#32 Spring/Summer 2001 $4.95 The Education Revolution With special CHANGING SCHOOLS section The Magazine of the Alternative Education Resource Organization (Formerly AERO-gramme) www.educationrevolution.org
CHANGING SCHOOLS section: High States Testing, Interview with Bob Barr,
Contents: The Anti-Testing Movement Broadens…….by Albert Lamb Alternative Education Action Groups, by Dana Bennis AERO Listserve Members Rescue Stork School Sudbury Valley on 60 Minutes AERO Matching Fund up to $8008 of $10,000 Needed Report on the Israeli Democratic Education Conference Discussion about Ideal School Buildings, Initiated by Oleg Belin of Stork School Summerhill’s 80th and the 10th Anniversary of the First Festival of New Schools, Russia Ouida Mintz Breaks Hip! AERO 31 Feedback Feedback From AERO e-Newsletter MAIL AND COMMUNICATIONS, Edited by Carol Morley PUBLIC ALTERNATIVES INTERNATIONAL NEWS AND COMMUNICATIONS: Australia, Bolivis, Brazil, England, Germany, Guatamala, India, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Russia, Scotland, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela HOME EDUCATION NEWS: Feedback from Hes Fes, Self Education Foundation, resource centers, unschooling, report from crossection of homeschoolers in LI NY, Jenifer Goldman’s book, boarding school for homeschoolers ALUMNI NEWS: Shaker Mountain, Albany’s Free School, Kirkdale, Blue Mountain, Vershire School, Summerhill School TEACHERS JOBS AND INTERNSHIPS: 36 listings CONFERENCES: 9 listings CHANGING SCHOOLS SECTION Edited by Albert Lamb Changing Schools and The Education Revolution: Partners for Four Years! by Jerry Mintz High Stakes Testing By E Wayne Ross and Kevin D. Vinson, Bill Zimniewicz Bullying in Alternative Schools The Albany Free School goes to Spain, by Free School Students Lead Poisoning in Children Home Birth and Alternative Education My Three Weeks at AERO, by Dana Bennis PING PONG STORY: Democratic process in a non-school setting, by Jerry Mintz Interview With Bob Barr Sharing Democratic Ideas, by Leonard Turton and others ADD/ADHD revisited Book Reviews Greg S. Goodman's Alternatives in Education: Critical Pedagogy for Disaffected Youth (DB) A Clearer View, by Daniel Greenberg (SR) Homeschoolers' College Admissions Handbook, By Cafi Cohen (SR) Towards a Critical Multicultural Literacy, by Danny K. Weil (DB) Two New Editions of Homeschool Resource Books: The Home School Source Book Jean and Donn Reed Homeschooling Almanac 2002-2003, Mary and Michael Leppert (DB) AERO Books, Videos, Subscription, Ordering Information
The Education Revolution The Magazine of the Alternative Education Resource Organization (Formerly AERO-gramme) 417 Roslyn Rd., Roslyn Heights, NY 11577 ISSN # 10679219 phone: 516-621-2195 or 800-769-4171 fax: 516-625-3257 e-mail: jerryaero@aol.com Web site: http://www.educationrevolution.org
Editor: Jerry Mintz Associate Editor: Albert Lamb Mail and Communications Editor: Carol Morley Director of Information and Communications: Steve Rosenthal Director of Research and Development: Dana Bennis Printer Joel Hymowitz, Sir Speedy Printing Webmaster: Peter Christopher
ADVISORY BOARD Alexander Adamsky, Mary Addams, Chris Balch, Fred Bay, Patrice Creve, Anne Evans, Patrick Farenga, Phil Gang, John Gatto, Herb Goldstein, Dan Greenberg, Jeffrey Kane, Albert Lamb, Dave Lehman, Mary Leue, Ron Miller, Ann Peery, John Potter, Mary Anne Raywid, John Scott, Tim Seldin, Elina Sheppel, Andy Smallman, Sidney Solomon, Nick Stanton, Corinne Steele, Tom Williams
The Anti-Testing Movement Broadens By Albert Lamb The threat of national legislation mandating high-stakes testing has been radicalizing teachers, parents and students all across the United States. A looming disaster in public policy is now making people think again about the standardized testing of children. The challenge will be to use this disaster to get people to rethink the whole subject of what children are doing in schools.
President Clinton's 1997 proposal setting up voluntary national tests in reading and mathematics was created to do something on the national stage that was already happening in many states around the country. These new tests were called ‘high-stakes’ because they can supposedly be used to track both the students and the schools, deciding whether individual pupils can move up a grade or even graduate, and determining the future funding for the schools.
The testing of adults, in the workplace and the army, has been increasingly accepted in America over the last century or so. People respect tests for seeming scientific and fair. More recently, over the last 25 years, mandated testing in schools has been growing exponentially. Beginning in the seventies, with the minimal competency testing movement, many states have looked to formal testing as a way of turning up the heat under teachers, pupils and schools. Both lawmakers and the education establishment have grown to love mandated tests because they let them exercise control without getting their hands dirty. Testing has proved to be a low-cost way of seeming to show that those who are responsible have acted with responsibility. And on the whole the idea of the enforced testing of children has been popular with the general public.
Unfortunately for everybody, these tests don’t work. Teachers start to teach to the test instead of to the curriculum and soon nothing gets learned. Students skim the material to memorize a subject quickly and then forget the whole thing. In the process they lose any desire to really learn anything. And kids coming from outside of the mainstream don’t even have a chance to be judged fairly. All of a sudden Big Brother is in the driver’s seat and nobody has any power but the testing companies, the politicians and the education establishment.
As it happens, the scores on high-stakes tests are not accurately representative of anything. As E. Wayne Ross and Kevin D. Vinson have written in their article on High-Stakes Testing in this issue: “Recent studies suggest that state-mandated tests, like those given in Michigan and Ohio, more accurately measure family income than students’ educational achievement.”
In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last January Barbara Miner commented; “it’s revealing that standardized tests have their origins in the Eugenics movement earlier in this century, and its belief in the intellectual superiority of northern European whites. In fact, standardized testing in our schools didn’t really exist until it was decided that IQ and similar tests were a valid way to identify ‘superior’ and ‘inferior’ students.” - The thinking being that: “Because socio-economic status plays such a crucial role in test scores, it’s easy to predict which students, schools and districts will routinely be condemned as ‘below average.’”
The Alliance for Childhood recently issued A Statement of Concern and a Call to Action on the issue of high-stakes testing. They said: “We believe that this massive experiment, intended to raise educational achievement, is based on misconceptions about the nature and value of testing and about how children develop a true love of learning,” and they highlighted several key points – (1.) The Technology of Testing is Flawed – (2.) Tests Scores Have Meaning Only in the Context of the Whole Child – (3.) Evidence is Growing of Harm to Children’s Health – (4.) More High-Stakes Teaching Means More Dropouts, Fewer Good Teachers – and finally, (5.) Standardization is the Enemy of Effective Public Schools.
Monty Neill, executive director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), made a good point on the op-ed page of USA Today back in September: “Test-driven education flunks on many grounds. One-size-fits-all standardized exams assume that every child learns in the same way at the same time. Fortunately for society, young people have all kinds of minds. Some excel at academic work. Others have vocational or artistic talents that the tests do not measure.”
