Alternative Education Resource Organization

Beyond Education

Nurturing Learning Ecologies, Building Learning Cities
Shilpa Jain
A look at the experience of Shikshantar: The Peoples' Movement for Rethinking Education and Development, in Udaipur, India, and their work in building a Learning City. How can the vast web of relationships, spaces, resources, etc. for learning be noticed, accessed, increased and imagined, to really build the world we want to see? Shikshantar has been working for 10 years; we have a lot of inspiring stories to share. Come and learn how you can get started too. A focus on appreciative interviewing and mapping your community.

Supporting Youth to Become Cultural Producers: Unschooling Successs!
Carla Bergman & Youth from Purple Thistle Centre
For the past year I have ran a program at the Purple Thistle Centre for youth aged 11-17. Each week I bring in a mentor from the arts sector (writers, painters, photographers, musicians, etc) to work with the youth to build their skills and to connect the project to an end result (art show, film festival, published work, etc). I will talk about how this came about, what I do, and have youth from the program talk about their experience and how it has helped them to become producers in the art and culture sectors. Most of the youth involved are unschoolers or attend Windsor House Democratic School.

Building a Soulful Career in a Soul-less Society
Dennis Charles
Calling all educators and parents who want to help young adults build a personally meaningful career once their education is completed. Where do young people turn for this type of career advice? Who do they turn to? Find out what today’s young adults need to thrive- even in soul-less society.

Reschool Yourself: Make Peace with Your Past to Make Way for the Future
Melia Dicker
If you could do your education over again, what would you do differently? What can you do about it now? Explore this question during this interactive workshop led by Melia Dicker, who repeated her kindergarten through college education as an adult. Learn how to let go of regrets about your education and move forward.

The Death of Ferrer I Guardia & Escuela Moderna
Jon Scott
Five former pupils of the Ferrer Modern School of Stelton, NJ who attended that school in the 1930s and 1940s, attended the Centenary of the execution of Francisco Ferrer i Guardia in Barcelona, Spain. Ferrer was accused for masterminding the Semana Tragica (Tragic Week) that occured in the summer of 1909. He was jailed and found guilty without any evidence presented in his defense. The Mayor of Barcelona proposed a monument to Ferrer in 1989 and in 1990 it was erected near the Olympic site, not far from the Montjuich fortress where Ferrer was executed by a firing squad on Oct. 13 1909. The Stelton group were featured speakers at the Centenary and laid one of the flower wreathes at the site. Jon Scott, one of the five, will give a PowerPoint presentation of the Centenary and of the ceremony instituting an act commemorating the death of Ferrer i Guardia. The latter was held at the 14th century Salo de Sent (City Hall) where the five U.S. Modern Schoolers were guests of honor. Jon will also discuss the social questions that Ferrer brought to Spain at the turn of the century and the concept that he called freedom through education.

Tikkun Olam
Mary Leue
Tikkun Olam, a Hebrew phrase meaning "to Heal the World" is a workshop for people who want to engage in a discussion on the subject of our future, and what we need to provide for future generations.

Few of us know enough about our future to make reliable predictions, so the course of the workshop will be open by intent to all who come and go. Three leaders (Charlene Therrien, Christian Sweningsen, Mary Leue) will offer short presentations of their personal views of what we need to focus on, and then the floor will be open to all comers.

Living, Learning, and Teaching for a Better World
Khalif Williams
Many educators struggle to provide learning opportunities that inspire social transformation toward sustainability, justice, and compassion for fear of indoctrinating or ramming “values” dogmatically down learners’ throats.

In this workshop, we’ll explore our own personal transformations, discuss the “values taboo” common in educational settings, and learn a few simple but powerful concepts that, once incorporated into your practice, will help you transcend that taboo and free your learning community to grapple with global ethical issues that are central to our future.

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