Dear AERO Reader,

People have suggested we make a promotional video for the AERO Conference . Above is a short one that was done at our 7th conference. This will be our 15th conference! You will see some people in the video that you will recognize. One of them is Isaac Graves who organized the first AERO conference in 2004 as a 16 year old. He's still involved with AERO's book publishing.

Special Offer for AERO members

This week we are offering a 25% discount for AERO Conference registration for AERO members. Ordinarily AERO members get a 10% discount in conference fees, in our bookstore, and for the school starters course. For the next two days AERO members will get 25% off the conference registration and in the bookstore! Just use the code that you get upon registration at check out. If you are a current member and forgot your code, just e mail us. This brings the price from $250 to $187.50. If you are not a member of AERO you can join now here . But wait until you get the return email with the code before you register for the conference. You can register for the conference here .


Sign Up For Key Workshops and Event s

Ordinarily you don't need to sign up in advance for AERO conference workshops. Numbers will sometimes range up to 60 in a room but we can usually handle that. But there are four this year that we are taking signups for in advance because they may become filled. Once you register you can sign up for them to reserve your space. They are:

  1. Dr. Joel Fuhrman's nutrition workshop on Jeb 29th
  2. The School Starters workshop led by Chris Mercogliano and Jerry Mintz
  3. Individual and youth life coaching led by John Williams and other life coaches.
  4. Meet and Greet with Henry Readhead of Summerhill

Once you register just email us or reply to this newsletter with the names of the workshops that that you want to participate in.

A few other things to know about once you have registered:

AERO still offers Continuing Education Credits and Graduate Education credits by Antioch University. Contact us directly if interested so we can arrange this in advance.

After you register we subscribe you to the AEROconference listserve so you can communicate with other current and past attendees before the conference

We also sign you up for the conference networking internal software, Whova so you can use the Whova app to look at the schedule, talk to other attendees, discuss different topics, and be immediately notified when anything changes via a notification right on your phone.

Full Registration Scholarship Available

Someone in the AERO network who isn't able to go to this year's conference wants to still support AERO and the conference. Therefore he will pay someone's full registration fee so they can go. Contact us directly by replying to this e news if interested. Anyone else what to do the same?

Why You should go to the AERO Conference

There has been a big discussion lately on the AEROconference listserve about why people should go to the AERO Conference. Here are a few quotes:

"In the current political climate it's important to take a stand and support what we believe in!"

"The AERO conference is my favorite and the only one I will travel cross country for.  CL."

"As someone who truly cares about the democratic philosophy I don't want to go anywhere else but to AERO.  JV"

"I joined this network and signed up for the conference because I am interested in all kinds of alternative education. I am interested in the dialog, in the research, in the ideas and creation of new ways of learning. …..I am interested in starting an alternative school and I want to hear from experts. All the things you've done look great - a lot of hard work obviously! And the line-up for the conference also looks wonderful - I am thrilled to be attending.  MH"

"“AERO is my continuing education. It's the only opportunity I have to learn
from other people, rather than just by reading and stumbling along with my
community. I'm a democratic public school educator, and I learn a lot from everyone who is working with kids' self-directed education in any way. To me, a diverse conference is the best conference. Unschoolers, holistic educators, community schoolers are all making discoveries that support one another. This year I really want to see Dave (Lehman) and Henry (Readhead from Summerhill).” DO"

People also brainstormed their top ten list of why they go to the conference. Click here to see those lists .

Don't miss this AERO conference, in New York for the 4th and last time.


If You Could Make ONE change….

This was a very interesting challenge by John Merrow. This was my response. Read his article and post yours! See what others posted.
" The one change I would make is to leave the door open to every classroom. The students would have the right to leave any time they wanted. They would not be captives. This would be the same kind of right that any adult would have in attending any event they chose. For example, a library assumes that you are a natural learner. You go in when you want. You exit when you want. Furthermore nobody requires that you take a test on your way out to see what you have learned, nor would they have the right to do that! JM"

By John Merrow

“If YOU had the power to make ONE major change in American public education immediately, what would you choose to do?”

I posed the question to my dinner companions, three authors and one editor. But before I tell you how they answered the question, please take a minute to decide what you would do. (and I urge you to post your answer below.)

Gates Foundation chief admits Common Core mistakes

Ed: Of course we at AERO have been saying this all along. This goes back, for example to when we confronted President Obama's newly appointed education chief, Arnie Dunkin. At a Writers Association meeting I asked him, "Will you get rid of No Child Left Behind? We alternative educators feel it interferes with real innovation."
"Well,' he mused, "The name is toxic. We'll probably change the name." So right there he admitted they wouldn't change anything but the name! Which paper in that big audience of liberal writers reported that? NONE!
-JM

By Valerie Strauss, the Washington Post

Sound familiar?

After spending several billion dollars attempting to reform public education over nearly 20 years, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is saying that, oops, the job is harder than its leaders had thought .
Is Curiosity as Good at Predicting Children's Reading, Math Success as Self-Control? Study Says Yes
By  Sarah D. Sparks

Ever since the landmark  "marshmallow test"  highlighted the importance of early self-control in later achievement, educators have worked to find ways to build self-regulation among young children. But a new study in the journal Pediatric Research suggests boosting children's natural curiosity may be equally crucial to their long-term learning.
Why I'm Against Innovation in Education
By Mike SchmokerI

I'm against innovation in education—as currently conceived and conducted. I'm not against small-scale educational experimentation, where new methods are tested, refined, and proved before they are widely implemented. But I'm against our inordinate obsession with what's new at the expense of what works— with exceedingly superior (if much older) evidence-based practices .
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