#33 Fall 2001
$4.95 In the CHANGING SCHOOLS section: John Gatto: A Radically Uncivil SocietyDayle Bethel: Saving Our Children, A Japanese Approach
Education Revolution Table of Contents
News Our Changing World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By Albert Lamb Wali . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By David Harrison A Tale of Two Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By Dana Bennis The Grip is Tightening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By Leonard Turton Eureka! It’s Adamsky! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . From an Interview with Alexander Adamsky A Democratic Youth Forum Speaks Its Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By Jerry Mintz
Being There Travels With Jerry Mintz September-October: The Spirit of Learning in Hawaii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July-August: Landing in England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Life in the Cotswolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Home Education in England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 . Summerhill’s 80th Reunion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A Russian Alternative Education Newspaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . From Moscow to the River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10th Anniversary Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Floating Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Kids’ Ideal School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Artic Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Last Day on the Ship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mail and Communications Edited by Carol Morley General Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Public Agenda survey, American Psychological Society study, OBESSU’s project, Ken from U Mass, Tech-savvy mentors, History books thread, iEARN info Montessori Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Montessori in Tomorrow’s Child Magnet Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Magnet Schools of America Public Alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dave Pugh’s probation, NEA against standardized testing, McCensored, Protests against uniforms, High school journalists censored, RPPI on real school choice, High Stakes in Wisconsin, Paths of Learning resource index, Texas scores International News and Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Australia, Brazil, England, India, Israel, Taiwan, United Kingdom Home Education News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American Homeschoolers discussion list, Home Ed makes Time, Homeschoolers’ Camp, Social Skills study Alumni News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Modern School, Vershire School Teachers, Jobs, and Internships: 17 listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conferences: 5 listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Changing Schools Edited by Albert Lamb The “Traveling Home-Schooler” Looks Back. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By Jenifer Goldman Who Was Makiguchi?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By Brian Covert Saving Our Children – A Japanese Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By Dayle Bethel Democracy in Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Friis-Lawrence John Gatto: A Radically Uncivil Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . An interview by Utrice Leeds and Jerry Mintz Have Meditation Bench – Will Travel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peter Christopher
Book Reviews Edited by Steve Rosenthal Natural Learning by Roland Meighan, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Guerrilla Learning by Grace Llewellyn and Amy Silver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inspecting the Island by Hylda Sims. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
AERO Books, Videos, Subscription, Ordering Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
IN A BOX BELOW
AERO and The Education Revolution Magazine
AERO, the Alternative Education Resource Organization, was founded in 1989 as part of the not-for-profit School of Living. The mission of AERO is to build, “the critical mass for the education revolution by providing resources which support self-determination in learning and the natural genius in everyone.” AERO provides information, resources and guidance to students, parents, schools and organizations regarding the broad spectrum of educational alternatives: public and independent alternatives, home education, international alternatives, higher education alternatives, and more. The common feature in all these educational options is that they are learner-centered, focused on the interest of the learner rather than on an arbitrary curriculum. AERO, which produces the Education Revolution Magazine quarterly and maintains the Education Revolution website, is the networking hub for education alternatives throughout the world (www.EducationRevolution.org).
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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, New Hyde Park, NY 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
Our Changing World Albert Lamb It has been a couple of months now since the devastating attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but probably it is not long enough for us to get much distance from it all. Just as millions of children around the world were settling in for a new school year in September they were witness to the most horrendous live event of the television age. Within a couple of hours, and in front of all our eyes, thousands of people died and a familiar piece of our beloved New York skyline was blown to dust.
Immediately afterwards everyone talked of the world having profoundly changed but for children it is harder to measure this change. For many of them it will have been a sort of first death for them to have to experience. Big, public events of grief and fear can be hard for anyone to deal with, not just children. Sometimes the hardest thing is when you feel a sort of nothing, or don’t have the feeling that you think you ought to have. A teenager said to me the other day that people at school keep talking about it but that she can’t notice any difference in the world around her. It all seems just the same, except that now there is a new show on TV - The World at War.
That is one of the immediate changes, but there are others. Back in the summer we had a rightwing Republican president in the White House going it alone on the world scene, rattling sabers at the Russians and the Chinese, and threatening to unilaterally retreat behind some new high-tech (and high-priced) national missile defense shield. Now America has a government of national consensus, leaving behind its old international rivalries and trying to forge a coalition with every country available to fight a new (and inevitably high-priced) war. Is another terrorist attack coming soon? Are we going to be subjected to germ warfare on a mass scale? Will the war against Afghanistan widen into a war in the Middle East? And could our world economy go down the tubes? Nobody knows - and, in fact, this new level of uncertainty in the world may be the biggest change of all.
In the short term, during the next few months, we will have to find words to explain to our children what is going on in Afghanistan, not just with the bombs and the troops but with the humanitarian disaster of a noble people who are now likely to die in great numbers from starvation. Good may somehow come out of all this eventually but, whatever else is happening, we are all being fast-forwarded into the future.
