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Below you will find our latest e-newsletter sent March 8th, 2010.
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1) Seeds of Tomorrow:
Solutions for Improving Our Children's Education
2) Almanac of Education Choices (Special case offer--24 books for
only $1.25 each!)
3) Free Videos: A Look Back at the Founding of Four Alternatives &
Turning Points and Two Conflicting Paradigms
4) Ten Signs You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child (UPDATED)
5) BOOMERANG: An Audio Series for Kids
7) The Hall of Mirrors by John Taylor Gatto
Education Revolution E-Newsletter (Conference Special)
1) Seeds of Tomorrow: Solutions for Improving Our Children's Education
Angela
Engel
Foreword by Deborah Meier
This inspiring author moves beyond criticism of
public education uniting readers toward a vision of educating children that is
holistic, intelligent, and empowering. Seeds of Tomorrow: Solutions for
Improving Our Children’s Education offers reasonable alternatives to high-stakes
testing. Engel promotes educational philosophies in support of differentiation
and personalization rather than uniformity and conformity. She introduces school
collaborative accountability models ensuring academic integrity and excellence
on behalf of students, teachers, and our communities.
In a time of political transition and optimism,
Americans are looking for the means to improve our nation’s schools. Engel
acknowledges the interdependence between education, democratic citizenship, the
global work force and the economy, the individual and the community. She seeks
not to create consensus on a singular school model but rather to build a common
framework. New decisions necessitate a clear understanding of where we’ve come
from and where we’re headed.
Written for parents, teachers, administrators,
students, and policy makers committed to children and change, the book is
hopeful in its analysis of our current challenges: poverty, inequity, and budget
shortfalls. It is also sensible in its examination of today’s proposals
including performance pay, magnet schools, charter schools, and vouchers.
Uniquely engaging and surprisingly entertaining,
Engel’s combination of story telling and research data offers a comprehensive
guide to cultivating future generations of problem-solvers and leaders.
Order online at: http://www.educationrevolution.org/seeds.html
Angela will be a featured presenter at the 2010
AERO conference. Seehttp://www.educationrevolution.org/conference.html for
more information.
The book is an essential part of the toolkit
for the reforms that can be undertaken to fulfill the promise of education that
has always been flirted with, often practiced here and there, and that could, if
we follow her wise words, be our future. Never has it been said better, and
never in such a straight-forward, reader-friendly, and well-reasoned order.
-Deborah Meier, from the Foreword
A valuable guide for reconstructing an
education that responds to the needs of heart and mind while contributing to a
productive and just society
-H.M. Levin, Teachers College,
2) Almanac of Education Choices (Special case offer--24 books for only $1.25 each!)
The
Almanac of Education Choices that I edited was originally published by
Macmillian/Simon and Schuster. This was the last published comprehensive
directory and sold many thousands. It has over six thousand listings. Although
some are out of date, many are still good, but the opening dozen major essays
are still top notch and give a very good overview of educational alternatives.
We bought out all of the copies that Macmillan had a few years ago and sold
thousands of them. We have a few boxes left of 24 new books each. The original
Handbook of Alternative Education, the hard cover upon which the Almanac is
based sold for $75 to $110 each! The Almanac was $20 each. We are selling these
last boxes of 24 each to you right now at $1.25 for each book ($50 after
shipping, $45 for members). If you are part of a school group or school starters
group, snap them up and give them out. We have only 8 boxes left. We’re sure you
will put them to good use.
http://www.educationrevolution.org/alofedchoic.html
3) Free Videos: A Look Back at the Founding of Four Alternatives & Turning Points and Two Conflicting Paradigms
Each of the following two videos is from the 2009 AERO conference. Come and join hundreds of educators, parents, students, and individuals in Albany, NY this summer for the education conference: AERO conference 2010. Fun for the entire family! Free childcare, activities for children, and young adults; a perfect vacation option in historic Albany, NY! Scholarships and volunteer opportunities are available. 30 States and Provinces and 5 countries are already represented! Find out more at http://www.educationrevolution.org/conference.html
A Look Back at the Founding of Four Alternatives with
Arnie Langberg
From the original workshop description:
I will present the four alternatives that i have helped to start,
beginning with the Iota Society in Lynbrook, NY, in 1957, then the Village
School in Great Neck, NY, in 1970, Mountain Open High School in Evergreen, CO,
in 1975, and High School Redirection in Denver, CO, in 1988. I hope that the
audience will ask questions, make comments, and help me to look for patterns
that we can discuss further in a workshop session.