Since coming to power President Bush has upped the ante. Every child in public school is going to have to take frequent high-stakes tests. While saying that he wants to return power to the local level Bush has been pushing legislation which will greatly add to the power of the central government. To quote an article entitled “Let Them Eat Tests” in the Winter 2000-2001 FairTest Examiner: “With great fanfare, President George W. Bush focused the first week of his presidency on a plan to radically increase testing and institute vouchers through a new federal education program. While the voucher scheme is given little chance of passage in Congress, the testing proposals — federally mandated test score abuse — constitute a major threat to assessment reform efforts and will particularly harm poor children.
“In the name of ‘accountability,’ Bush proposes to require every state to test all public school students in grades 3 - 8 every year in language arts and math in exchange for federal funds. Students in low-scoring schools which fail to post test-score gains over three years would be able to use their share of federal funds for private tutoring or to attend other public schools. Other sanctions and rewards could be imposed on those schools. The threat of federal funding sanctions will make state tests high-stakes, even where they now are not.”
At least this new high-stakes testing system won’t work smoothly or be put in place without some major bumps. In an article entitled “Right Answer, Wrong Score: Test Flaws Take Toll,” the Sunday New York Times recently reported that the companies checking the exam scores: “cannot guarantee the kind of error-free, high-speed testing that parents, educators and politicians seem to take for granted.” These companies are already working beyond their capacity and recently some major errors have been reported around the country. In California, for instance, where an audit on the state’s tests was done - “In 1998, nearly 700 of the state's 8,500 schools got inaccurate test results.” Unfortunately, when mistakes show up it is often too late for all those college-bound kids who had originally taken the tests hoping to move up in September.
Early in May this year protests were held in a dozen states across the country, to launch a month of protests against high-stakes testing. In New York a third of the eighth graders in a Scarsdale public school class boycotted their science test. The New York Times reported: “Scarsdale schools were required to administer the tests, but in several letters to parents, the superintendent and other officials made it clear that they did not support the tests” Around the same time, at a rally in Albany NY that Jerry attended with a group from the Free School (see box) 1,500 students, teachers and administrators from around the state came to protest mandatory testing and grade school achievement tests. These were imposed by the current New York education Commissioner, Richard Mills, who had rescinded a waiver which enabled public alternatives to use portfolio assessment. At the rally, Alfie Kohn pointed out the obvious hypocracy of Mills, who he quotes as writing, when he was Vermont Commissioner of Education in 1989, “Teachers don’t want to reduce the richness of a year’s work to a single score! We are undertaking this project (portfolios-ed) because we are interested in real student work, real performance, not the proxy delivered by standardized tests.”
Michael Fried, a junior at New York’s East Rockaway High School, has been part of the protest and had this to say: “What I have learned from the endless hours of preparation,” he writes, “is that these tests are designed for the sole purpose of nothing. All the exams do is provide an extra burden. The exams lack the essential ingredients of a good education: substance, originality and creativity.”
Bill Wetzel, founder of Power to the Youth (www.youthpower.net), recently wrote to the AERO listserve about his plans to create a network for people against standardized testing, to be called Students Against Testing (SAT). The site will be at www.nomoretests.com. He will be trying to publicize and research the already existing and growing anti-standardized test movement. Bill got the idea for the SAT after attending the Dewey summit out in Indiana. He wrote to the AERO listserve: “as the standardized testing insanity was brought up again and again, I decided with the group to start a Students Against Testing (SAT) campaign.”
He sees the need for a network because people involved in the growing number of grassroots testing boycotts around the country are not in touch with each other. He also hopes that the movement can feature more students as they are “the most media-friendly within the testing boycotts,” and, finally, he hopes that, “the widely-publicized standardized test issue can be used as a powerful bridge between the mainstream education debate and the progressive education debate.”
Amen to that.
Alfie Kohn has written well about this issue on his personal website, www.alfiekohn.org :
“A plague has been sweeping through American schools, wiping out the most innovative instruction and beating down some of the best teachers and administrators. Ironically, that plague has been unleashed in the name of improving schools. Invoking such terms as ‘tougher standards,’ ‘accountability,’ and ‘raising the bar,’ people with little understanding of how children learn have imposed a heavy-handed, top-down, test-driven version of school reform that is lowering the quality of education in this country.
“It has taken some educators and parents a while to realize that the rhetoric of ‘standards’ is turning schools into giant test-prep centers, effectively closing off intellectual inquiry and undermining enthusiasm for learning (and teaching). It has taken even longer to realize that this is not a fact of life, like the weather - that is, a reality to be coped with - but rather a political movement that must be opposed.”
Jerry Reports from the Albany Protest!
I just participated in and documented what may in the future be considered a watershed event. Over 1500 alternative public school students and teachers marched in protest of the testing which has been mandated by Richard Mills, New York's Commissioner of Education. He removed the waiver, which allowed them to use portfolio assessment instead of the New York State Regents Test. This man made his reputation championing portfolio assessment when he was Commissioner of Vermont. Mills was quoted, by Alfie Kohn, as supporting it in 1989. Alfie Kohn was one of many speakers (including several students), who addressed the rally. Mills personifies hypocrisy. One of the battle cries of the marching students was Don’t put us through the Mill.”
One student, from a school in a district which used to have a 90% dropout rate, said her school had 100% passing rate last year - but now refuses to take this test. Another, a parent from affluent Scarsdale, said 2/3 of the school refused to take the test this year, and she will travel around the state to organize other schools.
A New York City Councilman said if Mills doesn’t back off she will sponsor legislation to create a New York City high school diploma. “Please don’t make me do this!” she said.
I walked over to the rally with a rag tag bunch of elementary students and staff from Albany’s Free School. They are not forced to take the tests yet because the school is private, so they went to support those who are refusing to take them.
There’s lots more, but it’s late and I wanted to tell you this much. I shot about an hour of video there, including some brief interviews and some of the speeches. It’s pretty hot stuff. (Call AERO office for a copy).
Alternative Education Action Groups By Dana Bennis AERO is announcing a new project that has tremendous potential: the establishment of Alternative Education Action Groups in local areas. People in the United States and around the world have expressed a need for this , and it has been a recent discussion topic on the AERO listserve. Such Action Groups will provide an opportunity for dedicated people to brainstorm ideas and effect real action in their local region. The possibilities for these groups are limitless, and could focus on the lack of democratic schools in their area, the establishment of homeschool resource centers, and opposition to the testing craze, to name a few ideas. On June 21, AERO will host the first meeting of an Alternative Education Action Group for our local area, NYC and Long Island.
AERO will help in the creation of Action Groups throughout the country and the world in any way that we can. Our resources will be available for such groups at a discounted rate, including our videos, audiotapes, books, and magazine subscriptions. We will also provide groups with important contact lists of people who have connected with AERO from your local area. In addition, we are in the process of setting up an online database for the AERO website, to which people interested in local action groups could post their information, making instant networking possible. Visit the website for these future changes.
If you are interested in starting or joining an Alternative Education Action Group in your area, or would like to discuss this idea further, call us at 800 769-4171, or send an email to JerryAERO@aol.com.
AERO Listserve Members Rescue Stork School Several people ordered copies of the video we made of the Stork School Celebration documentary. One said, “I loved your Stork video. What an amazing school. You have some of the best footage of happy young faces I've ever seen.” Call AERO to order. Each sale will support Stork.
The triumphant 10th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the Stork Family School in Vinnitsa, Ukraine was the cover story in the last issue of The Education Revolution. But just several weeks after I returned from Ukraine, we received an urgent email from Oleg Belin.