All of this will impact on children and schools. I’ve read that in England dieting companies are losing business as people turn to junk food, alcohol and cigarettes. Many couples are splitting up or making up, in response to these events. Employment seems less secure with jobs being shed in tourism and aviation. And, affecting everyone, a new concern is shared that the world we have trusted in for so long is no longer safe. Is it safe to fly? Is it safe to open our mail? Is it safe to trust the people around us? Can we even really afford to become truly multicultural societies?
I grew up in the 1950s when America was gripped with fear – fear of communists and fear of the bomb. That fear settled like a cloud of gray dust over everyone’s lives during those years. My stepfather was a professor of philosophy at Columbia, and a socialist. Somebody in the government must have thought him a communist because in the 1960s our home phone was tapped, our mail was opened, our friends and neighbors were questioned and, until he took the government to court, my stepfather had his passport taken away so that he couldn’t leave the country. The primary fear then was to be seen as being different, to be seen as holding dangerous beliefs.
In our apartment building, in the late 1960s, there was a woman who ran a group that was trying to shut down the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was still investigating citizens fifteen years after McCarthy was discredited. One profession, throughout the era of McCarthyism, was investigated more thoroughly than any other: more teachers had their lives destroyed by investigations than members of any other profession.
It may not be so bad this time. We may not end up with a House Terrorist Opinions Committee. The current mood, where children have been handed flags as they come to school and even told to come in dressed in red, white and blue, may pass. Americans may wake up and look around at a diverse world and find that they want to take a new part in it. Diversity may come to seem acceptable in some new way.
Maybe we can make a start in that direction by celebrating our own diversity. Alternative educators of every sort have something essential in common – a willingness to diverge from the norm. We all are marching to different drummers but this could be the time for us to really join the band, our own marching band. Whether we follow the ideas of Montessori or Neill, are homeschoolers or are part of charter schools, belong to a Sudbury Valley school or are just trying to bring something different into a public school classroom, we are the experimenters and the life-affirmers. What we have in common is greater than what traditionally has kept us apart. Whatever our particular alternative, all of us believe in taking that alternative road. So, let us learn to get along better with each other. Onward, fellow marchers, to the coming Education Revolution!
Wali
David Harrison
By this morning, while we didn’t have many answers, we had all seen the pictures. We had heard the commentaries and the speeches. Most of us were beginning to feel our opinions congealing; some of us expressed our emotions openly. We had talked it over with our families and with each other at school. We had taken account of our loved ones. We had let the disbelief and horror and grief settle into us. The hardest part was thinking what to do next. How could we feign normalcy? What simple daily actions were appropriate when so many were suffering?
At school, Deb had already planned for us to be out in the Wallingford neighborhood that day, doing community service and getting to know our new neighbors. It came to me - with a simple and powerful and unquestionable knowing - which business we should introduce ourselves to first: Kabul, an Afghani restaurant on 45th. It seemed the perfect gesture, the perfect way to integrate what we stand for as people and as a school with the events transpiring around the globe. Especially in light of the fact that American bombs may soon be falling on Afghanistan and that the owner and his employees could reasonably expect to soon feel the sting of discrimination and hatred.
After lunch, Deb, Zac, Lylli, Jason, Kelsi, Sahra, and myself all walked up 45th Avenue to offer our support in whatever way we could. Walking, it seemed like an ordinary day. We all chatted and talked, and were passed on the streets by people going about their business - shopping, sipping coffee in cafes, waiting for the bus. It was hard to imagine what was going on at that very moment in New York and DC and rural Pennsylvania, what everyday citizens like ourselves in Muslim countries must be bracing for.
When we arrived outside the door to Kabul, we debated who would do the talking. After a few rehearsals and some hesitation, Zac decided that he would be willing to knock on the door, but he wanted some help with the introduction. After asking one more time if any of the students wanted to join Zac, I assured him that I would help out if he needed it.
Zac knocked, and the owner, a handsome, stylish, kind-looking man, made his way to the door. Zac introduced us and explained why we were there. With incredible grace, the owner understood at once, and relieved almost instantly any awkwardness we might have felt. He showed us around the outside of the building, and agreed to let us sweep the sidewalk and street around his restaurant. Before we got started, he introduced himself as Wali, and thanked us. He told us that he had in fact received threatening phone calls, and had decided to close down the night before. He feared for the safety of his employees and customers. After a moment's hesitation, he asked if this was normal for our school, or if it had to do with “what was going on.” I laughed, and answered him honestly, “Both.” He smiled, too, satisfied, and let us go about our work.
We swept the sidewalk and entryway to the restaurant, and picked cigarette butts and trash from the curb. As we were finishing up, Wali joined us and talked some more. As his words unfolded, I realized that in a matter of a few minutes, he had explained to us, in a vivid and living way, the complexities, the real and personal intricacies, of all that was going on around us.
