Posted on by

Ateliertisa / Facilitator @ Escuela Democratica Tamilla (Andaluica, Spain).

About us.

Tamilla (formerly known as Banana Mountain) is a bi-lingual land-based democratic learning community for unschooled young people aged 6 – 18, located in Las Alpujarras, Andalusia, Spain.  Since 2019 we have been enacting a conception of learning environment as a co-created ecosystem, neither child-led nor adult controlled, but continuously in the process of being made by everyone involved and the relationships of care that connect us, our shared experiences, and the wild valley we call home.

Whom we are looking for.

We are currently looking for a passionate, dedicated, and inspiring adult to join our small staff team and take on a central role in stewarding our ecosystem, sharing responsibility for nurturing the educational, social and emotional well-being of individual students and families, and working in collaboration with a vibrant, caring, mixed age community to co-create the conditions that support the emergence of an increasingly rich, diverse and fertile educational ecosystem.

In addition to the skills and dispositions involved in all facilitation roles, the ideal applicant would have the experience, skills and passion to enable them to take on and shape a new role within our community: Atelierista. In this Reggio Emilia inspired role you would be responsible for developing and managing our art space, creating enabling conditions that make real creative practice accessible to all, and supporting young people to find meaning and joy in the process of making visual art.

 More Info.

More information about our learning community can be found here: Tamilla / Banana Mountain
More information about the association our project is a part of can be found here: Unión de Los Ríos
A job description, person specification, and details about how to apply can be found here: English / Español

N.B. 

The person specification in the job description defines our ideal applicant. However, we are open to all applicants who are profoundly passionate, who share our core commitments, and who believe that they have something unique and special to bring to our community.

Posted on by

Family seeking SDE facilitator full time

Inviting facilitators dedicated to supporting self directed education and furthering inclusion.

Position Function:

Facilitating a wholistic learning and therapy program that supports creativity, freedom, inclusion and collaboration. This position requires working 1:1 with a 14 year old that has high complexity needs. Family lives in New York City and in East Hampton. Teen attends SDE school in New York City.

Position Responsibilities:

• Create a vibrant and harmonious learning environment that nurtures and guides teen in becoming a kind and balanced adult

• Design and offer lessons that reflect knowledge of child development and SDE

• Facilitate activities of the day (open the day / set intentions, work through cycles of intention, creation, reflection and sharing, close the day / gratitude circle)

• Offer a variety of academic and social activities to provide opportunity for use of Proloquo2go communication app

• Collaborate with parents, SDE facilitators and therapists

• Assist teen in all activities of daily living

• Assist teen in demonstrating learning (writing a poem or story, creating a dance, creating a portfolio, sharing a study using words etc.)

Above support to be provided at home and in school alternating between New York City and East Hampton.

Schedule:

5 to 8 hours per day

40 work weeks and 12 weeks off

start date: August

Required:

1 year commitment

1+ years experience working with children with multiple physical and developmental needs

1+ years experience facilitating self directed education

Salary and details:

$24,000 – $28,000 

12 weeks off

Offering accommodations including utilities in New York City and in East Hampton. Transportation to / from EH / NYC provided. 

Please email application to

tampetrovic@gmail.com

Thank you

Posted on by

What Has Happened to Common Courtesy?

By Jerry Mintz

The answer to this question has been perplexing me recently.

In the past when the country has had crises and disasters such as World War 1, the great depression, World War 2, the polio epidemic, it has caused people in to come together and unite to solve the problem. But the COVID era and its aftermath has seemed to cause the just the opposite. It has brought out selfishness, discourteousness, meanness, anti-semitism and racial prejudice.

When I am driving it is most obvious to me. It Is as if nobody had ever taken driver’s education: About a quarter of the drivers act as if they are the only important people on the road: They act as if they are pretending to be racecar drivers, although this is far from pretend. I’ve seen people swerving to the passenger lane on the right to pass motorcycles and school busses on curves. I’ve even seen people go into the berm on the right to pass cars, only to be stopped at the next light. At night they keep their lights on bright, although we were told in school never to do that, as if to warn people that they are coming through at any cost. Of course, the accidents and deaths are piling up, both for cars and pedestrians. When I offer to courteously let someone into my lane, it is almost taken in disbelief.

And that’s just driving. A friend who works at a well-known coffee chain says he has to constantly stop students from walking on top of the tables. He doesn’t want to give them water because they immediately use it in water fights, but the chain insists he give it out because they are afraid to be accused of discrimination!

And of course, schools have become even more of a disaster than they were. The modern education system started about 150 years ago with antediluvian roots. There is little evidence it was organized to encourage creativity or responsibility. There is much more evidence that it was created for control and propaganda and to prepare people for factory work and to follow orders. Students and educational pioneers such as Dewey, Montessori, Steiner and A.S. Neill have rebelled against this, but to little avail. Schools are still mostly oppressive to students.

Pre-pandemic most students were able to cope with this. But now it somehow is boring right into them (pun intended). Perhaps family life has disintegrated so much during the pandemic that it no longer offers a shield for children. This may be why there has been such a rise in drug abuse, childhood depression and suicide.

Therefore, this seems to be an opportune time for us who are in the Educational Alternatives community to make sure people know of our existence. It is our obligation to let people know that there is a better way to educate: Children must become empowered learners; creativity and responsibility need to be encouraged. Just doing so for a privileged few is no longer an option.

This is probably an important topic for us to discuss at the upcoming AERO Conference. But prior to that I encourage our readers to send us responses to this essay.