AERO-GRAMME #24 The Magazine of the Alternative Education Resource Organization 417 Roslyn Rd., Roslyn Heights, NY 11577 ISSN # 10679219 phone: 516-621-2195 or 800-769-4171 fax: 516-625-3257 e-mail: jmintz@igc.apc.org Web site: http://www.edrev.org Spring-Summer 1998
See Special CHANGING SCHOOLS Section
Former Alternative Education Student is Starting Alternative Education Alumni Association through AERO by Angela Cross
It is time for all of us who are alumni of educational alternatives, as students, staff, or parents, to band together to create a new alumni association, one that could become a powerful force in supporting alternative education, and act as a catalyst for changing our current educational system to one that inspires the growth of all students in a more humanistic manner.
I experienced both alternative and public schooling as a student, and I have some strong opinions about the ethics of education. Even though I did well in public school, I always viewed my experiences there as a time to “know thy enemy.” My involvement in alternative education has helped me develop strong moral values, something that seems to be increasingly missing in the current, traditional public-school system. Also missing is trust in the individual’s ability and desire to learn, which is taken for granted in most alternative systems.
The bureaucracy in public institutions has gotten out of hand. So many times you hear of positive things being shut down by a paranoid system afraid of being sued. We are in a vulnerable time right now as companies try to buy our children with instruments and computers in exchange for running advertisements during the morning announcements. We are selling our kids to big business, which does not care about anything except money. I worry that we are going to see the development of small boot-camp-like training centers that do not allow for the growth of diversity, but continue to produce drones who never take the time to question what they are being fed. That is why it is time for everyone who ever thought that students deserve more from their schools to step up and voice their opinions.
One powerful way of doing this is to help us organize the Alternative Education Alumni Association. The purposes of this association are to support the promotion of educational alternatives and perhaps also assist with incorporating the ideals of alternative education into the educational mainstream. These would include learning how to learn for oneself, and that learning is a process usable throughout life, not just during our “schooled” time.
By pulling our alumni together, we can explore the achievements of alternative education, communicate with each other, and connect with the developments in educational alternatives today. It’s time to tell the world about our accomplishments. This is our chance to break the stereotypes that have prevented an open approach to education for all people. It is time for us to step up and speak for our future, to share the knowledge we have gained. It’s time for those of us who have experienced these approaches to make a commitment to the alternative education movement, and to give more students a chance to grow in a more humanistic, less degrading way.
We will conduct a national survey of students who went to alternative schools or programs, or who homeschooled. Such a survey could be very important because it may show that, compared with traditional public education, alternative approaches help students lead more satisfying and productive lives, something we suspect, but which has never been studied. It also would provide an idea of how many people have experienced these alternatives. This association would have many possible services. We can act as a clearinghouse for people interested in sharing their knowledge with others. Among our alumni we have people skilled in an amazing variety of areas, which would be a valuable resource for educational alternatives.
We need help! In addition to resources and services we could provide directly to the movement, if you could find an alumni list for your present or former school we could lead fund-raisers through these alumni, with the large majority of funds being put back into your school, and some to support the general work of AERO to promote all alternatives. Also, the statistics we develop could be used in your brochures. If you are an alumnus of an educational alternative or if you could provide us with a list of alumni from your school or program, please contact us. For your help and cooperation we will also give you and your school a subscription to AERO-GRAMME (the magazine of the Alternative Education Resource Organization). We hope that you will join this cause and make it feasible for us to reach as many alternative education alumni as possible. Please contact us at 800-769-4171.
—Angela Cross, founding member of the Alternative Education Alumni Association, and former student and staff member of Albany’s Free School, and Shaker Mountain School.
Graphic Demonstration of Democracy for a New Charter School
The Renaissance School is a new charter school started this year by a group of parents in Lakeland, Florida. Immediately upon their opening, they ran into serious trouble. The master teacher whom they had hired to train other teachers and lead the school in an alternative direction couln not handle the stress and left before two weeks were up. Two lead teachers followed. From then on, the group of parents and teachers were playing for simple survival. There were about 85 students in the school, from kindergarten through fifth grade. The parents who sent their children to the Renaissance School did so for a wide variety of reasons and had many different educational philosophies ranging from open education to Christian education. Many of the students had come to this school after having serious problems in other schools.
Just before Christmas the parent administrator of the school, Mari-Jean Melissa, found AERO on the Web and contacted us, asking for help in finding a new master teacher. We did the best we could, but it was hard to find such a person in the middle of the school year. We suggested that the teachers visit some other alternative schools in Florida that we thought were good examples, but they were not able to find the time to do so. They also talked about bringing me down there to do a consultation with the staff.
Meanwhile, the older group of students at Albany’s Free School in New York was planning its major field trip for the year. They wanted to combine this with participation in the annual conference of the National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools (NCACS), which was to be held at Upattinas School in Glenmoore, Pennsylvania. But Chris Marcogliano, co-director of the Free School who drove last year’s group on a major trip, was not available to drive this year (and their teacher, Lex Bhagat, grew up in New York City and does not have a driver’s license).
Three of the students in that group had gone with me to a regional NCACS conference in Vermont last October (and two of them had worked as interns in the AERO office for a week). They knew that I had taken groups on similar trips when I directed my school in Vermont, so they called to ask me if I would drive them. I hadn’t taken a driving trip in years with such a large group—12 people—certainly not since I had been hospitalized with a ruptured disc three years ago. Also, I was very busy with work on AERO and had little time for such a trip, but they managed to talk me into it. Bree Edwards, another Free School staff member, the school’s cook, joined our group and was able to help with some of the driving.
I contacted the Renaissance School in Florida to see if they might be able to cover some of our traveling expenses in exchange for our doing a demonstration of democratic decision-making for the school and meeting with the staff, students, and parents. The Renaissance School was very excited about the idea and said they would be glad to do this. Meanwhile, the Free School students organized two major fundraising events: a fish fry, and a play that they co-wrote with their teacher and performed twice. They raised nearly $2,000 with the combination of these events. $500 of it needed to go toward conference expenses for the NCACS, which in itself was a considerable reduction in the usual price; $185 went to replace staff salaries; $215 went to fly one student who had an important family obligation a day after our departure down to Florida. This left about $950 to be spent on the rest of the trip to Florida, with Renaissance agreeing to cover $450 worth of expenses. Although this averaged out to only about $7 a day per person, we managed to make it work in inimitable Free School style by spending virtually nothing for sleeping, staying mostly at alternative schools we knew along the way or camping out, and getting donations, such as tickets to Marineland. "South of the Border," in South Carolina, just south of the North Carolina border. It is a tourist site that has motels, rides, miniature golf, etc. We broadcast our radio show live from there and they donated two large rooms for the group to stay in with their sleeping bags.
Our first stop was Heathcote Community in Maryland, a community that is based on the concept of permaculture. They gave us a tour of their grounds and showed us a lot of their environmentally friendly techniques of composting, using solar energy, and water conservation. We then stayed at South of the Border, camped out at Marineland in Florida, swam at Daytona Beach, and drove over to Renaissance school at Lakeland, past Orlando.