SOS HI everybody,
The tenth anniversary of Stork School is likely to turn out to be the last one. Now our bank account is arrested because of our old debts for heat. Up to now we were allowed to pay for current consumption plus cover a part of the debt each month. It was understood that gradually the debt would be covered. But all of sudden the right to demand our debt was transferred to the tax administration and they are trying to make us pay all the sum (about $5000) immediately.
We keep struggling and never lose hope. We still hope to find understanding people in the administration and we believe in our friends' support and in God's help.
Bye,
Oleg
Perhaps it was not coincidental or ironic; perhaps it was a direct result of the publicity about the Stork Family School's radical and nurturing approach to education which caused some jealous bureaucrats to freeze the school's account, over $5,000 in past heating bills, effectively shutting down the school. According to Ukraine law, any tuition that was paid by parents and any money given to the school had to go to satisfy that debt before it could go to the operations of the school.
The news hit the AERO listserves like a bombshell. In what is possibly an unprecedented action, the members of the AERO listserves during the next several weeks donated enough money towards saving the Stork School that we covered the debt when those contributions were matched by the Edwards Foundation. We immediately sent the funds to the school and Stork was back in business. In fact, not long after that, the school was inspected by government inspectors for accreditation The inspectors were so enthusiastic about the school that not only did they approve it, they joked that they hoped the school approved of them! They even participated in an internet chat with the AERO office from the Stork computer room.
Here is Oleg’s thank you letter:
We received the money we needed to cover the debt to the company that used to provide heat to our school. Thank you for such a great help to us. Now our bank account has been released and we keep going. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who contributed. We really couldn't expect your help to be so quick and effective. This proves we have genuine and very kind friends in different countries. I'm afraid we just can't thank all of you enough.
Love and best wishes from all our staff and students.
Oleg.
Congratulations to the following people, who were some of those who helped us save the Stork School: John Hiner, Tae Wook Ha, Carol Morley, Koskinen Marko Tapio, Beth Stone, Helen Hughes, Lisa Marie Kennedy, Ken Jacobson, Moishik Lerner, Yacov Hecht, The Institute for Democratic Education, Dana Bennis, Debbie Smith, Kara Willowbrook, Mari-Jean Melissa, Moscow International Film School, Rogers School, The Edwards Foundation, The Free School in Albany, Tamariki School, Angela Sevin, Steven Brown, Pat Edwards, Angela Stafford, The Edwards Foundation
Sudbury Valley on 60 MinutesOn a Sunday night at the end of April the television news magazine 60 Minutes featured a segment on the Sudbury Valley School. Millions of people around the world had their first sight of free kids at a free school. In the 12 minute segment Morely Safer talked to a panel of parents and the show contrasted an interview with one of the school’s founders, Dan Greenberg, with a woman from the Massachusetts Department of Education (I didn’t see the show here in England but this must have been quite a contrast! Albert). At one point the Dept. of Ed. Official said: “These children are too young to know what their passions will be later in life,” which will not have endeared her to many children watching the show. The 60 Minutes team didn’t choose to talk to any ex-pupils and they also didn’t emphasize the democratic side of the school. But they did talk to current pupils and had some shots of life at the school, including shots of one-on-one tutorials. They also had the wit to feature a 12-year-old girl, named Amanda, saying: “I don’t need someone to grade me to know that I’m doing good,” and another girl, a teenager, saying, “I like going to school because it’s so relaxing.”
Some people on the Sudbury Listserve group felt that the segment concentrated too much on the smokers in the smoking area and on kids playing video games, but teenagers across the country will probably have been impressed. They will at least have seen proof that Sudbury Valley kids have powers over their lives that are not just some fake, put-up job. As Stephanie Smith said on the SVS listserve: “Thank you for showing the school as it is. Not perfect, but very, very real.”
AERO Matching Fund up to $8008 of $10,000 NeededAERO has been facing a financial crisis which does threaten our existence this, our 11th year. We did not get the grant funded from the foundation which usually supports us and can not reapply until next year. They gave us $35,000 in grants last year. Our operating expenses last year were $122,000. $35,000 of that was given to alternative schools in third world countries, from the Edwards Foundation. Total salary was $40,000, including $29,000 to AERO full and part time staff, and $9600 to Jerry Mintz as director. AERO has been offered a $10,000 matching grant, as you probably know, because we did a mailing to all current AERO subscribers, the first such solicitation we have done in five years. The condition was that the grant be matched by other than our usual funding sources. At this point we have raised $8008 of the $10,000. This has come from 67 different donors.
Four of the donations were for $1000, from Fred Bay, Corinne Steele, Mary Leue, and Nick and Andrea Stanton. Peter Christopher, AERO’s webmaster, donated $500. Carol Morely donated her pay for working on this issue of the magazine. And we received this note from a reader of our new e magazine:
“I found your website last summer when I was searching the internet for information for a graduate class. I was looking for resources on and for students at-risk. I enjoyed the free magazine you sent and the one I recently downloaded. You have kept in touch with me ever since I initially contacted you. You even gave me a call soon after that. Impressive. I have an interest in reaching students at risk (as I was one myself). I enjoy learning about ways to reach these students and learning about all types of alternatives helps the creativity to flow. I want to donate to the match program.” $65 was sent through the website.
I think we need to create some momentum, not only to quickly meet this $10,000 matching fund, but to go beyond it, if AERO is to continue functioning as a vital force in the education revolution. To me, simple survival for its own sake is no longer acceptable. With the current uproar about testing protests, violence in schools, and having Sudbury Valley on 60 Minutes, this is a time when we all need to act. Sometimes I think our work is counterproductive, because people who know us take it for granted that we’ll always, somehow find a way to keep going. The point is not to just keep going, but to “keep our eye on the prize,” which is to make respectful, empowered, learner-centered education a reality for all children.
We’d like to thank the following donors, and hope that you, our readers, the backbone of the movement for educational alternatives, will complete the matching fund and continue your wonderful support of us.
Fred Bay, Thomas Baker, Sam Blum, Mary Byrd, Robert Burkhardt, Peter Christopher, Kathleen Clinesmith, Jeff Davis, James Dick, Pat Edwards, Jay Feldman, First Data Corp, Les Garber, Linda Garrett, Don Glines, Audrey Goodfriend, Greg Goodman, Dan Greenberg, Elizabeth Grimmond, Lee Havis, Julie Hill, Regan Houlotte, Sandra Hurst, Helen Hughes, Joe Jackson, Debra Johnston, Bob Knipe, Arnold Langberg, Nikki Lardas, Grace Lefever, Mary Leue, Robin Martin, Robert Mc Kinnon, Roland Meighan, Jim Murphy, Ellen Pall, Emanuel Pariser, Jan Paulseen, Ann Peery, Andy Pelche, Mary Ann Raywid, Dale Reed, Sharon Rose, Stephanie Sarantos, Schwartz-Gralla Family, Michelle Senzon, Kamiar Shakidi, Elina Shapel, Jennifer Shea, Peter Shier, Helena Singer, Spring Smith, David Solmitz, Nick and Andrea Stanton, Corinne Steele, Rose Anne Steenhoek, Marge Thornton, Dave Van Manen, Robert Van Nood, Pat Wagner, Erin Wellman, Elizabeth Wertheim, Melanie Whitham, Sara Woodall.
Report on the Israeli Democratic Education Conference
I heard from Moishik that at this year’s IDEC there were about 500 participants, from Israel as well as Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Germany. There were about 150 Arab Israelis who attended the opening, and about half of them participated in the whole conference. One day the conference was held in an Arab village, with about 250 from the conference going there in busses. The overall tone was great. About a third of the people stayed together in tents erected on the lawn. Jerry.
