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Below you will find our latest e-newsletter sent February 2nd, 2010.
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1) The War on Kids
2) I Won't Learn from You
3) Education Revolution: Special Collection
4) E-Newsletter Poll
5) In Memorium: Mary Ann Raywid Scheele, Howard Zinn, & J.D.
Salinger
6) e-Journal of Alternative Education, Turkey
Education Revolution E-Newsletter
A
Spectacle Films, Inc. Production
Directed by Cevin Soling
When victims of oppression are considered inherently inferior, little thought is
given to the imposition of psychological abuse or the persistent and often
capricious measures of establishing control. Even attitudes regarding physical
punishment become morally blurred.
In American history, this mentality resulted in atrocities such as slavery and
the subjugation of women. What is surprising to many is that the most oppressed
class of people in America today is children. The widespread belief that
children are the most privileged is used to justify their maltreatment. The War
On Kids exposes the ways this oppression manifests itself in the school
environment, and how American society has succeeded in creating an underclass
comprised of children.
While many documentaries have shed light on the chronic educational famine of
the inner city-child, there has been no film to date that deals with the
inescapable oppressive abuse that all children in America, regardless of race or
class, face. Through zero tolerance, the excessive and invasive use of security
measures, abuse of prescription drugs, and an educational system that is modeled
after the penal system, a war has truly been waged on the kids of America.
The intent of this war is to control youth to make them docile, obedient, and
powerless; and, to keep them under surveillance at all times so they can never
become a threat. Ultimately, the repercussions of this war are seen in the
acceleration of the erosion of our democracy.
Watch the trailer, watch an interview with Cevin Soling on "The Colbert Report," find out more at, or order at:
http://www.educationrevolution.org/thewaronkids.html
The War on Kids will be screened at the 2010 AERO Conference and feature Q&A with director Cevin Soling and a panel discussion on public education! Details and list of panelists is forthcoming.
2) I Won't Learn from You
And
Other Thoughts on Creative Maladjustment
With a new foreword by Jonathan
Kozol
Herbert Kohl
One of the most important books on teaching
published in many years . . . . Wise and tender, written with the deepest love
for children. I will go back to it again and again for strength in future years.
-Jonathan Kozol
I Won't Learn from You, Herb Kohl's now-classic essay on "not
learning," or refusing to learn, is available for the first time in an
affordable paperback edition along with four other landmark essays. Drawing on a
concept set forth by Martin Luther King Jr., Kohl argues for "creative
maladjustment" in the classroom and anywhere else that students' intelligence,
dignity, or integrity are compromised by a teacher, an institution, or a larger
social mind-set. This volume also includes "The Tattooed Man," Kohl's
autobiographical essay about "hope-mongering," which Kohl finds essential for
all effective teaching in these difficult times.
An intensely personal book that challenges conventional wisdom and inspires all
of us who care fiercely about children and education.
-Senator Paul D. Wellstone
Find out more and order online at:
http://www.educationrevolution.org/learnfromyou.html
3) Education Revolution: Special Collection
We
were shocked to find that the latest issue of Education Revolution has
completely sold out! Some day these will be very valuable. We’ve recently been
more careful to not print more than we needed, and to encourage people to get
PDF memberships. When looking through our archives, we discovered a small cache
of magazines from the last year and a half. We are offering these to our e-news
readers as a special package. This package includes five magazines that we
printed from fall 2008 through fall 2009. The list price is $24.75, but
we'll sell the package for just $10.95 (members receive an extra 10% off). We
can make up to twenty collections before they become unavailable. When they’re
gone, they’re gone.
To order the package, go here:
http://www.educationrevolution.org/ercollection.html
When we first started this e-newsletter
we polled you to find what kinds of information and resources you wanted us to
present. This is a follow up poll to help guide us into the future. We’ll report
on the results. Please e-mail your response by replying to this e-newsletter or
send it to JerryAERO@aol.com.
Please tell us which areas you would prefer
to have us to report on. You can pick as many as you want. Try to do it in the
order of interest:
A. Alternative schools
B. Homeschooling
C. Charter Schools
D. Higher Education Alternatives
E. School starting
F. No Child Left Behind/Race to the Top Critique
G. Public school innovation
H. Curriculum innovations
I. Democratic education and free schools
J. Progressive education
K. Other, including comments or suggestions
5) In Memorium: Mary Ann Raywid Scheele, Howard Zinn, & J.D. Salinger
Mary Ann Raywid Scheele
Education scholar, advocate, and activist: Mary Anne Raywid Scheele, passed away on January 12th at the age of 81.
I knew Mary Ann Raywid for nearly
25 years. She was on AERO's advisory board. One of the reasons that Mary Ann was
special was because she was somehow able to get the respect of professional
educators and demonstrate through her research the true need for school reform
or reinvention.