Upon arriving at the Renaissance School, we had a day to get acquainted with the situation. The school had planned a trip to a new museum in St. Petersburg that features artifacts from the Titanic, and four of the students from our group went with them. The rest of the group went to the beach on the Gulf coast. The students who went to the Titanic exhibit so interested the Renaissance School parents who chaperoned the group that the parents decided that they wanted to spend the days at the school visiting us when we did our presentation. We had organizational meetings as we drove along in the van and at the school itself, preparing for our presentation.
As much as possible, we wanted to immerse them in the democratic Free School experience. On Thursday, the entire school was shepherded into their biggest room. Our group made a circle in the middle and the students and staff of the Renaissance School surrounded us. At first, the school said that they wouldn’t include the younger students, but we thought they should be included in the process so the younger ones came into the room also.
First I made a general introduction, talking about the different kinds of alternative schools. Two of the Free School students, Ted and Zack, talked about the Free School and the council meetings, which we were about to demonstrate. Then we organized a council meeting on a real, current issue for our group, as a demonstration of how we dealt with problems. There were two nominations and Jessica was elected chairperson. She asked who called the meeting. I said that I had, because some people in the group had been keeping others awake late at night by talking and making noise.
The discussion started with Candace saying that she was up late because some people had seen something out the window that scared them, and they talked about what they thought they saw. Then somebody brought up the fact that Candace had had cola in the evening and perhaps that was what had kept her awake. Several members of the group expressed their ideas and opinions about the problem. After five or ten minutes of discussion a little hand went up about four or five rows deep, outside of the fishbowl. It was Israel, a blond-haired seven-year-old Renaissance School student. I asked him if he understood what was going on. He responded that, yes, he understood and furthermore, he thought he had a solution to the group’s problem. Some of the Renaissance teachers were clearly stunned. We invited Israel into the group and within a short time there were another half-dozen Renaissance students who had joined the inner circle and were participating in the meeting. This demonstrated, graphically and palpably, that for these students who had never seen a democratic meeting before, this process was a very natural one for them, one in which they immediately felt comfortable in participating. At other times I’d seen the school noisy and somewhat chaotic, but for this entire process, you could have heard a pin drop. The students clearly realized that this was an important event and they wanted to understand every bit of it.
In the end, the group made two or three proposals concerning the problem. One was that there was to be no drinking beverages with caffeine after five o’clock in the afternoon. This included staff members drinking coffee. It was also decided that there would be a quiet time, after which people would either go to the sleeping area or go to another part of the school if they were going to stay up later. Candace would be the enforcer for the bedtime rules because she was the person who kept people awake the night before. I should add that Israel‘s idea was that everybody should have a separate sleeping place so that the noise wouldn’t bother them, but it was pointed out that, considering the situation of the group, that wouldn‘t be practical.
After the demonstration meeting, the Renaissance School group was divided up into five smaller groups, each of which was led by two members of the Free School group. The task for each group was to bring up one issue that they considered to be a problem. It could be a personal issue or it could be a problem with the school itself. They would have a discussion on it and perhaps have some motions on proposals for solutions. The groups met for about half an hour. The issues brought up ranged from problems between individual kids to the problem of noise in the school. Some of the groups came up with proposals and others didn’t get quite that far, but it seemed that every group was quite successful in the process and this was all reported to the big group when we came back together. For the rest of the day most of us were involved in discussions of the process that had taken place in the morning with various groups of staff members and parents until about five-thirty in the evening.
The following day, each of the students in our group taught a class, either singly or in pairs, and all of the students in the school chose which ones they wanted to attend. These included classes on the use of the Internet, a phys-ed class on basketball, an art class, a music class, and an acting class. Later in the day the acting class performed a play they had created and the dance class demonstrated the dance steps they had learned. The concept that students could teach classes was certainly established, as was the idea that students could effectively choose the classes they wanted to attend, based on interest rather than age or grade level. This was again followed by meetings with staff and parents. Also, they had brought a Ping-Pong table into the school the previous day and I taught a lot of the students table tennis. One of my classes had 35 students in it, the most to whom I’ve ever taught beginning table tennis. I taught the phys-ed teacher some techniques so that he’d be able to continue that process. I like teaching table tennis because it is non-academic and unthreatening, but through it students learn that they are able to learn something that is new well.
Although it went quite smoothly, some parents were upset, especially when some children went home and announced that the Free School kids could do whatever they wanted, and could swear and say anything they wanted. A few of the parents gave instructions that their children were not to have contact with the Free School students. The teachers and administrators did the best they could to communicate with those parents and alleviate their concerns. Our feedback from the school since then has been that the school was considerably inspired by our visit and all of the teachers and students have been able to use the democratic decision-making process with their groups.
When we were visiting the Grass Roots Free School on the way back, we broadcast our radio show from there and Pam, one of the teachers from the Renaissance School called to express her appreciation for what we had brought to them. She said that the very next day she had used the process in her classroom and it had worked very well. It was chaired by a boy who had been very disappointed that we weren’t going to stay around the school longer. I was told that this boy had often been a “trouble-maker” at the school. It is not surprising that, given the chance, many of these “trouble-makers” become positive leaders.
On the radio show, Pat Seery, the founder and director of the Grass Roots Free School, was also a guest, and the interaction between Pam, from the Renaissance School, and Pat was great as she asked him a number of questions about how they ran the Grass Roots Free School.
The next night, Lex’s brother Sajan, who is a chef, cooked us a great meal when we stayed at his house in Atlanta. The next morning we visited the Horizon School in Atlanta. Horizons has continued its remarkable program of building inexpensive buildings with staff and student labor, the latest of which is a beautiful theater. Our journey north continued with a stay and talk at Blue Mountain School, in Floyd, Virginia.
Wednesday we reached the NCACS Conference at Upattina’s School in Pennsylvania. About 150 students and teachers participated in this year’s conference. The board had completed its meeting before we arrived and made decisions to make significant changes in the organization, to raise enough money to hire two staff people, and to move the office out of Santa Fe to a location near a major city. Groups attended from as far away as Japan, with Kazuhiro Kojima of the Global Free School bringing a group of eight people. There were also groups from Laurel High School and The Farm, both in Tennessee, Pedro Abilzu Campos High School in Chicago, and Clonlara School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The first night I did a fund-raising auction for the NCACS for the first time in 7 years, raising $1,100 for the organization. There was a day of field trips to Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Dutch area, and other places. I attended a workshop on the NCACS teacher-training program. There were some other unusual events, such as sheep shearing and a sweat lodge.
John Gatto visited the conference and spoke that evening at Haverford College. One of the Free School students was very taken with Gatto’s idea that the public school system is accomplishing just what it was designed to accomplish: educating 20% of the population for leadership positions and dumbing down the rest to be followers.
After the conference, I drove the group to Albany where I did a last radio show on the road, interviewing one of the students and Chris Mercogliano about his new book about the Free School. (AERO has copies to sell of Chris’s book about the Free School, Making It Up as We Go Along. Send $21 to AERO, plus $3 for postage, or order by credit card by calling us at 800-769-4171.)
The Renaissance School is still looking for teachers with experience in alternative education for next year. AERO, through the Free School group or other schools, is interested in doing more workshops for schools interested in democratic decision-making process. Contact us if you are interested in being part of this process.