Wali’s story alternated between recent history and his relationship to current events. He had been born in Afghanistan before being sent as a boy with his parents to New York City. In the wake of the bombings, he had friends and relatives that he had not yet heard from. He was worried, just like everyone else. He had lived and gone to school and run a business in Seattle for the past thirty years. He considered himself an American, and a valuable part of the neighborhood. He hoped this standing would protect him through what might come. He told how Afghanis had once been America’s darlings as they fought for freedom against the Soviet Union, a fact that led to the CIA training and US funding of Osama Bin Laden. He explained how he had learned, as an ethnic American, to bend with these changes in American policy and opinion, to enjoy the times of favor, and take nothing for granted when perceptions swerved. He condemned what he called “those Taliban animals” that now control his homeland. He showed us pictures of the one-hundred-foot-tall Buddhas the Taliban had destroyed with rocket launchers. “What does it take to destroy such beauty?” he asked us, an American Muslim grieving for the icons of another religion. We shook our heads and had no answers. You could see Wali struggle with his feelings. On the one hand he favored doing “whatever it takes” to root out the Taliban, but he was worried for his people and his country, afraid of what might become of them both here and abroad.
Lastly, Wali told us of some advice his uncle had given him long ago. “My uncle told me, ‘Never lose your accent. It is a reminder of who you are.’” Then Wali said one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard. “I’m wishing now that I hadn’t taken his advice.” I was struck by the subtle human costs of the violence we were witnessing. Here was an obviously proud and successful man being moved to question the valued advice of a loved one, to lament the character of his very beginnings.
Despite the sadness of his story, though, I was grateful for the lessons Wali had given us. So much complexity and confusion and grief all shedding a probing light on not only the life of one simple man, but also on the less sensational ramifications of a global catastrophe. I felt so lucky to hear his words, and to share in their telling with my young friends and colleagues.
After finishing his story, Wali handed out drinks to
the students, and asked if we would pose for a picture outside of his
restaurant. We stood beneath a mural painted on the side of the building, a
beautiful depiction of Afghani horsemen in traditional garb, the famous Hindu
Kush Mountains in the background. I was saddened to think that our wars lately
seem to unfold on such historic stages. The Gulf War entailed the bombing of
Baghdad in the cradle of civilization. The destruction of centuries-old
architecture throughout the Balkans. And now the threat to Kabul, the gateway
city to the famous Silk Road that linked east and west. Sahra broke me from
these thoughts when she kindly told Wali to stand with us so she could take his
photo. He agreed happily. The last thing we said to Wali before we left was that a group of us from the school would be coming back for dinner that night. Wali smiled and said, “You have made my day. I was so sad, but not anymore.”
That night, some of us returned for dinner. Over the course of two hours, fourteen of us came together for a delicious meal of eggplant and fresh noodles seasoned with onions and tomatoes. Simple and delicious foods. It was a typical school gathering, a mixture of staff, family, students, parents, volunteers, and acquaintances. Talk alternated between the events of the day and the more casual conversation of friendship. There was such a sense of communion and relief to be there with friends, to linger long over a meal, forgetting for a short time the devastation in other places. At one point, my friend Colleen noted how good it felt to laugh, something none of us had done in two days. I was also glad to see that Wali and his employees, his family and friends, all enjoyed the same sort of company. Throughout the night, people came and went at Wali’s table, where they talked and worried and laughed along with us.
Wali checked in with us now and again, and expressed his appreciation in more ways than just the complimentary drinks and the discount on dinner he provided. He showed it in his smile, and in the ease with which he moved, despite the tumultuous emotions we all knew he was feeling. It was clear that a powerful and reciprocal friendship was emerging between our school and this member of our new neighborhood. We said our goodbyes with mutual gratitude and a sense of real connection that seemed important when so many are screaming for blood.
Unfortunately, this story does not have an entirely happy ending, but it is important to take note of how the night came to a close. As the last group of us left the restaurant, both Michael and I noticed a man who was visibly angry as he walked slowly past the restaurant. He glared inside and at us, muttering under his breath. While we could not hear his words, I can only assume that in some way he was upset with us for supporting Wali, that he had already allowed a blind sort of hatred to gather in his soul. We watched wordlessly as he walked away, and then sped off in his truck.
The message in this ending is clear. That as the aftermath of Tuesday's events unfold, our lessons and our work are far from finished. It is encouraging to know that we have all been involved in such a powerful first step, one that will carry us forward into the future. But seeing the look in that angry man’s face undid any sense of do-gooder-ism I might have allowed myself to feel. This was not to be a one-time incident. Going home and feeling as if I had done my part was not an acceptable response. It is very likely that the hatred and anger will get worse before they get better. And for those of us who care, we will be called upon by our own principles to make these sorts of gestures again and again - over the next months, maybe years - if we hope to salvage any sense of human dignity and unity in the face of the wars we may fight both at home and abroad.