She clearly outlined what was necessary to change in order to have a real
student-centered approach and not a sham.
What was interesting to me was that, after she established her work at the
legendary center she established at Hofstra University, she told me she was
retiring to Hawaii, mostly for her husband's health. Yet in the linked story
people in Hawaii have described her as the most important person in public
school reform in the last 25 years, in Hawaii! I guess she never stopped
fighting for the changes she knew were necessary to help children learn in a
respectful, dignified and empowered way. We will sorely miss her voice,
especially now, with NCLB having morphed into RTTT.
Jerry Mintz
To read more:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100125/OBITS01/1250325/Education+advocate+Raywid
J.D. Salinger
Author of Catcher in the Rye, a book often banned by American schools, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 91.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114186193
Bernie Schein wrote a wonderful book for those interested in both Catcher in the Rye and education:
If Holden Caulfield Were In My Classroom
http://www.educationrevolution.org/ifholden.html
Howard Zinn
Author of A People's History of the United States passed away on Wednesday at the age of 87.
From
Rethinking Schools:
As many of you know, Howard Zinn died of a heart attack on
Wednesday [27 Jan] in California. His passing is an enormous loss for everyone
who cares about justice and equality. Historian, professor, lecturer,
playwright, and most recently a filmmaker, Howard Zinn was many things. But
above all, he was an activist -- a socialist, a pacifist, an antiracist, who
never strayed from his conviction that humanity was capable of making this a
much better world.
Throughout his long life, Howard Zinn had seen enough of the world's horrors
that it would have been understandable had he become a cynic. But if there is
one word that should be forever associated with him, it's hope.
When George Bush launched his endless war on terror after 9/11, Rethinking
Schools looked for a quote that could sum up our belief that it was not
ridiculous to still be hopeful. We turned to the final paragraphs of Howard
Zinn's autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train:
"To be hopeful in bad times is not
just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history
not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If
we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember
those times and places -- and there are so many -- where people have behaved
magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of
sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand
utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live
now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around
us, is itself a marvelous victory."
Howard Zinn lived a politically engaged life of joy and solidarity. His life was
indeed a marvelous victory.
-Bill Bigelow for the
Rethinking Schools staff and
editors
Zinn gave his final interview with Bill on January 19th. You can hear
it here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/topshelf/2010/01/19/howard-zinn-on-a-peoples-history-of-the-united-sta
Howard Zinn: One of the Great Democratic Educators
by Melia Dicker
A People's History of the United States
http://www.educationrevolution.org/peopleshistory.html
6) e-Journal of Alternative Education, Turkey
The
e-Journal of the Alternative Education Association has been published at
www.dergi.alternatifegitimdernegi.org.tr. This first issue’s topic is
“alternative education.” Below you will find our our aim regarding alternative
education e-journal and the content of the first issue.
We decided on publishing the journal in both Turkish and English. This was
done so that we may form strong connections with people involved in alternative
education in other countries, and to let them know what we have to offer in
terms of alternative education here in Turkey through joint discussions and the
sharing of experiences and ideas. We are aware that this first issue does not
sufficiently address these aims, but we also consider this first step as a very
valuable one.
The topic of the next issue is “democratic education”. You can send your
articles on this topic and educational critics until March 15, 2010.
Please also send any suggestions and comments regarding this e-journal,
including any support you may be able to offer, to:
dergi@alternatifegitimdernegi.org.tr
Aim: e-Journal of Alternative Education, as a project designed by Alternative
Education Association (AEA), is being a part of efforts to form alternative
education agenda in Turkey and a tool for communication among people related to
the alternative education. The aims of the journal are to pave the way for
scholars studying alternative education, to provide data source, to fill the gap
in Turkey about the subject and to integrate with studies around the world. To
this end, every issue includes the works of writers both from Turkey and the
rest of the world.
Content: e-Journal of Alternative Education covers the evaluation of the
theoretical and practical examples of the educational models other than primary
current education, the development of new and original ideas, the education
utopias, distinctive applications in education; as well as includes the original
research articles, academicals and writings examining the philosophical,
sociological, managerial, methodical aspects of educational models such as
democratic education, homeschooling, free schools, holistic education, Waldorf
pedagogy, critical pedagogy, Montessori method, unschooling, and Reggio Emilia…
The critical education writings are also discussed in each issue.
With love and solidarity,
Alternative Education Association, Turkey
---------------------
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Alternative Education Resource Organization
4417 Roslyn Rd., Roslyn Hts., NY 11577, U.S.A.
Ph. 516.621.2195
Fx: 516.625.3257
info@educationrevolution.org
http://www.EducationRevolution.org
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Alternative Education Resource Organization
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