AERO trip in July to Vinnitsa, Ukraine for International Democratic Education Conference The International Democratic Education Conference will have its sixth annual meeting at the Stork Family School in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, from July 7th to 15th. AERO has been part of the organizing group and will be bringing at least 10 American students, teachers and parents to the conference. The cost of the conference itself will be minimal because we helped to arrange a Soros Foundation grant to the Stork Family School to support the conference. It is probably too late for readers to go to this conference by the time you get this newsletter, because of the time it takes to get visas. But contact us if you would like to go to similar AERO-organized trips.
Oleg Belin of the Stork Family School sent this e mail: "We were able to book sleeping places in a nearby hotel. Staying in the hotel and the meals as well as transportation from the airport to Vinnitsa and back will be free for the participants. At the Conference we intend to have presentations and workshops of schools discussing democratic education problems and successes, handicraft demonstrations and workshops, debates, theatrical productions and workshops, and any other activities which people would like to suggest or bring, as we did last year. There will also be tours around Vinnitsa and its vicinities, and to Kiev and other places of interest, a trip to the site of archaeological excavations, concerts, table tennis and tennis competitions etc." Oleg Belin. (valery@doroshenko.vinnica.ua), 380 4324 65577. People can also get more information from Jerry Mintz, Zahava Barkani of Hadera School, at 972 986 63718 or David Gribble in England at 44 13 63 87 72 33.
We are also expecting participants from England, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, Hungary, Austria, the Democratic School of Hadera in Israel, The Hope Flower School in the West Bank, and three schools in Russia, as well as many from the Ukraine. We'll have a full report in thed next AERO-GRAMME.
New Edwards Foundation Grant of $25,500 Supports Stork Family School and Three Other Schools
The Edwards Foundation, has awarded another generous grant to support the Stork Family School in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, The Moscow International Film School, Albany's Free School, and the Hope Flower School in Bethlehem, in the West Bank of Israel. These grants were secured through the efforts of AERO. David Gamper is the President of the Edwards Foundation. He has started alternative schools himself in the past and is a well known avant-garde musician who recently performed with his Deep Listening Band in Manhattan.
These grants are are of great importance to these schools. For example, the Ukraine government now takes 85% of the tuition paid to the Stork Family School. Until that law can be changed, a grant like this means survival of the school.
Ten Signs That You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child by Jerry Mintz
In trying to figure out ways to increase the exposure of AERO, I began contacting some of the local papers that deal with parents and education. On Long Island there are two such publications: Long Island Parenting and Parent Guide. Initially I thought that I could place some information on AERO in a resource section, but it became apparent that both of these papers were advertising-based only. One of the editors, being sympathetic to what AERO was attempting to accomplish and seeing the benefit of informing parents of their options in their children’s’ education, suggested that we write an article, “Ten Signs That Your Child Might Need a Different Educational Approach,” and I asked Jerry Mintz to write the following article. I thought it might be interesting to encourage everyone reading this to find similar papers in their communities that might reprint this article. This will accomplish two things: It will help AERO get more national recognition and help us to become a clearinghouse for educational alternatives. It will also help increase awareness of your school, and interest in innovative educational approaches. –John Sauer, AERO director of development and communications.
Many parents do not realize that the education world has changed drastically since they were in school. Back in those days, schools were smaller, class sizes were smaller, dropout rates were lower, violence in school was almost unheard of, teachers were not terrified of showing affection to the children, or of teaching and discussing moral values. Even through rose-colored glasses, we know that school back then was no picnic and was far from perfect, but at least the teachers and usually the principal knew every student by name, something which is not necessarily true today. Because our public school system now has deteriorated considerably, many parents, teachers, and individuals have taken it upon themselves to create public and private alternatives to that traditional system which is definitely failing. It is important for parents to know that they have choices, alternatives to the neighborhood school. How do you know that it is time to look for another educational approach for your children? Here are some of the signs:
1. Do your children say they hate school? If so, something is probably wrong with the school because children are natural learners. When they’re young you can hardly stop them from learning. If your children say they hate school, listen to them.
2. Do your children find it difficult to look an adult in the eye, or to interact with children younger or older than they are? If so, they may have become “socialized” to that very narrow group which many children ordinarily interact with in most schools, and may be losing the ability to communicate with a broader group of children and adults.
3. Do your children seem fixated on designer labels and trendy clothes for school? This is a symptom of the shallowness of the traditional schools’ approach, causing children to rely on external means of comparison and acceptance, rather than deeper values.
4. Do your children come from school tired and cranky? This is a sure sign that their educational experiences are not energizing but are actually debilitating.
5. Do your children come home complaining about conflicts that they’ve had in school and unfair situations that they have been exposed to? This is a sign that your school does not have a proper process for conflict resolution and communication.
6. Have your children lost interest in creative expression through art, music, and dance? These things are generally not encouraged in the traditional system today and are not highly valued. They’re considered secondary to the “academic” areas. In some cases, courses are not even offered in these areas any more. This tends to extinguish these natural talents and abilities in children.
7. Have your children stopped reading for fun, or reading or writing for pleasure? Are your children doing just the minimum for homework and going off for some escapist activity? This is a sign that these spontaneous activities are not being valued in their school and another sign that people are losing their creativity.
8. Do your children procrastinate until the last minute to do homework? This is a sign that the homework is not very interesting, is not really meeting their needs, and is tending to extinguish their natural curiosity.
9. Do your children come home talking about anything exciting that happened in school that day? If not, maybe nothing exciting is happening for your children in school. Would you want to keep working if your job was like that?
10. Did the school nurse or guidance counselor suggest that your children have some strange, three-lettered disease like ADD, and that they should now be given Ritalin or some other drug? I suggest that it is more probable that the school has the disease, EDD—Educational Deficit Disorder, and it’s time to get your children out of that situation!
If your children have exhibited several of these characteristics, it is time for you to start looking for an alternative. In most parts of this country today, there are many options to choose from. For example, 30 states have now enacted legislation which allows groups of parents and teachers to create charter schools, schools that are not stuck with having to fulfill the myriad of state regulations but can create their own individualized approach. Four years ago there were only five of these charter schools in the country. By the end of this year there will be more than 1,000 of them! Also, there are 4,500 magnet schools throughout the country, public schools that specialize in an area of expertise, and draw students from a wider area.
In most communities there are many private alternatives quietly offering a different educational approach. For example, there are over 4,500 Montessori schools based on the experiential approach designed by Dr. Maria Montessori, and hundreds of Waldorf schools that put equal emphasis on traditional academic areas and the arts. There are hundreds of independent alternative schools, many emphasizing participant control with parents and students taking responsibility for their own educations.
Many public school systems have a variety of alternative programs within their systems. These are divided into two general approaches: 1. Public Choice; those programs which are open to any student in the community. Sometimes they are called “schools within schools.” 2. Public At-Risk; those programs for children who have had a variety of problems coping with school. These programs run the spectrum from helpful to dumping ground. Examine them closely before making a decision to enroll.
Parents of over a million children in this country have checked off “none of the above” and decided to teach their children at home. It is now legal in every state and does not require teacher certification. Homeschooling has taken a variety of approaches. Some try to create “school at home” with a fairly standard curriculum, the main difference being that parents can teach one-on-one with their children. Some families have signed up with a curriculum designed by an umbrella school that helps parents with the curriculum and, in some cases, grades homework, providing a basic curriculum for parents to follow and helping with any report forms that are necessary. A third approach is one which is called “unschooling,” where parents base their educational approach on the interests of the child and build on them, rather than using a pre-set curriculum. In some of these cases families design their curriculum “retroactively,” keeping records of their activities throughout the year and, at the end of the process, dividing the experiences into the appropriate subject area.