Unexpectedly, I found myself at Kabul again on
Sunday night. The place was packed. Not a single table was empty. I saw Wali,
dressed in a baseball cap and kitchen whites, working hard to deliver meals,
take orders, and help out in the kitchen. As I waited in the foyer with a group
of friends, I was struck by this outpouring of support. And I also noticed that
Wali had hung an American flag from the coat rack. It hung in the foreground,
while behind it, Wali’s collection of beautiful embroidered fez’s captured the
wonder of mixed heritage and culture that makes our country unique in the world.
After another delicious meal (during which our
waitress apologized again and again for being out of certain things- “It’s just
been so busy these past few days.”), I got a chance to speak again with Wali.
He was tired but ecstatic. He told me how busy it had been, how a neighbor had
sent out an email and 65 people showed up for dinner together on Friday. Wali,
so moved by their support, decided to donate the proceeds from their dinners to
the Red Cross. As Wali and I talked some more, we discovered that we shared a connection to the East Coast and New York City. We shared in common places that we loved and the scenery that in part makes us who we are. At one point, feeling our intimacy grow, I felt comfortable enough to tease Wali, joking about how he had “ruined my night” by being out of firni (a delicious rosewater and mint custard), and he laughed. As I turned to go, I heard Wali's parting words, “I’ll bring you a bowl of firni at school next week,” and I think he meant it
Dave Harrison is in his third year of teaching at PSCS. Previously, he spent five years at the Albany Free School, and was the founder of Capital District Fields of Dreams, an inner-city youth sports program. In his spare time, Dave writes, reads, and serves as a contributing editor for the Albany-based magazine “Journal For Living.” Dave and his wife Cathryn live in Seattle, while their 8-year-old son Madison has returned to Albany on his own to attend the Free School.
A Tale of Two Tests Dana Bennis
In Palisades, New York on October 9, two events occurred simultaneously:
Event One: Inside the luxurious IBM Conference Center, 16 state governors, numerous corporate executives and a handful of select educational leaders gathered for the 2001 Education Summit, to expand accountability measures and standardized testing throughout every state in the US.
Event Two: A half-mile from the IBM Conference Center on 9W, in front of a large antiques store, 25 people gathered to proclaim that testing is not the answer. The closest meeting of the two groups occurred when several of the attendees of the Education Summit were spotted driving towards the conference center, passing the antiques store and glimpsing the twenty-foot “We Love Learning” and “NoMoreTests.com” banners.
Bill Wetzel, who created both the Power to the Youth (www.youthpower.com) and Students Against Testing (www.nomoretests.com) websites, organized the protest after learning about the private Education Summit only 6 weeks before the event. Perhaps a gathering of only 25 is not that impressive; but coming at a time when the US had just begun bombing Afghanistan following the September 11 tragedy, finding 25 people willing to protest an aspect of US policy is a feat.
Quoted in The Journal News, a local paper in the Southern New York region, Wetzel said, “We believe corporate executives and conservative state governments are not the only people who should be determining the future of education. They have a very pro high-stakes standardized testing agenda that is turning schools from centers of learning to centers of test preparation.”
Inside the Conference Center, IBM Chairman and CEO Louis Gerstner Jr., Michigan Governor John Engler, and New York Governor George Pataki were among the key speakers. In his remarks, Engler compared the September 11 attack with Sputnik in 1957, an event that prompted a strong emphasis on academics in education so that the US would not fall behind the Soviet Union. “We're in a new war,” said Engler. “We know that education must play a central role in the defense of our nation. Our schools must produce the people who have the math, science and engineering skills to keep our defenses strong.”
Louis Gerstner sought to quench the growing number of testing critics by claiming they want to “preserve the status quo.” He continued by stating that testing opponents show “a pathetic willingness to sacrifice an entire generation -- and deny them their shot at a better chance, a better future and a better life.” The full text of these speeches can be found on the website for Achieve (www.achieve.org), an organization formed by corporate CEO’s and governors in 1996 to increase the presence of standards and testing in schools.
This protest follows on the heels of a series of anti-testing rallies and demonstrations last spring in such cities as Detroit, Boulder, and Albany. Present at the October 9 protest was Monty Neill, executive director of Fair Test (www.fairtest.org), a Boston-based resource and advocacy center working to end the abuses of standardized tests. Other demonstrators included students from New York University, staff and students from the Albany Free School, an independent alternative school in Albany, NY, and staff and students from the Bedford Academic Community, an alternative high school in Westchester, NY. Free School students are not forced to take the standardized tests, since the school is private. However, due to Commissioner of Education for New York Richard Mills’ removal of a waiver allowing alternative public schools to use portfolio assessments, the Bedford school is now forced to administer and prepare its students to take the Regents tests.
Quoted in The Journal News, Melissa Russini, 16, of Bedford, says, “I learned more doing hands-on stuff. Now that they’ve taken that away, we’re like a regular high school. They are cramming us with work and it’s not as interesting as it used to be.”