From David: For the opening, the children of Kfar Kara School, an Israeli-Palestinian village arrived, sung with their choir and danced "depka" (an Arab folk-dance). The German team also sang "Heveinu Shalom" in Hebrew. The opening was really nice. The Stork couple is here, and Alexander Tubelsky from the School of Self-Determination. Also some Polish people came to participate. And a lot of Israelis. Today is the third day of the congress and tomorrow will be the closure. I will try sending you some more impressions afterwards.
From Moishik: I am still resting from last week. For me it was a huge effort that didn't give me much satisfaction. It was too much work; I was working especially with the problems that naturally came from everywhere, so I saw mostly this side. But on the weekend people called and told me that they enjoyed it very much. I hope to have many photos in the coming days so I will be able to send them in the Internet. The fact that most of the people that attend the IDEC every year didn't come made it really not international. Next year the IDEC will have the same problem because New Zealand is so far.
Discussion About Ideal School Buildings, Initiated by Oleg Belin of Stork School
The Farm School is in the largest passive solar building in Tennessee, and with the rooms being 18' x 25' in size and 20' it provides lots of headspace and sunshine and is generally a great space to educate kids in. More can be gotten from Mary Ellen Bowen, 51 The Farm, Summertown, TN 38483.
The SolarClassCafe will be a fully equipped communications module, disguised as a café, designed to be as energy efficient and self-sufficient as is feasibly possible. The primary purpose of the module is to serve as an Internet connected solar-cafe/classroom and is aimed at communities who would benefit from the increasingly diverse learning resource available via the Internet, with the 'cyber cafe' providing an informal interface and an income generating business. The prototype will hopefully be built at Summerhill School.
It was my visit to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem that inspired me on the octagonal base. The building itself invites dialogue. We save space, we have four levels of eight rooms each: 7 classes and 1 bathroom. Lighting and ventilation are excellent, and we have a fluid circulation of students. I am very pleased with the results and use of space. Roberto.
My idea for an ideal school building would be a building, or several buildings, that have everything; kitchen, living room, lounge and other homely spaces, large rooms for gymnasium, library, theatre, and then more spaces for leasing out to the community for commercial activities to bring some of the greater community into the school and also to have a source of income for the school. Also, if there were nice spaces that could be used for festivals and weddings and other community activities, that would be great. Liz Reid.
My wife and I took a trip through the northwest to visit several alternative sites listed in the Mintz' book as a beginning for my alternative education virtual resource web page. A couple which stand out, and which match your description above, are http://linkup.orecity.k12.or.us/, and www.gardnerschool.org/home.html. Carol Sherman, on the board of Northern Nevada Home Schools, recommended the following books for learning centers: Planning Flexible Learning Places by Stanton Leggett; Designing Places for Learning, edited by Anne Meek; School Zone: Learning Environments for Children by Anne P. Taylor/George Vlastos; Fund Raising for Non-Profit Groups by Joyce Young. Merrill L. Tew.
Summerhill’s 80th and the 10th Anniversary of the First Festival of New Schools, Russia
On Augusr 3-5, Summerhill School will have its 80th Anniversary Celebration for students, parents, alumni and old friends who will come from all over the world to participate. Two AERO staff and at least one former Summerhill student will be going in our group.
After the Summerhill reunion, we will go to Tenth Anniversary of the First Festival of New Schools, in Moscow, Russia from August 6-16, the. This celebration will take place on a ship going down the Volga River. I went to the First New Schools Festival with Noah Shankin, a student from Virginia, in August on 1991, We left the Soviet Union on the day of the coup, after which there was no Soviet Union! Where we had been standing the day before, in front of Yeltzin’s White House, Yeltzin stood the next day, atop a tank, daring them to attack. They didn’t.
At that Festival we made our first contact with the Stork Family School, the Eureka Free University, the School of Self-Determination, Alexander Adamsky, Eleine Shapel, Alexander Tubelsky, Oleg Belin, and many other organizations and individuals. This has led to wonderful communication and exchanges between Eastern European and Western alternatives. We subsequently participated in several Eureka Avant Garde seminars, and have hosted many groups, in the USA and at IDECs.
For more information: Ute Roehl, Frans Halslaan 13, 1412 HS Naarden, The Netherlands Tel. +31-35-6944583 fax +31-35-6950368. ute.roehl@hetnet.nl or contact the AERO office.
Ouida Mintz Breaks Hip!
As you may have noticed in previous issues, my mother (and long time AERO staffer) Ouida Mintz, has written a book about her life in music and growing up with Leonard Bernstein. It is called My Friend Lenny. Her life was going along fine at 80 years plus. She had been with her friend Ray Sandeford, who helped typeset the book, for ten years. She was teaching piano, driving to her student’s houses, promoting her book and answering the phone for AERO. All that changed in just one moment on March 8th, when she walked out of the bakery at our local shopping center, carrying two loaves of bread.
As she headed across the parking lot she stepped into a pothole, which was covered with water, and tripped - falling on her hip and fracturing it. The ambulance brought her to the hospital. She had surgery the next day, with screws being put into the bone to hold it in place.
That would all seem to be traumatic and straightforward enough, but that was just the beginning. When elderly people have hip surgery or many other procedures, they are not able to metabolize the various anesthetics and antibiotics the way young people do, and there are complications in over 50 percent of the cases. Thus began a nightmarish odyssey of 5 weeks in the hospital during which time she contracted various infections, became comatose and hallucinatory, and we wondered if we would ever bring her back from that state. In addition, one of the antibiotics they gave her caused her kidneys to stop and they informed me that she had a lung disease which would require her to be on oxygen for the rest of her life. After a hundred trips to the hospital, it is clear to me that without intervention on the part of relatives and other interested people, it is quite likely that a person in that state will not survive their stay in the hospital.
Most of what I did involved getting them to take her off various drugs and therapies. I also got advice and even equipment from my naturopath. One example: she was given Atenylol for high blood pressure, but when I checked the records on her blood pressure it seemed perfectly fine. When it seemed to be getting too low, I convinced them to cut the dose in half and eventually to suspend it altogether. Her blood pressure has remained low and the side effects from that medication have disappeared. In fact, my mother walked out of the hospital with no medications, she does not use oxygen (they never explained how that lung disease disappeared), she is back teaching, driving, and promoting her book. She just did a talk at a local community center. She would really like it if you bought her book!
Several famous contemporary pianists as well as Mike Wallace from 60 Minutes and Alexander Bernstein, Leonard’s son, have endorsed it. We’re in the process of arranging her to do a book signing at Tanglewood (the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra) this summer. All of this does put life into perspective, doesn’t it?
AERO 31 FeedbackFrom Vera Miller: Welcome back! Thank you so much for putting time and energy writing about your experience in Ukraine, with the Stork family. I think I have mentioned this to you before, but I envy your ability to be around these amazing people, entrepreneurs of a new education, a new society; and I admire your crusade. It is always inspiring to witness vicariously the sprouting and growth of ideas and dreams. Thank you.
From Oleg: I've just gotten the stunning issue of The Education Revolution. First I got a telephone call from the mail woman, who told me to be sure to take out the mail from my box, as there's a picture of me. And when I got it I was just amazed. So was everybody at school. The article and the pictures are superb. Thanks and love from everybody.