Most states require some form of testing of homeschoolers, and it has been shown that remarkably, as a group, they average in the 85th percentile compared to the 50th percentile of the average public school student. There are now so many homeschoolers around the country that virtually all homeschoolers are part of some kind of homeschool group. Some of these groups have coalesced into homeschool resource centers, and some operate as often as four or five days a week. Generally, colleges have discovered that homeschoolers make such good students that they welcome homeschooling students to apply to their schools.
As more and more parents become aware of and make these choices, we hope that the system will evolve into one that meets the needs of an increasing number of students. Meanwhile, don’t wait for that system to change. Take responsibility for your children’s education. Find out what your choices are and choose what is best for your child. –Jerry Mintz
Jerry Mintz is the director of the Alternative Education Resource Organization, and editor-in-chief of The Almanac of Education Choices. The Almanac lists over 6,000 educational alternatives by state in zip code order and has essays about homeschooling, charter schools, and the history of alternative education. AERO can be reached by calling 800-769-4171 or online at http://www.edrev.org.
Readers can find out about local educational alternatives by calling the (Put in your school name) _________ School at _____________.
THE NEW EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS: BRICKS OR WINGS?
Earlier this year I went to a conference that was keynoted by representatives of a state department of education, proudly talking about all the new educational standards they were planning to impose on the children of the state. Rather than stay at the posh hotel where the conference was held, I stayed with my friends at a nearby free school. At the conference, I discovered that the officials had never even heard of that free school, although it was in their city. As I left the conference, I composed the following summary of the situation, outlining the two conflicting paradigms:
When children are born, they want to reach for the sky. All children are born with wings, and the desire to fly.
But professional educators have forgotten that. So they have decided that the best way for kids to reach for the sky is to give them bricks, lots of bricks, the heavier the better, and a plan, a perfect plan, outlining the only way the bricks are to be used, to build a structure so they can go high into the sky. And although some of those children do use the bricks, and do go nearly to the top of the structure, most of them get tired and give up building.
But freeschoolers and unschoolers, they still have their wings. They know how to fly, up, up, past the top of that brick structure, far into the sky. So all we really ask of those professional educators is this: Please don’t give those freeschool children and unschool children any bricks to carry with them. Without those bricks, all children could keep their wings. JM
Mail and Communications Edited by Carol Morley Feedback from AERO-GRAMME #23 --Phone message from John Gatto, 3/10/98: …It’s just a magnificent thing that you’ve done. It’s so valuable to everybody, and I want to give you hearty congratulations…I’ll tell audiences when they ask what’s out there that they can hold on to, “Boy, it’s a rock. It’s a rock.”
--Karen Anderson, dolfin@seasurf.com, California: Just a quick one to let you know: got the new AERO-GRAMME. Like the new format, and LOVE your “Longer School Year Not the Answer.” Gets right to the heart of the issue. Great job!
--George Kostveit Gabriel, gabriel@c2i.net, Liljeveien 13c, 1450 Nesoddtangen, Norway: It is a great photo of Alfred and baby. We are starting a new school. I have already used a quote from Chris Balch’s article that I think does a great job describing the essence of what a school should be about.
--Regan Haulotte, rhaulotte@hotmail.com: I thought the entirety of AERO-GRAMME #23 was, as usual, excellent. I like the new format, and I like how you’ve incorporated Changing Schools into the magazine. In fact, Don Glines’ article in that section was my favorite one in the whole issue. I sure hope public schools can soon be reorganized along the lines that he suggests. So far, I’ve received two responses on the World Citizens School: one from a young lady still in high school, and another (just in today’s mail) who’s connected to a world travel/experiential learning outfit in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I hope this is only the beginning!
--Mary Leue, MarySKOLE@aol.com, founder of Albany’s Free School: I ought to have sent you word ere now how gorgeous the new format for AERO is! Congratulations!
--Jean Reed, bfbooks@nbnet.nb.ca, Maine: The new look on the last issue of AERO-GRAMME was very nice. It is neat, attractive, and easy to file for reference.
--Helena Singer, singersp@usp.br, Brazil: I have just received AERO-GRAMME 23 and I became really impressed. It is very nice; the quality of the paper is always getting better and there are some very interesting articles. Congratulations!
--Sandy Strahl, sandy@cscocomputers.com: I munched away in ecstasy through the last issue and am hungry again!
Editor’s note: We’d like to express our thanks to Sidney Solomon and Eve Brant of the Solomon Press for the help they have given us in creating the new format fand copy editing AERO-GRAMME!
Other Communications Mary Leue, Editor of SKOLE, the wonderful Journal of Alternative Education, has announced that the summer issue will be the last one she edits. She is looking for someone or an organization to take over editing the journal, which has been published since 1985. If you are able to help or know someone who can help with any aspect of producing SKOLE, contact Mary at MarySKOLE@aol.com, call 518-432-1578, or write to her at 72 Philip St, Albany, NY 12202.
This summer’s Student Action in Learning (S.A.I.L.) program is a two-week adventure for youths aged 14 to 19 aboard a sailboat exploring the Bahama Islands. The program is offered by The Centre for World Studies and will take place in July. Participants will have opportunities to learn navigation and charting skills, discover the art and science of sailing, explore the cultures and history of the Bahamas, explore reefs and natural environments, develop leadership skills, explore wellness practices, and have fun. For more information, contact The Centre for World Studies at 2163 Stone Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48105, e-mail: WorldSt313@aol.com.
Thanks for your steady networking and reporting in AERO. We’re offering a new semester program in spring’99 to green kibbutzim in Israel based on our Geocommons College Year model. It will be a terrific program based at Kibbutz Gezer with 12 credits through the University of New Hampshire. And from August 3-18 we’ll be running our fourth Summer Institute in Sustainable Living with permaculture design and 4 credits through UNH. Bruce Kantner, Director, Geocommons College, RR2 Box 793 Derbyshire Farm, Temple, NH 03084, 603-654-6705.
We appreciate the letter we received recently from Barbara Backler who is using our video on Democratic Meetings in elementary schools in the Chicago area. She says she hopes that the NCACS “will stay alive and well and that someday people will realize that schools don’t have to have four walls and all look the same and discourage free thinking.” We certainly second that! Barbara is with the Harmony School Education Center, PO Box 1787, Bloomington, IN 47402, 812-334-8349, fax: 812-333-3435.
The Center for Inspired Learning serves as an online clearinghouse and virtual meeting place where educators and life-long learners can come together to share ideas related to progressive structures and holistic approaches to education. We are building online forums and library references for parents, students, teachers, and communities that want to start or restructure a school. This Center will allow for critical dialog and references that appreciate both the diversity and value of holistic practices, such as homeschooling, Waldorf, Montessori, and democratic or “free” schools. Robin Martin, http://www.inspiredinside.com/learning/.
Students at New College begin each semester on Norwich University’s campus for two weeks. Following that, they return home to continue their studies online via computer seminars and faculty mentors. Students learn from experience, internships, volunteer work, and cross-cultural experiences. Instruction is individualized and delivered through faculty mentors. For a brochure and application, write to Vermont College of Norwich University, Admissions Office, Montpelier, VT 05602, 800-336-6794, fax: 802-828-8855.