Cars driving by the antiques store on 9W read the banners, with messages including “We Don’t Need Tests to Learn,” and “Tests Don’t Teach,” and many drivers-by honked their agreement. The group held their own People’s Education Summit, to talk about future ideas and plans. Suggestions included additional protests, regular meetings of those in the New York City and tri-state area opposed to the testing, and national and local email listserves.
More information about the opposition to standardized tests can be found at the Students Against Testing site www.NoMoreTests.com, and the Fair Test site www.FairTest.org.
“Unless we understand the nature of the national system that is driving state education systems, no movement to stop the transformation of our nation's public and nonpublic schools into job training and indoctrination centers can hope to be successful.”
I teach in Canada and the grip is tightening here in Ontario as well. I was in England, and the same thing. If you go into web sites for states, Canadian provinces or the British National Curriculum you find disturbing similarities.
The same basic organizational and assessment structures, the same language and phrases. And most frightening of all, the same anonymity of background, research and people. In Ontario our curriculum documents are nameless - no references, no one to engage in debate or criticize.
Now this stuff, control driven, often surveillance rather that assessment driven, has to have roots. So where is the university, where are the educators, where is the business management school where the original policy papers for all of this educational ideology hatched before it was chosen by central control freaks (who obviously knew a good stranglehold when they tripped upon one)?
And it is a structural ideology. Control ideology first and foremost. Oh, local groups of teachers are asked if they want the solar system instead of liquids in grade 5 science - but that's a sham, a fake tip of the hat for involvement. Because whatever is allowed to be chosen is then dropped into this overriding structure and it is the structure that is molding children and shaping society. And no one is made to defend it on educational, child developmental or any other grounds. It is a power bulldozer sweeping true education away. I would propose that the aim is to produce consumer-worker warriors for the GNP wars, in the same way former children were molded for trench warfare.
These people need to be stopped but they have cleverly made themselves invisible. It is Kafkaesque (an over used term, but appropriate here). Those who have fashioned this attack on children and democracy have the whole western industrial world in their educational grip and it is now spreading beyond that.
Since it is anonymous it has been able to avoid most activist organizations and protests. And how will the world change unless the education system is freed up? So much for WTO and IMF protests - because those organizations flourish after the fact, after the education of the public. Activists should be protesting at the gates of the Ministries of Education to make education a truly liberating and democratic experience - because it is a truly free and democratic citizenry that those in control don't want. Such citizens would be the most likely to bring organizations such as the WTO and IMF under proper balanced control.
And no conspiracy theories here, just crafty planning by a lot of like-minded movers and shakers who know that control is essential to their visions of the world.
It is a fundamental fight that must be, first of all, exposed, defined properly to the public, and won.
Leonard Turton
Eureka! It’s Adamsky! The scope of recent changes in Russian education is hard to comprehend. Here is the story of one of Russia’s leading exponents of change. The following text comes from an interview with Alexander Adamsky by Jerry Mintz while in Russia this last summer.
In Russia even the name is not so easy. Most people call me Alexander Adamsky, but in Russia your last name is usually related to your father’s name, so my last name, in that case, would be Izotovich because my father’s name was Izot, the Russian version of Israel. You might then realize that I am Jewish. Previously it was a big problem in Russia to be Jewish. For example, when I was in university in 1972 it was almost impossible to study at an important university or department. Now it is not as big a problem, but there is still a trace of it. For example, when I started my television show, an editor said, “Again a Jewish face on the screen.”
My work now has several different facets. One of them is as Chancellor of Eureka Institute of Educational Policy. We organize and support the movement of innovative education, mostly in Russia. We support educational initiatives from teachers, students, parents, administrations, politicians, etc. We find logistical support, financial support, etc. We do teacher training for teachers who would like to create educational alternatives, mostly in state schools. We now have about 1000 schools in our general network, with 595 schools in our Eureka Federal Experimental Site Program. These schools are recognized by the Ministry of Education, and are given a special certificate and much more freedom. We have about 200 more who have applied to join the network.
It has been difficult to establish this program. We started in 1986. At that time we organized Eureka pedagogical clubs. This was in the Communist era, and it was unusual for people to organize for themselves without permission. We have an annual event called Eureka Author’s Schools. In a way, what we mean by “author’s schools” is alternative education. In 1997, after ten years, we signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education. We find the schools and help them to develop, then the Ministry gives them certificates.
From my point of view the most important aspect of these schools is diversity. But there must be freedom for children, no violence from teachers, a non-authoritarian approach, self-determination on the part of the students. I believe the school should be a model of an open society. This movement is growing. Now we want to work on the development of content and structure of an alternative curriculum.
Last year the Russian Duma voted to give us ten million dollars, but the Duma can not determine how the Ministry of Education spends its funds, so after a fight we got one and a half million.