From Kriszta Derda at the Rogers School roginf@freemail.hu (Hungary) Thank you so much for the magazine you sent us. It was really a great experience for me to read about the Stork Anniversary again. It was a great week which we spent there. We could meet wonderful people / teachers parents, students / there, and it was important for me to see that we have so much similarities in our history, in our problems and in our way of thinking. We are deeply grateful to you for your financial support. It was just essential for us to get home, because we had to pay extra "black" money for the conductor if we didn't want to get off at the border: It was the money you gave us that help us. I hope we can meet in May at Rogers days (May. 30. 31. June 1.) and at IDEC.
BOX From Brian Covert in Osaka, Japan: Thanks very much for the new issue of The Education Revolution, #31. A few moments after receiving your notice today on the AERO list that the latest issue was out, I happened to check the mail and there was the new ER right there in the mailbox. Talk about quick service! (How did you DO that?!
You were asking about feedback on issue #31....
The coverage of the Stork Family School in the Ukraine looks fantastic; thanks for sharing that special celebration with us.
I noticed a lot of great photos of children in this issue of ER, but it struck me as I was leafing through the pages: "Where are the kids' words?" And not just kids in Ukraine, but in many of the other countries covered so well in ER.
How about reserving a permanent space in each issue of ER for students of alternative schools and learning centers around the globe to write in and share their experiences in their particular country? I'm sure alternative-school students around the globe would be thrilled to see what their peers are doing in other countries.
I am always impressed by the dedication of the many teachers, mentors and parents who fill the pages of ER, but I would love to see more words from the young people themselves. Perhaps ER could start by soliciting an essay or two from a couple alternative schools in some region of the world?
In that same vein, please continue doing a great job on the "international" emphasis of The Education Revolution. Many people assume that just because a publication is based in North America, it is automatically "international." Not necessarily so, as you have no doubt found out firsthand in your travels in many nations. The US and Canada have much to learn -- and share -- with those of us homelearners and alternative educators around this small world.
Living in Japan, we enjoy the coverage of Asia in ER. We will try to keep you posted regularly as to what is happening here in Japan and neighboring Asian countries. Japan is just now coming around to public acceptance of home-based and alternative education, and while Japan may admittedly not be one of the "pioneers" in this field, it certainly has something to offer to the international dialogue.
Lastly -- and most importantly -- please continue to banish paid-advertising from the pages of The Education Revolution. After all, a revolution's gotta start somewhere!
Feedback From AERO e-Newsletter AERO is now publishing a weekly e-newsletter which has over 2500 subscribers, all people who have directly contacted AERO. Let us know if you’d like to be on it. We may not have had your e mail address. In a recent issue we asked for letters of support from people who have been helped by AERO, to be used in our grants and fundraising (we can use more!). Here are some responses:
From a teacher: Thanks to AERO I learned of hundreds to thousand of schools across the world that have EXCEPTIONAL learning going on. I contacted and visited some schools in order to learn about different teaching methods. I now teach with some understanding and learn with an even broader opening in my mind and heart. I appreciate AERO!!!
From a prospective teacher: AERO has recently helped/inspired me on my job hunt for alternative schools in the Twin Cities . . . and, after a talk with Jerry, to better understand the spectrum of progressive educational options in relation to my past and current teaching experiences. This has been of great help to me in my search to find the setting in which I can be my best teacher self.
From a university student: Although I am not a teacher, you help me by giving me hope that there is some sanity in the world in the midst of the obsession with grading and testing and putting pressure on people, which all is ultimately driven by a deeper obsession with owning things and making money.
From Yugoslavia: There are many ways in which AERO has helped me. Here are only few:
*AERO has been sending the Education Revolution to me closely a year now. It has proven to be a valuable source of inspiration and information for me. It has also extended me the opportunity to share my experiences and views with an understanding community. It has helped me not to feel as if I am giving my energy into a black hole.
*AERO has sponsored my visit to alternative school Stork in Ukraine in January 2001 as to offer me the opportunity to explore operating models of alternative schools in East Europe. That offered me the opportunity to meet people with similar visions and to build a small network of friends.
*AERO listserve has provided constant source of information and means to connect people that are otherwise dispersed and immersed into unsympathetic environments. This has created an oasis of creative thinking, inspiration and support for me.
From a college student: Your magazine and other published books have been of enormous help for me. It has given me a sense of strength and encouragement when having discussions about alternative education. Some people need an explanation of it because they do not know it even exists. I recently took a course in Early Childhood Education and chose my research topic to be Alternative Choices in Education and why many choose this route for their children. It was wonderful to have your info as well as the ability to educate and inspire so many others in my class! Everyone wanted me to continue talking. Thanks! I am now an official spokesperson.
From grandparents: As parents and grandparents, faced with making a daily living to provide and survive, not knowing where to turn for positive action has caused heartache, emotional pressure and illness as well as made each school year a living hell for us to battle. This has resulted in family hardship, battling the school system, and caused our children to dread each day. Alternative schooling is almost a hush shush word. Too late to help many, it is just starting to gain strength, get the word out and let people know how to go about achieving schooling they want! It's imperative that parent's have the right to choose what they want for their children in education.
From a high school student: I got my first issue of the magazine in the mail yesterday and it is wonderful!! It has a ton of great information. I told my mother the subscription was a bad idea because I am finding even more books that I want as I read through it! I would love to be able to get more involved in the organization somehow, even from this far away. Thanks so much!
From a new homeschooler: Thanks! My parental unit checked out the homeschool program you suggested, and I'll start next semester. My insane life just got A little easier because of you. Thanks
From an unschooler: I feel very much a part of this movement and consider it to be one of the "greatest human enterprises” to be happening today. I love AERO’s work and the huge contribution it has made to the movement through exhaustive research, networking, etc., as well as their publication, The Education Revolution (a powerful title). I also think its really cool that AERO provides a web forum for alternative education advocates to share information, insights, ideas, feelings, etc. We need to continue to strengthen our voice in order to effect transformation in the mass-consciousness around “education”. Homeschool is not THE answer--it's an answer that's very viable for millions of people. Everyone I know (myself included) who has done or is doing homeschooling has struggled with the decision. It's a always big decision to go against the mainstream, just for starters. A final note would be that I yearn for solidarity among fellow alternative education folk. We really need to find our common ground and respect one another's individuality. We're all in this together.
MAIL AND COMMUNICATIONSEdited by Carol Morley
From review by Richard House of Without Boundaries: Consent-based, Non-coercive Parenting and Autonomous Learning by Jan Fortune-Wood, Education Now: Without Boundaries outlines the theory and practice of learning based on the radical Taking Children Seriously (TCS) philosophy, which views any form of coercion as destructive of individual autonomy and antithetical to healthy learning…. TCS philosophy is truly revolutionary in its challenge to the logic of fixed curricula, enforced teaching and adult-led subjects of learning. A key contention is that healthy thinking is necessarily damaged by coercion – damaged in terms of ‘irrationality, poor theories, and a decrease in problem-solving capacity,’ leading to a kind of pathologically inflexible, ‘entrenched’ thinking…. This is a veritable gem of a book, overflowing with profound, counterintuitive wisdom that presents a potentially devastating challenge to conventional, culturally fashionable approaches to modern(ist) education. Not least is the book’s contribution to showing how our ‘control-freak’ educational culture, with its relentlessly imposed adult-centric agendas must be trenchantly challenged and urgently reversed if current ‘modernizing’ educational practices are not to perpetrate untold damage on a generation of children. And for this contribution alone, Without Boundaries could hardly be of greater contemporary educational relevance. Spring 2001.