Alan Schulman wrote us that reading AERO-GRAMME “was kind of shocking. I had no idea that so many people in so many different places were practicing alternatives.... I feel like the dawning of a new morning for those of us still in the struggle for democratic choices available to parents and children. Thanks.” Thank you, Alan, and we couldn’t agree more. Alan tells us that International Bridges has reopened the United Nations, through UNESCO, as a resource to the New York City school system. The program is co-sponsored by the International Network of Alternative and Productive Schools and Programs and the National Academy of Alternative Education, which are attracting an increasing number of experienced and new educators. Alan is part of New York’s City-As-School alternative public high school program, one of the most successful and most often-replicated in the country and around the world. International Bridges is part of their efforts to extend their network of communications to others in the educational field. City-As-School, 116 Nassau Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, 718-858-0514, fax: 718-858-0846.
An article called “An Unnoticed Oppression” by David Gribble was published in Lib ED No. 28. David says that children in both England and Japan are oppressed so routinely that “we don’t even notice it.” He quoted from a Japanese newspaper account about a 50-year old teacher who was given a two-year sentence after a 16-year old female student of his died as a result of his administration of corporal punishment to her. The judge stated that the teacher’s intentions were “of a good educational nature, in trying to stop silly behaviour” but that he had gone too far. That kind of attitude, says David, is pervasive in England also, though not nearly as severe. Lib ED, Phoenix House, 170 Wells Road, Bristol, BS4 2AG, United Kingdom.
Plans are being made for the possible September, 1999, opening of a Sudbury-model school in western Connecticut. Laura Webber, a middle-school English/history teacher and a program facilitator for the Interlocken Center for Experiential Learning in Hillsboro, NH, is spearheading the development campaign. The proposed democratically-managed school (to be called the Housatonic Valley Community School) will model itself on Sudbury Valley School and other free schools such as Summerhill School in England and The Free School in Albany, NY. Students aged 11 to 18 will pursue their own educational and life interests in an ungraded, non-coercive, uncurricularized environment that supports students’ self-initiated goals. Homeschooling families may be particularly interested in this school--students can reap the social and collaborative benefits of organized schooling while retaining the spirit of individualism and personal responsibility that homeschooling often cultivates. Contact Luz Shosie of Unschooler’s Support at 203-458-7402 or Laura Webber at 203-794-9065.
In April, 1998, Skipping Stones announced the winners of the Fifth Annual Skipping Stones Honor Awards. These include Aruna’s Journeys by Jyotsna Sreenivasan; A Rainbow at Night by Bruce Hucko; D is for Doufu by Maywan Shen Krach; Atlas of the Rain Forests by Anna Lewington; and many more. Skipping Stones is a nonprofit children’s magazine which offers a forum for communication among children from different lands and backgrounds. P.O. Box 3939, Eugene, OR 97403, 541-342-4956, e-mail: skipping@efn.org.
Dennis Schapiro and Brenda Hellen edited the 1998 Montessori Community Resource, which is now available. The book is a directory of schools and training centers in America that identify themselves as Montessori. It also includes resources, videos, software, Montessori homeschooling, conferences, other sources of listings, and more. It is available from Jola Publications, 2933 North 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55411.
The May, 1998, issue of Sales & Marketing Management contained an article called “Making the Dining Room a Classroom” by Julie Eberle, edited by Erika Rasmusson. The short article describes why Lisa Bastian, who works from home, decided to homeschool her two children. Jerry Mintz was interviewed for this piece, as well as Marsha Stein of the National Education Association. The magazine is a division of Bill Communications, 355 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1789, 212-592-6324.
The focus of issue Number 9 of Circles on the Mountain: A Journal for Rites of Passage Guides is on adolescence. Some of the information provided in this issue covers public school rites-of-passage programs, an international perspective, and a resource directory of wilderness rites-of-passage programs for adolescents, as well as material written by youths from their perspective. The next issue of the twice-a-year publication will focus on stories. Contact Scott Johnson at 2012 Tenth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710, 510-843-1234.
The Sudbury Valley School Journal, March, 1998, was their thirtieth anniversary commemorative Issue. The issue contains selections from the newsletter from 1972 through 1998. They were written by students, parents, and staff (without mention of those designations, as usual). The Journal is edited by Mimsy Sadofsky and is published by SVS Press, 2 Winch Street, Framingham, MA 01701, 508-877-3030.
The Kauffman Foundation used to promise college scholarships to high-performing high school students, but had to discontinue the program when they realized students didn’t seem to improve when left in the same environment, in spite of such incentives. The Monthly Letter to Friends of The Center for Education Reform (February, 1998) stated that the students who did well were those that Kauffman sent to parochial schools, as opposed to those in public schools. “Similar programs have failed in trying to transform children whose very school setting may be the deterrent. Children with few alternatives are not likely to rise to the challenge if the odds are against them.” The Letter is available from the Center for Education Reform at 1001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 204, Washington, DC 20036.
This review of AERO-GRAMME #22 appeared in Drop Out #5: “I’m really excited about this publication and the resource organization that’s behind it. It is yet another compilation of information about the amazing things happening in the alternative education movement. The most inspiring thing is that people in many different arenas (alternative education advocates both in private and public schools, homeschoolers, deschoolers) are seeing themselves as allies... This magazine is always full of newsbits from all over the world, plus excellent resources and news of upcoming conferences.” Thanks, Pam, for such a fine review! Drop Out, 1114 21st Street, Sacramento, CA 95814.
How Montessori secondary schools are designed and organized and how they differ from Montessori elementary schools is explained in an article entitled “Adolescence Without Tears” by Tim Seldin, President of The Montessori Foundation, in Tomorrow’s Child (Spring, 1998). Realizing that Montessori materials are no longer interesting to older teens, students are encouraged to create their own materials in art or craft shops. The programs place an emphasis on self-directed learning, hands-on activities, and flexibility in teaching styles, assignments, and testing strategies. A sense of community in the schools allows the students to take part in planning and operating the programs. The magazine is available from The Montessori Foundation, 901 N. Pitt Street, Suite 310, Alexandria, VA 22314.
Public Alternatives AERO was represented at the Parent Choice in Education Conference: The Quiet Revolution. The conference was organized to acquaint inner-city parents with options for their children’s educations. Presentations on charter schools and homeschooling were given, among others. Troy Williamson of CEO America talked about privately funded voucher programs. Jerry Mintz spoke on “An Overview of the Revolution.” The conference was organized by Judy Burnett, roxburysls@juno.com, the United in Spirit Coalition, 56 Dale St, Roxbury, MA 02119.
The U.S. Department of Education publishes Community Update, which keeps readers informed of educational initiatives occurring on the federal level, such as President Clinton’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program. This program will enable school-community collaborations to establish or expand before- and after-school, weekend, and summer programs for students. The publication is available online at www.ed.gov/G2K/community or from the Department of Education, Washington, DC 20202-0498.