I am also one of the members of the editorial board of the First of September Newspaper. This paper comes out twice a week and goes to 250,000 subscribers all over Russia. I write a front-page editorial in each issue, as well as edit a supplement for educational restructuring of schools. I believe these publications are having a big influence for change in Russian education. I feel it when I visit these schools and programs. I also have a private consulting program and sometimes travel to Israel, England, and the USA.
I see alternative education and the standardization movements as working in opposite directions. Initiative is necessary to establish alternative education, or in fact, all education needs initiative for development. On the other hand, standardization limits initiative. I believe we have to come to some kind of agreement between society and the state in order for initiative to be encouraged again. We have actually put such a proposal to Putin in order to try to find a balance between a strong influence from the top, and grassroots approaches. Alexander Adamsky Eureka@online.ru
A Democratic Youth Forum Speaks Its Mind
Jerry Mintz
At the recent Spirit of Learning conference in Hawaii (see Being There), in addition to delivering one of the conference keynotes, I had the responsibility of organizing the Youth Forum through a democratic process. The forum ultimately consisted of 18 children from 9 to 19 years old, from a variety of geographic and ethnic backgrounds, publicly educated and homeschooled. It was one of the most challenging tasks I have ever faced, and one of the most powerful events I have experienced. One of the challenges was the need to integrate up to 9 adults with the youth. They had been assigned to help out, and had a variety of roles and backgrounds.
The activities of the Youth Forum culminated in the group completely directing the final full day of the conference, including the delivery of two keynote presentations, and six workshops. During one of those presentations, a youth panel, it seemed as if every word they spoke was poetry, and many in the audience were in tears. They talked about their experiences with ageism, their love for their parents, their thoughts about the future, their greatest fears, etc. Afterward they did workshops on art, outdoor survival, acting, ageism, psychology, and unschooling.
The process for the students of planning the organization of that day was dynamic and tumultuous. Keynote ideas were discussed and rejected. They decided not to demonstrate the democratic process as one keynote, perhaps because they didn't want to be “observed,” but wanted a more direct interaction. The students used the democratic process to ask all of the adults to leave the planning process the day before their presentation.
They decided the first keynote would be a brief version of the “power shuffle,” in which the conference group would be asked basic questions about education and other matters by the students, and would physically cross a line to take one side or another on the question. There was no discussion until afterward. The second keynote was a stirring youth panel. As one of the girls said, “We were fired up!” Below are some quotes from the panel in reply to written and live questions from the audience:
Question: Could you survive going into public school if you had to?
Clay: (17) “I am one of the few here who has never gone to school. Recently I had an experience with a public school theater group at a high school here. I had reservations about how I was going to interact with a large group of high school teens. I soon learned that socially … I don’t want to sound boastful or anything, but it was never an issue. It was actually an insult to my intellect to indulge in the conversations that happened around the public school. What kind of clothes do you wear? What music do you listen to? What’s the point? Academically, well, I don’t think that’s the issue. I think that’s why we’re all here, because academics in the school system are ludicrous.”
Garrett: (19)“What do you mean by survive? Because I could be in school and going through the functions of the day and living and breathing; but is that 100% living? Is that being who you really are? I don’t mean to say that school is bad but the way in which it is run today, for me, is that really living? It’s surviving, but it’s not living. Being in a place where you can’t be who you really are and express yourself.”
Genevieve: (16) “I agree with that. I’m in public school and I feel totally just…squashed. I do not feel free to do what I really love. Everything is formatted, all about points and grades. The child is never considered. We get all the same assignments, the same stuff, and we’re not the same people. It doesn’t make any sense. If somebody said to me what do you want to do, what do you love to do, I would be ecstatic. It’s not that difficult to do, it’s pretty simple. You just have to be open to that option I think.”
Zack: (15) “I think it depends on the environment and how it affects you. I’m sure there are public schools that some do feel protected and open in. Saying public schools are all bad … the label public school is way too broad to answer a question like that.”
Nell: (15) “For me it depends on who you are as a person. Some people don’t have a good home life and don’t know who they are and the public school system doesn’t help there. But if at home you are encouraged to be who you are and you know who you are you can survive. It’s about who you are. If I went to public school … I don’t want to go to public school … but I know I would do fine. I know people who become passive and don’t know what their opinions are because they’ve become stifled. That makes me really sad.”
Question: Can you accept the love we are offering you?
Garrett: “If it is true love, and not just something you think we need.”
Nell: “Don’t give me rules, give me guidelines.”
Garrett: “I definitely had a different experience not being in school and part of that was to let me think out of the box and express myself. I still don’t know who I am but I do know where I stand on a lot of things.”
Question: What are your greatest fears?
Yashoda: (13) “One of the things I’m afraid of is not being accepted for who I am, but being judged by the way I dress, the way I walk, the way I wear my hair. Most people dress the way they dress, not because it’s the way they want to, but because it’s what they think other people like. They are so afraid of not being accepted that they will chop off all of their hair. They’ll get facial surgery so people will like them. They are so scared they won’t be accepted. It’s not totally conscious. But it’s not OK with me.”
