERO, by Summerhill Students!
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The Freedom to Learn Forum took place on the 6 - 8th April, at the iconic Summerhill School in Suffolk. The event brought together innovative educators, families and other pioneers to showcase and inspire unique learning communities governed by equality, freedom, and collaboration. This was not a conference just for supporters of Democratic Education or the Summerhill style. This was an assembling of children, parents, the curious, unschoolers, home-educators, teachers working in mainstream settings as well as those involved with alternative projects around the UK.
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A Heads Up: School and Organizational Membership Will Increase Soon
We are in the process of changing AERO's membership program. Very shortly prices will go up for school membership. If your membership has lapsed or if you want a new AERO membership, this would be a good time to get it at only $75 a year. This will be honored when the price goes up.
Renew or get your new membership
here.
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Links & Calendar
Links
Ongoing
Calendar
- FIREBIRD YOUTH THEATER MARKS 80th ANNIVERSARY OF THORNTON WILDER’S “OUR TOWN” WITH A HEARTFELT NEW PRODUCTION April 27 & 28, 2018
- Self-Directed Path Conference: TX, April 28
- AERO Conference 2018, NY, June 28 - July 1st
- EUDEC 2018, Greece, August 1-7
- Korczak Conference 2018: CA, August 22-25, 2018
- APDEC: November 15, 2018
- IDEC: Bangalore, India, November 17-21, 2018
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AERO Is Proudly Supported By
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