Efforts to incorporate Waldorf education into public schools is creating confusion within the Waldorf movement and among parents and students of the public schools in question. An editorial by Gary Lamb, “Save the Children,” explains that there are nine such initiatives in this country, five of them in California. One of these California schools, Oak Ridge Elementary in Sacramento, was the scene of six weeks of parent protests and student boycotts last spring. Lamb sums up the difficulties these initiatives have caused as follows: “One of the great overarching goals of Waldorf education is to liberate education from the state, but ... the movement is collaborating with, becoming entangled with, and in effect, helping to promote government schools.” The Association of Waldorf Schools in North America maintains that it will remain an association of independent schools and therefore opposes public Waldorf education. However, some individuals and other member institutions strongly support the creation of public Waldorf schools. For more on this issue, contact The Threefold Review, P.O. Box 6, Philmont, NY 12565, 518-672-5605.
A study of Kentucky’s state-level accountability program found that those schools that produced higher student scores on state assessment tests did so because they “aligned curriculum with the assessment instrument” and “incorporated ... test-taking skills into the regular curriculum.” Teachers in these schools were highly skilled and “had direct contacts with the state’s accountability program through professional ties” and knew how to “use and interpret the considerable amount of information the state issued as a guide to help schools improve practice.” The principals of these schools did not have a major impact on the schools’ success, but typically a principal of any of the less successful schools was “more a nurturing figure than a strong instructional leader and chose not to exercise leadership to overcome teacher preferences” for traditional curricula. The study was done by Carolyn Kelley, a University of Wisconsin-Madison Education Professor and was detailed in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research Highlights Newsletter, 1025 West Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706.
Arnold Greenberg (grnbrg@downeast.net) has started a new school in Maine, Liberty School, funded by local tuition similar to a voucher, since their local town has no official high school. He reports, “Liberty School is doing well. We expect to go from 45 to 65 students next year. We now receive tuition from the sending towns and even have the school buses taking our students.” Very exciting.
Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, Spring, 1998, reported on a school-within-a-school in the article, “Sustained Success: The Wheatley School SWS,” written by Nicole Krauss, Jodi Kreitzman, Sharone Ostrow, and Mary Anne Raywid. The Wheatley School is located on Long Island, NY, and is attended by 525 eighth- to twelfth-graders. The SWS program has 75 students for three periods a day; the rest of the day the SWS students attend regular Wheatley classes. These 10th- to 12th-graders plan and implement educational policy, take ownership of their own educations, and often teach courses themselves. For more information, e-mail Encounter at holistic@sover.net.
The Spring, 1998, issue of the Public School Montessorian focused on how Montessori education works for underprivileged children in sections entitled “The Homeless,” “American Indians,” “Children in Poverty/Head Start,” and “Non-English Speaking Children.” The section on American Indians covered four programs and opportunities being provided for the Isabella Saginaw Chippewa, the Red Cloud Lakota Sioux, the White Mountain Apache, and the Allegheny Seneca students. The issue also included training center profiles, choosing an Internet service provider, and Rebecca Janke’s second thoughts on public schools. It is available from Jola Publications, 2933 North 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55411.
Home Education News Issue 121 of Growing Without Schooling contains a contribution from homeschooler Alec Young and his parent, Ronder Thomas Young, describing Alec’s decision to begin public school at age 14 so that he could play on the school’s basketball team. Alec details those “three miserable weeks” in public school during which he learned that “learning was not the top priority in high school.” He decided to leave school without waiting to try out for the team. He says, “I’d felt as if I’d been smothering for three weeks and, all of a sudden, I could breathe again. And draw and read and think again.” And, he’s playing basketball with a homeschool team that competes with small private schools. The Focus section of the same issue was on “Homeschooling Children with Special Needs.” Articles on homeschooling children with post-polio syndrome, autism, and pervasive development disorder, and resources for homeschooling children with special needs are included. GWS, 2269 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140, 617-864-3100.
Points of view in opposition to public charter home study programs are presented in the February-March, 1998, issue of Homefires: The Journal of Homeschooling. Concerns are that such programs will be followed by more regulation on homeschooling in general and that homeschoolers will inevitably be pressured into participating in these programs. One parent commented that in California, homeschoolers who use the Charter Home Study Program no longer participate in their homeschooling groups. Further, many of the parents are becoming dependent on the program teachers to take over their homeschooling activities. Homefires, 180 El Camino Real, Suite 10, Millbrae, CA 94030.
Some of the communications exchanges between Susannah Sheffer, editor of Growing Without Schooling, and Pam Davis, publisher of Drop Out, were published in GWS issue #122 in an article called “Homeschoolers and Dropouts: Bridging the Gap.” In it, the similarities and differences between the two groups and the ways in which they can help each other were explored. Interestingly, Pam notes that “homeschooling ... seems to carry a bigger stigma” than dropping out. She says also that “homeschooling seems usually to be parent initiated while dropping out never is.” An enlightening discussion, it is available from Holt Associates, 2269 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140.
In Arizona this past spring, the sixth statewide homeschool graduation took place. Kim McInturff directed the program for the third time, and this year her oldest homeschooling daughter, Mindi, was one of the graduates. The ceremony was presented by the Arizona Families for Home Education at Grace Community Church in Tempe. Kim has been homeschooling her four children since 1989, when the family found they could not afford private school tuition any longer. Mindi is planning on a career as dental assistant or dental hygienist and is a pianist. The article “Homemade Graduation” by Jaye Beeler appeared in the May 4, 1998, issue of the Arizona Republic, P.O. Box 2245, Phoenix, AZ 85002.
The first issue of HomeSchool Dad Magazine appeared in April, 1998. The goal of the magazine is to strengthen families and encourage husbands and wives to work together. It provides information about educational adventures, activities, and teaching methods that kids, dads, and families can enjoy together. The premier issue included articles on the role of a homeschool father, teaching children the value of work, exploring the birthplace of the USA, and much more. For more information, contact editors Jaren and Pamela Green at 609 Starlight Drive, Grand Junction, CO 81504.
The 7th edition of The Home School Manual has been released, written by Theodore E. Wade, Jr., and others. This new edition updates, clarifies, and expands on many of the chapters from previous editions. The introduction includes seven “tours:” suggested chapters which would be most helpful to particular interests or needs, i.e., investigating homeschooling; educating young or preschool kids; teaching high schoolers; teaching children with handicaps; teaching gifted children, etc. Sections cover principles of home education, areas of learning, theory into practice, resource information, and forms for keeping records. It is quite informative and comprehensive, and available from Gazelle Publications, 11580 Red Bud Trail, Berrien Springs, MI 49103, 616-471-4717.
Homeschooling in France In France, the situation of homeschooling is rather well-defined, compared to other European countries. The law states very clearly that families can choose the way their child will receive his or her education - either by attending a public or private school, or by receiving the necessary instruction at home (law of March 28, 1882). The law also clarifies that all you have to do if you want to homeschool is to send a letter to the mayor of your place as well as to the regional board of education, either at least two weeks prior to the beginning of the new school year or at most two weeks after you put the child out of school during the school year. It is a right you assume, not a demand you make—something to keep in mind.
Homeschooling is not very common, though—it isn’t very well-known that not school but education is compulsory, and many well-meaning friends, family members, or neighbors still think it is illegal, which doesn’t make life easier for some families. There are several homeschooling associations who try, among other things, to make the right to homeschool more known and to spread the information in a positive way (media coverage hasn’t always been positive up to now, also because of some incidents involving sects that were homeschooling).