Over the last 23 years, Roland Meighan has collected a large number of stories from the experiences of homeschooling families. In Learning Unlimited: The Home-Based Education Case Files, he presents 15 of these case files. Among these stories are: “The Court Case,” “The Home-Education Truant,” “The Researcher,” “The Cliff-Top Picnic,” and “The Public Speaking Contest.” All of the case files are based on true incidents. For more about the book, contact Educational Heretics Press, 113 Arundel Dr., Bramcote Hills, NottinghamNG9 3FQ.
From Montessori Portended Recent Early Brain Research by Mary Ellen Maunz, Public School Montessorian: Dr. Michael Phelps, leading authority on brain growth and co-inventor of the brain-imaging PET Scan, says: “The developmental years are not just a chance to educate, they’re actually your obligation to form a brain and if you miss these opportunities, then you’ve missed them forever.” Montessori practitioners have been utilizing this very concept, which we call the sensitive periods, for nearly 100 years…. At birth a child has between one and two hundred billion [neurons], which grow at the staggering rate of 2,000 per second during early pregnancy. Each neuron can connect to thousands of other neurons in the brain, making an incredibly large number of possible connections. It is these connections that are the stuff of human intelligence…. After birth, new connections are formed primarily through sensory input. If a child has an enriched environment of loving personal interactions…more connections will be formed. If these experiences continue and new dimensions to them are added, the child’s neural structure will be enhanced for a lifetime of more successful learning. Those children, on the other hand, raised in an abusive or neglectful environment form the wrong kinds of connections. They suffer long-term damage, often ending in defensive, violent behavior. Science is beginning to understand the cause-effect relationship between multiple factors of neglect, abuse and violence…. And is also beginning to understand that severe early deprivation may be irreversible. Intervention programs beginning at ages four and five are too late. Winter 2001.
Every March, June, and September, groups of up to 14 interns join 10 staff members for an intensive ten-week learning experience at the Aprovecho Research Center in their sustainable living skills internship program featuring sustainable forestry, organic gardening, appropriate technology & ecological living. The Center is a 40-acre land trust operating to provide a basis for scientific research on appropriate technologies and techniques for simple and cooperative living, and to serve an educational role in disseminating information on such technologies and techniques. Classes combine lecture and discussion formats with practical, hands-on activities. 80574 Hazelton Road, Cottage Grove, OR 97424-9747. Tel: (541) 942-8198. Web: www.efn.org/~apro.
From Class Action Suit Alleges Fraud in Use of Ritalin, Natural Life Magazine: A class action lawsuit has been filed in Texas alleging that the manufacturer of the drug Ritalin, the American Psychiatric Association and an association of people with so-called attention deficit problems have “planned, conspired, and colluded to create, develop and promote the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in a highly successful effort to increase the market for [the drug] Ritalin”…. The suit states allegations based on fraud and conspiracy… and further asserts that in addition to its actions and involvement with the creation of the ADD and ADHD diagnosis, [manufacturer] Ciba/Novartis took steps to promote and dramatically increase the sales of Ritalin by way of: 1. Actively promoting and supporting the concept that a significant percentage of children suffer from a “disease” which required narcotic treatment/therapy. 2. Actively promoting Ritalin as the drug of choice to treat children diagnosed with ADD and ADHD. 3. Actively supporting parent support groups… so that such organizations would promote and support (as a supposed neutral party) the ever-increasing implementation of ADD/ADHD diagnoses as well as directly increasing Ritalin sales. 4. Distributing misleading sales and promotional literature to parents, schools and other interested persons in a successful effort to further increase the number of diagnoses and the number of persons prescribed Ritalin. For more information visit www.ritalinfraud.com or email information@ ritalinfraud.com. Issue #76.
On March 28, Newsday published letters about bullying written by young people on the Student Briefing Page. The following are some excerpts: “I have always tried to stick up for the kids who have been bullied. I am now afraid that a kid who has been picked on all the time could turn around and cause harm.” MM, Grade 9. “I see a lot of bullying at school. I see it everywhere – in the bathroom, at recess, in hallways and on the buses.” KJ, Grade 5. “I have been bullied in school every day.” AK, Grade 5. “I see a lot of bullying at my school. I see bigger kids hurting the smaller kids. Also, girls talking, pointing and laughing at another person’s expense. I have been bullied by the so-called popular group.” MS, Grade 6. “I’ve seen bullying at school. If the bully was a bit weaker I would have done something. I could have told him to stop, but I was too scared. I was nervous about getting beat up. I was very scared.” HK, Grade 6. “I have been a victim of bullying, and it didn’t feel too good. It made me want revenge. I think that this can get a person too aggravated and this can result in violence or death.” AR, Grade 6.
From Education Reform, Dropouts: Anti-dropout programs a decade ago often focused on students whose behavior signaled that they were “at risk.” Those signs include truancy, tardiness, low grades or test scores, failure to concentrate or do homework, misbehavior, and a lack of close ties to teachers or peers. “Leaving school before graduation is seen as a bad decision that individual students make, often based on a pattern of low commitment to school and behaviors that lead to school failure,” says Valerie Lee of the University of Michigan. More than 100 anti-dropout programs that relied on that theory were funded by the federal government in the early 1990s. Their strategies included tutoring, alternative schools for dropouts or potential dropouts and classes in leadership and self-esteem. Only 30 collected the kind of data that allowed their impact to be measured. Evaluating 16 of them, including alternative schools and special programs within existing schools, only one reduced dropout rates…. After this disastrous experiment with anti-dropout programs, more reformers concentrated on making existing schools work better for all students…. Lee found that, all other things being equal, dropout rates are lower in high schools that serve no more than 1,500 students and offer more challenging courses and fewer remedial or non-academic courses. “Except in schools with more than 1,500 students, dropout rates are also lower in schools where most students say that the teachers respect them,” she says…. Some alternative programs for dropouts or potential dropouts increased high school completion rates at some of their sites. These are not to be confused with the “alternative schools” in many districts that simply warehouse burned-out teachers waiting to retire and violence-prone or failing students waiting to become old enough to drop out legally. March 2001.
MEMORIAL FOR ERNEST MORGAN: A memorial was held at the Arthur Morgan School on October 29, 2000 for Ernest Morgan, educator, author, storyteller, and adored friend. The son of Arthur Morgan died at the age of 95, and is remembered as “a man of integrity and vision.” Over 200 friends, family, students, staff and alumni of the Arthur Morgan School attended the memorial and shared stories about Ernest. During his active life he had published the weekly Yellow Springs News, was an UN administrator for Arab relief in the Gaza Strip of Palestine, partners at Camp Celo with his wife Elizabeth Morey Morgan and assisted her in founding the Arthur Morgan School, an active advisor to the Community Services Inc. of Yellow Springs, OH, and Chairman of the Board Emeritus of The Antioch Company. He regularly updated his “Manual of Simple Burial,” and wrote an autobiography, Dealing Creatively With Life, in 2000. From the Celo Education Notes of the Arthur Morgan School, “We will miss his daily presence and his wonderful stories.”
The International Montessori Council’s goal is to foster fellowship, educational excellence, collaboration, and innovation throughout the Montessori community worldwide. The IMC was formed to build bridges of peace, understanding, and cooperation among all members of the Montessori community. Individuals, schools, and organizations are invited to join the Council. Membership includes the quarterly journal, Montessori Leadership, access to Montessori Online, school assessment and accreditation, and more. For further information, contact IMC at 17808 October Court, Rockville, MD 20855. Tel: (800) 655-5843.