Zack: “My biggest fear is becoming a puppet to society.”
Kyle: “My biggest fear is that one day growing up I will forget everything that I feel now and stand for and I will just become another one of those people wandering around the streets doing what everyone else does and doing it because it’s easier. Just because the path less taken is harder and longer and I just couldn’t stay the course because I wanted to take the easy way out.”
Zack: “I really challenge you to think and reflect on what we’re saying and please don’t just agree with everything we’re saying. Really think about it.”
Kyle: “It’s so annoying to be held back from your full potential because there’s just one rule that you can’t get past. And remember, sometimes you have to listen to us too!”
Zack: “Sometimes we do need to let go of hope. If a situation is so rundown, you just have to let go of it. Sometimes we definitely need to do that to move on.”
Clay: “I get my courage and my dreams from my freedom. If you’re told that you need to know what you’re going to do when you grow up, does that inspire you to go on and do it? It’s in the time that I have to think for myself that I become empowered.”
Nell: “Don’t just listen to me, be interested in what I have to say.”
Zack: “Ask us our ideals in any given situation because we’ll always have something important to say. It’s not what can you do, it’s what we can do; it’s going to take everyone to make a difference.”
Question: What did you think of the conference?
Dana: “One of the things that struck me about this conference is that there’s a lot of focus on spirituality here and that’s amazing and good. But it isn’t really seen as something that can be lived, we can’t just live as spiritual, soulful, amazing, incredible human beings, but instead we have to do all these weird candle-lighting smelly things. That’s not pure spirit; it’s all in what’s shared, what’s given. I would have done it more about living it.”
Leeni: (17, Hawaiian) “What you have had to say here is important. But after a while I felt like I was in a classroom again and being lectured to. I think you could have had more fun and learn at the same time. You were doing the same thing every day. To try to soak everything in is impossible. I had a lot of fun. I have fun no matter what. But we can also get sick of each other!”
Yashoda: “We’re not making you sit there, because we know how it feels. So you can just get up and dance for all I care. Just do what you want!”
Tor: “I would have put more emphasis on younger people, who are the ones who really need and want the educational system to be changed, not those who, by default of our society, are beyond the educational system.”
(This led to Tor’s 9-year-old sister, Chanterelle, making a comment from the audience, whereupon the students invited her to come to the stage and join their panel.)
Kyle: “I do appreciate you all coming together like this because I know it was for us, but I do think we would all have benefited more if we had been thrown together more like this and to express our opinions more because I don’t feel we’ve communicated enough about this issue.”
Zack: “Just focusing on spirituality, we miss something greater. It becomes not sacred but something that’s holding us back from the whole … and we need to look at the whole picture. Not education or spirituality … we need to look at it all.”
Question: What do you think is the most important thing to learn?
Nell: “The most important thing to learn is to be true to ourselves – to accept that we’re always changing.”
Sky: “Recognizing that you can never completely know yourself is an enormous part of knowing who you are.”
Question: Who are your heroes?
Leeni: “My hero is my mother. She has taught me so much about being honorable and how to have integrity. I love her so much.”
Question: Why didn’t people bring notebooks to the youth panel when we brought them to other presenters?
Morgan: (15) “That was a good observation. But for me personally, I’m really not concerned about it. I wouldn’t want 100 people coming in with notebooks. I’d rather have people looking, their eyes fixated on us and actually listening to us.”
Zack: “There may be boundaries but let us explore our own boundaries; let us have freedom and autonomy because that’s what we need.”
Audience comment: “I’m receiving you with my whole body and my heart. You got us laughing, crying, and moving, and I’m so grateful. I would like the next Spirit in Learning conference to be planned by you (students) and led by you.”
Audience comment: “I have three young grandchildren. I want to say to all of you on the stage: You have given me something to take home to them.”
Audience comment: “Take your spirit and what you have learned here and go out and change the world.”
Zack: “Take with you now what we’ve shared and don’t let it stop here. Keep listening, but treat us like equals too. We don’t just want to be heard. We need to hear from you also.”
Being ThereTravels With Jerry Mintz
October The Spirit of Learning in Hawaii I recently participated in the Spirit of Learning conference, on the Island of Kauai, in Hawaii. It was a follow-up to a similar conference last year at Findhorn, Scotland, and was organized by Jennifer Day. The setting was a campground with a many cabins, which was operated by a local private school, which was also on the grounds. We were able to use their gym, classrooms and cafeteria.
The weather was unlike anything I had experienced before. It was constantly alternating between clouds, sun and rain. The rain would come suddenly and last only minutes. Not far from us was the wettest place on earth, an old volcano at the center of the island which effectively scrapes all of the moisture out of the passing clouds. On the western side of the mountain was a desert. The island is about 40 miles across, with a road going around three quarters of it, stopped by big mountains and a mini-grand canyon. There are about 50-60,000 permanent residents. Tourism is the main industry, but there are still remnants of sugar and coffee plantations, fishing, etc. Lately there has been a serious effort to save the original Hawaiian culture and language, and this was showcased at the conference. One of the youth forum participants has gone to a Hawaiian language immersion school and has become expert at Hula and other cultural traditions.