One of these organizations is “L’Ecole—la Maison,” created in 1997. Another is “Les Enfants d’Abord,” which has existed since 1991. Their activities range from organizing regional or national meetings for their members to giving legal assistance in case you might have problems with the board of education or some other official authorities. This might happen, as even school boards do not always know that homeschooling is perfectly legal if you just keep in mind certain formal points (like sending the letter announcing your plans to homeschool at least two weeks prior to the beginning of the new school year, etc.). If authorities think you might not be able to give your child a “proper education” —a term open to interpretations—they might try to give you a hard time, ask for your qualification, require a curriculum, etc. But apparently their attitude depends very much on your behavior and living conditions; it seems that families that are judged “marginal” have more problems than “average” ones.
Apart from these associations, there is also a quarterly publication, Grandir Sans Ecole, which tries to focus on the practical questions of homeschooling without neglecting general reflections on education and the role of home and family in it.
Estimations concerning the number of homeschooling families are almost impossible to make (there are guesses that cover everything from 400 to 10,000). As homeschoolers have to send their declaration to a regional authority, it does not seem to be recorded on a nationwide level.
Controls are mentioned in the law when the child is 8, 10 and 12 years old. The mayor can have somebody check if the child receives a “proper education” and then can name somebody who examines the child’s knowledge on “the three R’s” —reading, writing and arithmetic. (The fact that the controls only take place every two years and only cover very basic subjects is a constant point of criticism when homeschooling is being discussed in the public.) If the child is seriously behind his age-mates at school, the mayor can order certain measures to ameliorate the situation, mostly to send the child to school. In most cases we do not know under which circumstances and in which atmosphere the controls take place and what consequences they have, if any (feedback on this is rare).
If you want more information or have specific questions, please contact one of the following addresses:
L’Ecole la Maison Nadine Stewart 6, Grande Rue, F-38660 Le Touvet e-mail: 101761.2120@compuserve.com
Grandir Sans Ecole Sophie Haesen B.P. 5, F-68480 Ferrette e-mail: huub.haesen@wanadoo.fr
Les Enfants d’Abord Brigitte Guimbol, 474 Chemin de Font Cuberte, 06560 Valborne, France. E-mail: bguimbal@aol.com. Tel: 04 93 12 93.49
International News and Communications AUSTRIA We are members from the Intercollege in Vienna and would like to meet in a chatroom to exchange Information and ideas, to make an international journal. We would also like to organise an international diploma of democratic schools. There are already a few suggestions for the form of this diploma; for instance like the Sudbury Valley school diploma, which takes the form of an interview where the candidate shows why he or she is now a responsible person, and our first suggestions, which are included in the appendix. Ben Grafton, schuelerschule@asn.netway.at.
ICELAND Eiriksina Kr. Asgrimsdottir lives in Iceland and took Puget Sound Community School’s online class on kindness. “At first,” she says, “I found it a little absurd to sit on this island in the middle of the Atlantic and receive kindness assignments from a complete stranger somewhere in the world.” But, liking absurdity, she completed the assignments and learned a lot about the kindness of Americans. She is now facilitating an online class on “The Runes of the Vikings,” a self-taught subject for her. PSCS, 10220 NE 1st Place #201, Bellevue, WA 98004, 425-455-7617, e-mail: pscs@pscs.org, website: www.pscs.org.
BELGIUM
CANADA From April 3-5, QPIRG Concordia University in Montreal hosted the 8th Continental Conference on Social Ecology: Education and Social Ecology. Social ecology integrates the study of human and natural ecosystems through understanding the interrelationships of culture and nature. The conference explored the history and practice of modern education with its relationship to capitalism and hierarchy, contrasting it to an educational practice whose goals are social freedom and municipal direct democracy. Michael Caplan, 2130 Mackay, room 101, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 2J1, e-mail: QPIRG@alcor.concordia.ca, website: http://www.tao.ca/~ise/.
A fourth economic wave has been emerging among “eco-preneurs” that “defies the laws of economic gravity by finding toeholds in tiny niches.” The fourth-wave paradigm embraces “diversity, interdependence, co-evolution, and balance in healthy ecosystems and markets alike.” In Get a Life! Wayne Roberts and Susan Brandum describe this paradigm and how it came to be, and present 101 examples of how it is being achieved. The ten key principles of fourth-wave economics are all outlined, complete with many examples, in this book. It is available from Get a Life Publishing House, 2255B Queen Street East, Suite 127, Toronto, Ontario M4E 1G3, 416-669-6070.
ENGLAND (DENMARK) Derry Hannam writes: Well done for all your hard work on the Stork School conference. I hope that it goes really well and Deborah and I are very sorry that we cannot attend. (The first Hadera conference that I have missed.) The international secretary of the Danish School Students organisation was interested when I told her about the conference. Her name is Binh Pham--she is from Vietnam, speaks fluent Danish, and has just got the highest marks in the country for her English examination. She is, as you would say, ’quite a cookie!’ I have suggested that she get in touch with you. She is passionately committed to making schools more democratic and, of course, she has a lot of official backing in Denmark, where the new education law has given pupil councils equal status with teachers councils in Danish upper folk schools (11-16 years). Sadly though, the progressive minister of education has not been re-elected to the parliament.
There are signs of progress in England at last, with some good people working on a new group advising the new education minister on the importance of student participation in school decision-making. I hope to have a modest input and am a keynote speaker at a conference in Scotland with minister’s adviser in May. That in itself is fairly amazing, as I am accustomed to being regarded as a freak/crank/(maniac even!), even though I survive as an inspector (also to my amazement). exxdhh@bath.ac.uk.
Over 100 years ago, Edmond Holmes was the senior chief inspector of England’s first National Curriculum. He wrote a manuscript in which he admitted to being ashamed of having participated in a system that he believed had become debased. The manuscript was mistakenly included for publication with some of his other works, and consequently created an uproar. He asserted that teaching was nothing more than rote-learning and that educators were merely drill sergeants. A book has been written by Chris Shute called Edmond Holmes and “The Tragedy of Education.” It is available from Educational Heretics Press, 113 Arundel Drive, Bramcote Hills, Nottingham NG9 3FQ, United Kingdom.
FINLAND I am an American in Finland. I attended the Randolph School in Wappingers Falls, NY—an incredible school that is still going strong (http://www.randolph-school.org./). How does one go about locating interesting, progressive, alternative schools around the globe? I would be grateful for any contacts you have or suggestions for the job search. Bobbi Berenbaum, bobbib@sci.fi, Aapelinkatu 6 E 63, 02230 Espoo, Suomi, Finland.
JAPANAccording to an article by Mick Corliss in The Japan Times (January 8, 1998), the dropout and truancy rate in Japan is rapidly increasing due to an almost complete lack of alternatives to the rigid public school system. Since 1992, however, the government has begun to allow alternatives such as Tokyo Shure Free School and the Denmark Farm Home for Kids to provide education for school “refusers” (now referred to more often as “nonattenders”). Support schools, which assist dropouts in acquiring a diploma via correspondence courses, are also on the rise. Homeschooling, however, is still not permitted, as Japan doesn’t recognize the right of parents to choose how their children are educated.