The Cobscook Gathering: A Unique Blend of Arts and People’s Education Courses offers two weeks of enriching five-day courses designed to inspire, challenge and unite people from the Cobscook area and beyond. Courses will include Timber Frame Construction, Raku Pottery, Revitalizing Indigenous Languages, and Living with the Bay, among others. The gathering will take place the weeks of June 18 and June 25. For more information, contact Cobscook Community Learning Center & Institute for People’s Education, Goddard College, 123 Pitkin Rd., Plainfield, VT 05667. Web: www.thecclc.org.
Communities Where You Can Learn is a listing of 44 communities compiled by Daniel Greenberg. Each community entry includes address, telephone number, brief description, web information if available, and notations regarding open houses, family/children programs, rentals available, etc. For more information contact Communities Journal of Cooperative Living, Rt. 1 Box 156, Rutledge, MO 63563.
Issue #109 of the Communities Journal of Cooperative Living is focused on the topic of “Decision Making in Community.” Articles include: Decision Making and Power; How to Make a Decision Without Making a Decision; Hand Signals in Group Process; Building Creative Agreements; Twelve Myths of Consensus; Consensus as a Spiritual Practice. The magazine is published quarterly by the Fellowship for Intentional Community, Route 1, Box 156, Rutledge, MO 63563.
Don Glines is compiling a comprehensive bibliography of educational alternatives including public school, education reform, open education, magnets, classroom style, curriculum partners, and more. It will also list organizations, journals, websites, and potential future alternatives. To find out more, contact Don at the Educational Futures Projects, PO Box 2977, Sacramento, CA 95812. Tel: (916) 393-8701.
An international comparative study on alternative education is being conducted by The National Institute for Educational Research (NIER) of Japan. The study commenced in April 200 and will conclude in April 2002. The objective of the project is to find key factors that may suggest solutions to the problem of children who do not attend school and the alternative schools that are emerging to serve these children. The study will observe and compare alternative schools and communities in fifteen countries, including Australia, US, Israel, Denmark, France, and Germany. NIER, 6-5-22 Shimomeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8681, Japan.
With its many overcrowded public high schools and a population boom underway, Western Connecticut desperately needs more alternative, small, democratic secondary schools. While the Waldorf and Montessori options are well-represented for the elementary and middle grades, teenagers in Fairfield and Litchfield counties are left with either the depersonalized "factory" style high schools or the overpriced, traditional "prep" schools. My dream is a small (100 students max), open, democratic high school on some beautiful property: baking, photography, book circles, gardening, traveling, internships, juggling, geology, medieval feasts, theater, painting, applied algebra, rocket launches, and whatever else we can cook up. Contact Laura Webber at wwebby@aol.com.
Public and Private Schools and Homeschooling (PPSP-H) is a nation-wide email list created for the discussion of issues relating to public and private school programs which are directed at and marketed to homeschooling families. This is an open list, welcoming participants from all sides of the issue. Please respect differences of opinion. To subscribe, send a blank email message to PPSP-H-subscribe@egroups.com or visit the PPSP-H website: http://www.egroups.com/group/PPSP-H. Helen Hegener, Listowner, HEM-Editor@home-ed-magazine.com.
Vermont College has recently started a new BA program called New College. This is a program designed more specifically for traditional age students. They come to campus for three one week residencies throughout the year and then return to their homes and lives to study. The main way they communicate with the other students and their faculty mentors is through the Internet. It is an exciting alternative to the traditional college experience and gives students the opportunity to study what they feel passionate about, play a lead role in designing their education, and at the same time continue their lives and possible jobs in the communities that they belong to. Contact Jasmine Lamb, Admissions Counselor, Vermont College of Norwich University, 36 College Street, Montpelier, VT 05602. Tel: (800) 336-6794 or (802) 828-8505. Fax: (802) 828-8855.
Liberty School gets $150,000 endowment!Liberty School recently had an all-school meeting called a student summit or vision quest, in which we explored student concerns and their visions for the future. Out of that discussion, the faculty and the school's curriculum committee, made up of mostly students, are exploring courses and activities for next year. We are also offering a classical music program for music students who want to concentrate on their music and be prepared for music conservatories or music colleges. We also organized two travel experiences that gave students great perspective on our culture. One group of 9 students and a teacher spent the winter term in a small village in the south of France. Another group of 10 students, a teacher and parent went to Kenya for 3 weeks. And finally, we recently received an anonymous gift of $150,000 to start an endowment fund. Though most of our students have their tuition paid by their town, there are students in towns that have their own high school and do not pay the tuition. The endowment fund will be for scholarships to those students. Receiving such a generous gift was not only a complete surprise but also an honor. It feels good that someone is recognizing our efforts to offer a learning experience that is liberating and moral. Arnold Greenberg
Puget Sound Community School has received a donation for the express purpose of renting a site by the fall of 2001. As you may know, adding the attributes of a home base has long been a dream of mine but we had been unable to get the funding in place until now. If we can parlay this donation into further enthusiasm for additional funding, we could purchase a place. As it stands, we can't afford both a down payment and a monthly mortgage payment. So, I'm writing to ask if you might have any ideas on how we could pursue additional funds. If you do, please let me know ASAP. Things need to move fast as it is a different ballgame to be looking at renting a space vs. buying one. If you yourself are interested in making a donation to assist with our site acquisition project, make checks payable to PSCS, note in the memo that these funds are for site acquisition, and send to: Andy Smallman, Puget Sound Community School, Attn: Site Committee, PO Box 51026, Seattle, WA 98115.
PUBLIC ALTERNATIVES
The presidents of several teacher union locals in Massachusetts have joined with New Democracy in calling for Mass Refusal by teachers and teacher unions to administer the MCAS test in 2002. We invite other teacher union locals, parent organizations, faith-based groups, trade unions, civil rights and civic organizations--indeed, all organizations whose members have a stake in public education and the future of our children--to join in the call for Mass Refusal. We particularly encourage CARE and local CARE organizations to join us. Mass Refusal represents determination on the part of teachers to rely on their own collective strength to put an end to MCAS. Our focus will be not on talking to the legislature but on reaching out to the community with information about the destructive effects of MCAS, about who is behind it and why it is happening. Our immediate goal is to end this destructive test entirely, not only as a graduation requirement. But defeating MCAS is not enough. We must put an end as well to other destructive, corporate-led reforms and transform the schools in a positive direction. To do this we must expose and challenge the corporate forces behind MCAS and behind the attack on public education. If you want further information or would like to be involved, please get in touch with Dave Stratman at the above email address or call (617) 524-4073 or (508) 822-5837. Dave Stratman, Editor, New Democracy, 5 Burr Street, Boston, MA 02130. Web: newdemocracyworld.org.
