• We greatly appreciate the donations made to AERO during Giving Tuesday! This will help us continue our work. Please help us reach our goal!
Happy Mother's Day! Hopefully many mothers (and fathers) will find the following letter supportive! If useful spread far and wide, with link to EducationRevolution.org JM
Parents Are the Answer!

To Parents Everywhere:

In the midst of this COVID-19 crisis everything in education has changed overnight. Schools are trying to be relevant but are having trouble doing that with old methods. Right now it’s all about the parents and the students.

We have suddenly returned to the way it was before this relatively new phenomenon, the public school system. Before that, from the dawn of time until about 150 years ago education was exclusively the purview of the parents, and we survived, and we thrived enough that we are still here.

So there is no need to panic, or to follow all of the requirements of the school systems you have left. You can use what you find useful, but you know what is best for your child in this situation. Even good teachers will admit they are not experts at this either, that they and we are all learning this together. As one seven year old child recently noted about her teachers, “Did you know, they have no idea what they are doing?”

The important thing for parents to know, something every parent used to know, is that children are natural learners. If you realize that, and modern brain research backs this up, there is no need to stress. Children are born wanting to learn, to understand everything about the world around them. They particularly want to know what the adults around them think is important. Some learner-centered teachers and schools know that, but most don’t.

Did anyone ever have to force a child to learn about computers, or to walk and talk, for that matter? If and when they realize that reading and writing are important in the world, nothing can stop them from learning it. And there are so many equally important things they learn such as responsibility, compassion, and solving real life problems. So in general, your job as a parent is just to try to keep up with your children and help them along the way if they get a little stuck. They create their curriculum. And almost every study shows that if this approach is taken, children learn faster, sometimes much faster.

Before we went from 3 1/2 % of people homeschooling to 96%, there already was a very wide spectrum of people teaching their children at home, from college professors, public school teachers (hmmm, interesting!) to people without a high school diploma. But studies show that the average homeschooled student was in the 80 th percentile!

Don’t let anyone tell you that you aren’t homeschooling! Like it or not, you are! Parents want what is best for their students, and will do everything they can to have that happen. As in the days before the public school system, you can pick and choose from things that schools offer, but you are in no way obliged to do anything they tell you to do. And it looks like millions of parents and children have discovered that.

So, don’t worry! In all likelihood your children will come out of this with a strikingly stronger sense of what learning is and what they can accomplish on their own. And you will come out of it with valuable experience as a guide for your children’s education. After that you will have some very interesting decisions to make!
Here are some useful resources from AERO :

A Free 10 Minute Consultation
Invitation to Sunday Noon Zoom Chat

Hello to all of our friends around the world!

So much has been happening. We hope you are doing well and are safe and healthy.  
We will continue with our Zoom gathering this Sunday 5/10/2020 at 12 pm - Eastern time.  Invitation below. 
There has been such positive and meaningful work that has come out of these calls. One is a group that is working on transforming the experience students will have when they return to public school.  
The Sunday chat is an open discussion for the greater AERO network. Bring the important issue you'd like to discuss.

Peter Berg is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting:

Topic: AERO Meeting - 5/11/2020
Time: May 10, 2020 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 810 8785 3598
Password: 070201
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Dial by your location
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Meeting ID: 810 8785 3598
Password: 070201
Find your local number:  https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kNscA1ZYJ
Peter Berg Ed.D., AERO Representative 
AERO Office - (800) 769-4171
Join the AERO Team!
We need help organizing, promoting and moderating the conference. Meetings are starting soon!

If you are interested in joining the team please contact Jerry - Jerryaero@aol.com or Peter - peter@educationrevolution.org .
Committee on How AERO Can Help Influence Return to School

We have a committee of people interested in helping the public schools change to a more learner-centered approach as people start thinking about going back to school. This group continues to meet regularly and divided up into groups working on particular projects. Contact us if interested in getting on one of the committees.

One of our members is Port Washington, NY Superintendent Michael Hynes . As part of our outreach he wrote an amazing editorial that was published by Newsday. He said " Our students deserve an Education Revolution!": Read it HERE!