NETHERLANDS-RUSSIA Two times a year I give courses in Nishni Novgorod, Russia, on teaching in a non-traditional way. That means the activity is shifted from the teacher to the pupil. My teaching is based on Montessori. I am working for the Center of Valeology in Nishni Novgorod. “Valeology” concerns all the preventive aspects of health at school, physically as well as mentally. They think I teach them an attitude of the teacher towards children and towards learning that suites their aims. At the moment they focus on the education of kindergarten teachers. They pay much attention to the development of movement, especially the refined movements of the hand, and to the correct posture of the body by means of training programs. Also the emotional and social development is in the center of attention. They have special programs by which the little pupils train these abilities, for instance by playing a story or Russian fairy tale, that suites the purpose. Each pupil acts as a personage of the story and experiences in this way how to behave in a social and emotional way. They strive toward the integration of these attitude of building up and maintaining health in the pupils into every normal school curriculum and into the skills of every teacher.
They are in search for schools with these aspects of upbringing as a main point in their education. The reason of this letter to you is to ask if you know such schools in the USA, schools at kindergarten level based on special ideas on health in education. Please let me know! I tried to find them in The Netherlands in vain. As far as I know, they also don’t exist in Germany or elsewhere in Western Europe. The director of the Center of Valeology in Nishni Novgorod, Ludmila Filipovva, is eager to make contact with such schools. Lies van Donselaar, pkeuch@abma.nl, Hasebroeklaan 1, 3723 DJ Bilthoven, Holland.
MAYLASIA I have just read your article on school governance and empowerment and feel inspired to comment from Malaysia. As an educationist from the UK and having lived here for 14 years, it is all too apparent that schools and colleges here are failing students in numerous ways. First of all, there is the model of democracy as embodied in the government (an authoritarian variant) and this variety cascades down through the ministries to the chalk face where teachers are (or perceive themselves to be) so disempowered and underpaid that they may prefer to concentrate their energies on earning money through a second job such as insurance sales. Naturally, the students, too, feel disempowered—only now, with the consequences of rapid industrialization and urbanization, do leaders see both the negative consequences in the form of anomie, disaffection, violent, and anti-social behavior we’ve typically experienced for years in the UK, and the need for committed, empowered, self-directed learners to enter the workforce of the multi-media super corridor—a national vision/project to lead the country into the next millennium. The paradoxes stare us in the face, yet the authoritarian controls, say on publishing, printing, and free speech, continue to be visibly exercised. In response to this evident need is the emergence of elite educational institutions in which attempts at super learning and SMART, technologically oriented learning is being attempted.
In our current economic crisis the need for solutions for the future is even more urgent. Adversity, as is often the case, could then be the catalyst for dramatic change. I have joined the staff of a non-profit-making community college (funded by the community), which has just started up specifically to serve the students from the 60 Chinese independent schools here. The commitment of the staff and students to making this a success in many different ways is very high, yet the particular character of the institution is yet to evolve.
Your article and your comments on Summerhill struck me as interesting because there is a real sense of the need for reform in the Chinese independent schools here, but the direction has not yet evolved. The college can play a powerful role in influencing this direction, both in terms of research and training, but chiefly in terms of creating new models. Your comments, too, about learning from the Indians is interesting—the question, though, in Chinese tradition, is perhaps rediscovering these elements from among the mind-body holistic proponents and the links to larger organic organizational forms. In reality, patriarchal, hierarchical elements still remain dominant, though these may be accompanied by powerful philosophies which could be very progressive if lived and exercised. That’s what I mean about evolving—as recipes from elsewhere often are inappropriate.
What is important, though, is to examine your examples in more detail, for that may inspire others here. So I would be interested in obtaining more details and examples especially at secondary- and tertiary-level institutions. I would also be interested in your use of teaching methodologies in these examples and specifically if you have applied any accelerative learning and or NLP techniques.
I hope your current projects are giving you as much joy as that one obviously did. Anne Munro-Kua, annekua@pc.jaring.my.
MEXICO I am very interested in starting a Waldorf-type school. However, I’d like the material in Spanish. I’d like it for Mexicans and Americans and to be bi-lingual. It would also be for the benefit of my daughter. I had a terrible experience with a Montessori-style school here that offered more creativity but no academics. I keep her going now through the Oak Meadow School, a Waldorf-style homeschool curriculum. There are a lot of frustrated Mexican parents who would like their children’s educations to be more creative. I do believe Mexico needs this type of creativity if they are to survive into the 21st Century. Dedee Memmi, galydee@1cabonet.com.mx, A.P. 365 Cabo San Lucas 23410 BCS, Mexico.
PHILIPPINES There are quite a number of progressive schools here in the Philippines. My school (Creative Edge Preschool) has been using this approach for almost seven years now. There are other schools such as The Community of Learners and The Learning Tree. I just finished my diploma course at the University of the Philippines, and they have a laboratory preschool (U.P. Child Development Center) which uses the same approach too. They offer a Master’s Degree but it includes courses on family life, too, and it’s not that comprehensive. The ’‘child development” aspect of it is actually the diploma course which includes a practicum for one semester. My school is a member of the ACEI. Have you heard of it? Last year the ACEI Convention was held here in the Philippines and it was very successful and educational too. A lot of teachers look forward to seminars on relevant topics such as E.Q. and Multiple Intelligence. Tracy Socco, 17 Banaba St. Proj. 3 1102 QC, Philippines (home), or 28 Ricardo St. Carmel I Subd. Proj.6 QC, Philippines (school).
TRINADAD We opened our doors in January, and we currently have an enrollment of 12 students ranging in ages three to eight. We are hoping to increase the number to 36 to 40 children by January, 1999, and increase the age group to include children nine years old. Christopher Chin Lee, cchinlee@gtsl.com, 10 Nook Avenue, St. Ann’s, Trinidad, West Indies, 868-624-1181 (ext. 2400), fax: 868-624-0108.
Teachers, Jobs, and Internships Blue Mountain School, a 15 year-old, parent-run, cooperative school, is looking to fill several teaching positions for September 1998. We are dedicated to providing an enriching, holistic education for children from pre-school through middle school. School is home-like; studies are child-cued; surrounding environment is rural/small town. Interested? Send resume to BMS, 470 Christiansburg Pike NE, Floyd, VA 24091-3737.
I’m an English/history teacher in Connecticut who’s worked for several years in experiential/democratic education programs. We’re trying to start a Sudbury-based school in Litchfield County (western Connecticut) to open in the Fall of 1999, and are looking for more volunteers for our Founder’s Group. We need parents, especially parents with legal or fundraising experience. Donors are also especially welcome, as we would like to raise enough capital to buy instead of rent, if possible. The school, to be called the Housatonic Valley Community School, will offer a Sudbury-type program for older elementary and secondary students. For more information please call Laura Webber at 203-794-9065, or e-mail wwebby@aol.com.
The Schuelerschule and Inter-College in central Vienna needs a native speaker with alternative/democratic school experience from September to December, 1998. The person should preferably have experience in English-language teaching and other areas for project teaching and sport; be flexible enough to fit into a friendly, experienced, “dynamic” team of six teachers; and be prepared to attend teacher’s meetings and supervision. Knowledge of German is not a necessity; in fact a non-German speaker would be preferable. Respect for the rights and personalities of young people is a prerequisite. The school is about 25 years old, for students from ten to 17 years, based on democratic principles, and follows its own student-centered and project-based curriculum. Wage per month: $ 850-1,000 for a 3-4 day week. Accommodations available from July-December: very quiet, two-bedroom apartment on the edge of Vienna woods, 20 minutes by tram to center, |