Part 2 will be practical skills for starting a school, building on the results
of the presentation.
Watch online at:
http://aeroeducation.org/2010/03/04/a-look-back-at-the-founding-of-four-alternatives-with-arnie-langberg-video/
Turning Points and Two Conflicting Paradigms with Jerry Mintz
Some of the most poignant turning points in the new book by the same
name will be cited as examples of the conflicting paradigms of learning centered
curriculum versus traditional curriculum driven approaches.
Watch online at:
http://aeroeducation.org/2010/03/08/turning-points-and-two-conflicting-paradigms-video-jerry-mintz/
4) Ten Signs You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child (UPDATED)
by Jerry Mintz
Many parents don't realize that the education world
has changed drastically since they were in school. Schools and class sizes used
to be smaller, dropout rates lower, in-school violence almost unheard of, and
teachers weren't terrified of showing affection to their students, or of
discussing moral values. Of course, even then, school was far from perfect, but
at least the teachers—and usually the principal—knew every student by name,
something that is increasingly rare today.
Because our public school system has deteriorated
considerably, many parents, teachers, and individuals have taken it upon
themselves to create public and private alternatives to that system; and it is
important for parents to know that they now have choices.
So how do you know that it's time to look for
another educational approach for your child? Here are some of the signs:
1. Does your child say he or she hates school?
If so, something is probably wrong with the school.
Children are natural learners, and when they're young, you can hardly stop them
from learning. If your child says they hate school, listen to them.
2. Does your child find it difficult to look an
adult in the eye, or to interact with older or younger children?
If so, your child may have become "socialized" to
interact only with peers within their own age group—a very common practice in
most schools—and may be losing the ability to communicate with a broader group
of children and adults.
Read the complete and updated Ten Signs at: http://www.educationrevolution.org/tensigns.html
5) BOOMERANG: Audio Series for Kids
BOOMERANG! is an audio series featuring Big Ideas for Curious
Kids. Produced monthly since 1990, BOOMERANG! features historical "interviews"
with movers and shakers as disparate as Mohandas Gandhi, Rachel Carson and
Nikola Tesla. The "King of Complicated Stuff" digs into such meaty topics as
globalization, the money mess, and nanotechnology. There are mysteries, Weird
Words game shows, audiopostcards from travels with Toby and Gramps, and, of
course, fabulously funny jokes -- all performed by real kids. You can access the
material via CD or digital download at
www.boomkids.com
BOOMERANG! has agreed to make a special offer to AERO/Education Revolution
readers: six 70-minute downloads for just $29. They're regularly $8.95 each! One
download package per customer. Just send an email with your request to
boomerang@boomkids.com and they will
provide the details. Mention AERO and we will receive 50% of any sales!
A great way to receive quality content and support AERO.
By Shannon Hayes
Courtesy of YES! Magazine
Radical homemaker Shannon Hayes taught her daughter that their family doesn’t
buy things they can make or grow at home. She then had to wonder: Does that
include higher education?
This past November, I began a home school unit with my six-year-old daughter,
Saoirse, on money. We opened our investigation by reading stories on the history
of money. To paraphrase, early people originally made the things they needed.
Then they began trading for the things they needed or wanted that they couldn’t
make. The barter system worked out fine, as long as each party in the exchange
had something that the other wanted. When that was no longer the case, money
entered the marketplace as a tool to facilitate exchange. Eventually, in an
effort to devise something that was relatively portable and of somewhat
universal value, the Sumerians came up with the first silver coins.
Read more at: http://aeroeducation.org/2010/03/05/can-money-buy-education/
7) The Hall of Mirrors by John Taylor Gatto
From Life Learning Magazine.
“As the twenty-first century begins its second decade, mass schooling is much as
it was in 1910, at least for the poor and the ordinary. It is test-driven,
bell-driven, pedagogue-dominated, and thoroughly dumbed down.”
Let me give you an excerpt from a boys’ manual of instructions on how to build
things, published in 1937. It was sold on newsstands as The Amateur Craftsman’s
Cyclopedia of Things to Make and was expressly intended, as it states in print,
for ten to twelve year old boys.
I’ve selected the project on building a model racing schooner because I don’t
want to shock you with the pages which teach boys how to “cut a new entrance
into a frame home” or build “a small portable arc furnace” out of clay and
bricks. So the modest schooner project will have to make my point by itself.
Read more at: http://aeroeducation.org/2010/03/05/the-hall-of-mirrors-by-john-taylor-gatto/
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