Genius Gregory Smith (college sophomore at age 11), on the Oprah Show: “If a course is just review or too simplistic and offers no challenge or new material then an "A" means nothing to me. Although, if I attempt a course that is completely new material and everyone else in the class has had background courses and way ahead of me -- then ah, I will learn! I think education should stress – learning – not grades. Too much emphasis is placed on grades and not enough on challenge! I want to encourage the youth to step out of the lines and grow! If I had limited my goals to grades then I would have been content to be in the 5th grade this year instead of my freshman year of college. My quest is for knowledge and wisdom, and that can only be accomplished by learning new concepts and discovering new ideas! I am out of the box! “There is no mechanism in place in the public school system to address the needs of the highly gifted student. I have always worked independently, respectfully, and humbly; therefore, I spent my first two years of public school sitting in the hall, closets, back of the room, and storage rooms isolated from my age-peers. I was punished because I was smart. I was moved from class to class, grade to grade, in an attempt by the system to find an appropriate venue for my abilities. Obviously, my parents intervened and diligently worked to guarantee that I would no longer be emotionally abused by an academic environment that was supposed to support and facilitate higher learning. “I believe that learning is fun; unfortunately, the labeling of studying, reviewing, and practicing, as "homework" sends the wrong message to students and is a disservice to the learning process. It is human nature not to enjoy "work" so we have set up intellectual roadblocks through our semantics. If we are successful in making the classroom interesting and the material intriguing then the impetus will be there to pursue the topics further outside of the classroom. Our goal should be to inspire excitement for learning!” Web: http://www.gregoryrsmith.com/Questions&answers.html.
Survey of student opinion This survey of student opinion was done with a representative sample of over 2000 students and I would guess, given the level of excellence in the standardization of education in the public system, that this kind of survey result is more or less accurate across North America. Agreements to the following statements were requested of over 2200 students in even 4 to 12 grades. The percent who agree per grade per question are listed below.
Gr 4 Gr 6 Gr 8 Gr 10 Gr 12
What I'm learning in school is useful. 62% 47% 28% 19% 12% I feel involved in my class. 41% 28% 17% 12% 6% I feel cared about at school. 27% 17% 6% 9% 4%
Leaving the vast majority of the children feeling that school is irrelevant, uninvolving and uncaring. Brent Cameron M.A., Wondertree Foundation for Natural Learning, Box 38083 Vancouver, BC V0B 2C0 Canada. Tel: (604) 224-3663. Email: brentcameron@telus.net. Web: www.wondertree.org.
According to the Fair Test Examiner, parent opposition to standardized testing is growing. In Arizona, parents and teachers in three major cities have taken measures to stop the Arizona Instrument to Measure Students (AIMS). Their concerns are with the exam’s poor design, test anxiety in children, improper use for high-stakes decisions, and unfairness to special needs and limited English students. In Ohio, protests and forums organized by the Ohio Teachers Association drew hundreds of people to 33 sites. Parents and teachers protested the Ohio Proficiency Tests (OPT), in particular the planned use of 4th grade exams for promotion decisions. In Louisiana, a group of parents have filed a complaint with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights charging that the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) discriminates against poor and minority children. Fall 2000.
From Alternative Education in New York City by Richard Organisciak, Superintendent of Alternative, Adult and Continuing Education at NYC Board of Education, Education Update: Within the Alternative High Schools and Programs Superintendency, there now exist 70 distinct schools and programs serving approximately 45,000 students in more than 400 citywide locations, 50,000 adult learners, 60,000 evening students and 110,000 summer students…. Alternative schools and programs offer instructional and support services at every level of student development…. With the onset of the new Regents learning standards, some skeptics in the political and educational arena are poised to predict the demise of alternative education. Regrettably, these negative pundits associate alternative education with meeting lower standards and outcomes, a stereotypical carryover from the early days of alternative schools and programs…. Each and every alternative school is cognizant of the new requirements and has met the challenge of higher expectations through its commitment to highly rigorous, demanding coursework, which need not always be subjected to standardized testing results to prove its value…. Remaining optimistic in a climate of sustained economic prosperity, it is safe to conclude that alternative education is a growth industry which will play an ever-increasing role in the future of New York City students of all ages for years to come. January 2001.
The Massachusetts Charter School Association was formed last fall; it seeks to assist charter schools in disseminating their best practices and innovations to district schools, facilitate group purchasing of goods and services, and advocate on behalf of charter schools. For more information, please contact Dr. Marc Kenen at (413) 253-8970 or email kenen@rcn.com.
Facts about Charter School Performance, from the Massachusetts Charter School Resource Center: Top 3 non-exam middle schools in Boston are charter schools; number two non-exam middle schools in math and English are charter schools; number three non-exam middle schools in math and English are charter schools; more than half of the 35 charter schools that administered the MCAS had school-wide averages on the mathematics or English portion of the exam that were in the proficient performance level; Eight charter schools had a zero percent failure rate on the English portion of the MCAS.
The Institute for Democracy in Education publishes a magazine titled Democracy & Education. The latest issue focused on living democracy in the Classroom. Included were such articles as “Thinking like Darwin: Struggle & Survival in Democratic Classrooms” by Steven Wolk, “We Teach on Wednesday – A Parody on School Reform” by Nelson Goud; “Free Student Press – because 12 years is too long to be silenced” by Damon Krane; and “The Classroom as a Holding Environment” by Susan Handler. The magazine is published quarterly by IDE, McCracken Hall, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701-2979. Web: http://www.ohiou.edu/ide. Tel: (740) 593-4531.
In our latest yearly battle with the school board, they canceled The Renaissance Progressive School’s charter & a judge gave us an injunction. We thought this year we were getting through without a confrontation, but while we were in PA for the NCACS conference, they came onto our campus, had letters given to children that their school was closed and to report to their zoned school. It was pandemonium. The legislation doesn't give them this right, but supposedly they thought they could. They didn't expect our community to be so strong and our attorneys to be so fast. Being a public school for four years, the results have been phenomenal in everyway. From anecdotal stories of stressed children with migraines becoming whole and healthy again to our quantifiable test scores to exemplary external compliance audits. We have an incredible staff, but with growing every year and high school starting next year, it is always an effort to keep extraordinary teachers in the classroom. We need one experienced teacher for the teen-agers. Email: jlm@strato.net.
Virginia has an organization for alternative educators. Elizabeth Tompkins is the current President. For further info, she can be reached at: Chesapeake Alternative School, 920 Minuteman Drive, Chesapeake, VA 23323. Tel: (757) 494-7620.
In March, a group of fifteen students and adults from the Youth Initiative High School of Viroqua, Wisconsin boarded a bus for the first leg of a three-week trip to Guatemala and Mexico. The group first spent three days in the community of San Lucas Toliman. While in San Lucas, the group from assisted the community in forestry and building projects as well as being briefed on the current situation in Guatemala. From there, the group traveled into the highlands of northern Guatemala to the village of Nueva Esperanza (Chacula). While in the village, the Youth Initiative group helped to expand a community gardening project using donated seeds, in addition to meeting with local organizations about the progress of the community. Then they visited the old colonial capital of San Cristobal de las Casas and met with local groups to discuss the current situation in Chiapas, especially the ongoing negotiations in Mexico City between the Mexican government and the Zapatista National Liberation Army to end the rebellion which began 1994. Finally, after a visit to the famous Mayan ruins at Palenque, the Youth Initiative group flew home, arriving in Chicago on April 11. Youth Initiative High School is a private, democratically governed Waldorf initiative located in Viroqua, in rural southwestern Wisconsin. For more information, please see the YIHS website at www.mwt.net/~yihs.
The Wisconsin Charter Schools Association was launched on January 13, 2001at a meeting of the WCSA's 12 member founding board of directors at Oshkosh. The WCSA will work to advance the effectiveness of charter schools and the charter school movement in Wisconsin. They plan to create a clearinghouse of best practices for current and new charter schools, provide technical assistance to charter school operators, and advocate for strong charter school laws. WCSA, P.O. Box 628243, Middleton, WI 53562-8243. Tel: (608) 238-7491. Email: sennb@chorus.net.
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