Another group member, Sidney Morris ,a founder of a charter school in Martha's Vineyard in MA wrote a powerful message to their board. Read the letter HERE

AERO member Liz Campbell from Nova Scotia recorded this precious interview with her granddaughter. See it HERE. and the picture below
Continuation of the Earth Day Story

We very much appreciate the kind feedback on the True Earth Day Story t hat I sent

Some people asked for more, so here's the latest amazing pond story:

May 5, 2020
 
Just when I thought I’d seen everything I could see at the pond I saw something I never saw before in my life.
 
I walked over to the bridge over the pond outlet in the afternoon. I was looking for the ducklings with the mother duck I’d seen two days before. They weren’t at the spot where I’d seen them.
 
Suddenly an 8-year-old girl nearby pointed to a spot way down the stream. “Oh my God, what’s that, a bald eagle?”
 
I was very dubious about that idea. But suddenly I saw the biggest bird I’d ever seen in my life. It was taller than a blue heron and much heftier. It was standing like a statue in the middle of the stream. So, again, that’s what I thought it might be. Then suddenly it picked up a fish from the stream and munched it down!
 
I called to an older passerby from across the street. “Do you know what that is?” I yelled. He could see it from across the street, perhaps a football field away.
 
“Yes,” he said. It’s a Whooping Crane, the biggest bird in America! It comes here sometimes.”
 
I couldn’t believe it. I thought they might be extinct, because I know they almost were extinct years ago.
 
We just stood there, transfixed by what we were seeing. And then things got dicier! The fox darted out from the underbrush and came to within ten feet of the feeding bird. He stood there for a second, looking at the bird who was bigger than he was. The bird looked up at him as if to say, “You lookin’ at me? What, are you kidding? You want to mess with me?”
 
The fox then rapidly walked and then raced away! Then the bird looked up at us on the road, mouths agape, as if to say “Wuddya lookin’ at?” And he continued to feast on the fish, which he was still doing a half-hour later when we came back.
AERO'S First Virtual Conference is Next Month!

We know that many of you stopped worrying about registering for this year's AERO Conference when it became virtual: No need to have to arrange transportation, book housing, etc. But there are two reasons why you should register soon:

We may be limited for some workshops by our capacity on Zoom. So you need to register to make sure you get in.

It will greatly help AERO's preparation to know how many people will attend the conference.


See Twenty Three Approved Conference Workshops HERE

It is now only $125 for adults for the whole 4 day conference, June 25-28, and $75 for students. Special arrangements can still be made for groups.

Of course this gives the opportunity this year for people everywhere on the planet to participate in an AERO Conference. We need your help to spread the word. I f you get five people to register the conference will be free for you!


A Short Video of Cassidy on the AERO Conference and How She Left Her Job to Start a New Alternative

Register at the $125 rate HERE

Register as a sustainer at $10 a month HERE
Register at $15 a month and we'll also give you AERO membership
Send us New Scheduled Events for the AERO School!
As a result of the conversation in one of the Zoom breakout rooms we established an AERO School. This is simply a listing of Zoom and other events by AERO members.

If you have an offering for people in the AERO network, write it up with the invitation link and send to me.

Free Consultations from AERO

We are providing free consultations for people looking for options. Please let anyone know who could use this service. Also, if you have resources to help people, let us know.

To set up a free consultation, write to JerryAERO@AOL.com
Gates' New Initiative
For some reason, Bill Gates continues to want to be a player in the education game. There are the latest articles about it:
News From School Starters Consultation Program !

This is a great time for people to take this course! Remember you get free consultations when you register for this program and the tuition is deducted if you take the full course in September. For the first time we have started a group connecting them.

This year's Online School Starters Course began in September, 2019, and ended in January. The new course will start in September. For 15 years. AERO has helped people start over 150 new alternatives! But you can now register for the School Starters Consultation Program at 75% off ! You can get access to all the resources in the course such as e books to download, videos, interviews, and all the posts, and the tuition is applicable to the new course this September if you take it. It comes with personal consultations about your school project. Limited to ten registrants. Some have already registered. The tuition can be applied to the full course in September. Register now HERE
Teacher: Tutoring is available in mathematics through Calculus and Statistics, SAT, ACT, and ISEE preparation, physics, chemistry, French, Spanish, and English. Dr. Neal also offers overall academic mentoring across all subjects to help students complete their online courses this school year success. 512-203-3773 or lanacneal@gmail.com

Note to schools: If your job is filled, please let us know. Job posts are free for AERO members
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