At the conference we were also fortunate to have Yeou-Cheng Ma, a doctor and concert violinist, organizer of youth orchestras, and sister of Yo Yo Ma. We had many other interesting presenters, including Joseph Chilton Pearce, Chris Mercogliano of Albany’s Free school, Jack Miller, Linda Lantieri, Ba and Josette Luvmour, storyteller Lindamichellebaron, instructors and practitioners of traditional Hawaiian dance and song, just to name a few. A number of participants came from Britain and had been at last year’s original conference at Findhorn, in Scotland. Most of the people who planned to attend came despite the recent September 11 disaster. Those spiritual people are a hardy bunch!
Perhaps the most popular keynote was by Alan Watkins who did a presentation on "Heart Math." In his demonstration he showed how emotions effect heart rhythm and "coherence," and how that effects the way we function and learn, and how we can learn to control it.
After the conference I did a consultation for a week with local residents to help them create a homeschool resource center. Some of the students who had been in the youth forum helped out. We created the center and named it Keiki Hokulea. Keiki means “children.” Hokulea is a guiding star ancient Hawaiians used for navigation, thus, “Children’s guiding star.” The group met four times that week and organized a way of continuing into the future. A number of new people got involved through a local radio show (in which the students participated) and two public meetings.
Late July – Early August Landing in England
We arrived in England at eight in the morning, July 27th. Not long after that we were joined by Steven Sanford who had arrived earlier. We had introduced him to Summerhill on a trip four years earlier and he had subsequently gone to Summerill for two years. He had been traveling with his father around England and had gone to the Summerhill end of term party a couple of weeks earlier.
Life In the Cotswolds
We went on the train to Stroud from Paddington Station and were picked up by Popsy Lamb and got in at suppertime to the Lamb’s house, one of my favorite places in the world. Albert is doing several editing projects for AERO now.
On Tuesday we went to Avebury. This is perhaps the oldest stone circle in the world. It’s at least 5 or 6 thousand years old – older than Stonehenge. It was still a little difficult for me to walk (it turned out I had sustained a ruptured tendon before the trip) and at one point when I was coming down the road an earth-moving machine came racing down the road and I had to try to get to the side and I sort of fell over in order to get out of the way, right into some nettles! We had a little lunch and then we went off in search of crop circles. We found one not very far from Avebury and hiked up into it.
The next morning we had a meeting with some people who want to try to start an alternative school in Stroud. The meeting was pretty low key. There were a few parents there and a couple of kids. They have had a bigger group involved in organizing this but some people have gotten cold feet. People with the older kids have broken off and may do a little homeschool group. So what they’re left with is parents of about 10 preschool kids and they’re renting this space that’s part of a youth center, and they have a little outside space too. They’re planning to start this year.
I told them that maybe this was for the best – it’s better that they all kind of be on the same page. I also suggested to them that it might not be the best thing to do it as a parents cooperative. But there seems to be one main leader and I think that leader should be empowered to make some decisions for the group as a director. We talked for about an hour and a half and we’ll keep in touch with them.
Home Education in England Albert put us on the train to Birmingham. Mike Fortune-Wood picked us up and brought us to his house. Three of the kids were there, and his wife Jan. Jan is a vicar or priest for the Church of England,
Mike has a major website for English home education (www.home-education.org.uk ) and he estimates that there are something like 50,000 home-educated children in England now.
Summerhill’s 80th Reunion It was raining when we got to Saxmundham on the train and called Miller’s Taxi. John Miller brought Peter Christopher, Stephen Sanford and I to Leiston and Summerhill. They had a room reserved for us upstairs in the main house. During the entire time, in true Summerhill style, there wasn’t much scheduled. They figured the former Summerhillians would bring their own agenda. It was mostly former Summerhill people meeting each other. I was surprised at how many people I knew. I think there were about 100 people who came and I knew at least 60 of them. I’d met them either as former students, current
The next morning Zoe gave me the key to the stable where the ping-pong table was locked up and said I could set that up for people. There was a fair amount of ping-pong during the reunion. One of the kids I taught is the son of two people from France; his name is Gaetan. His father’s name is Russell and his mother’s last name is Bernard. She’s French, he’s English. I remember her younger brother, Olivier, who was a Summerhill student a few years ago. At one time they were talking about starting a school in Lyons, France, but even though they had land they were never able to get it going. (Gaetan has since decided to go to Summerhill and has changed his name to Jake).
On the Saturday there was a wonderful presentation by Zoë and her husband Tony about the fight that they had been in last year to keep the school going and not be closed by the government. They described just how they had gone about doing that, how they impressed the judges, how they brought the kids to the House of Commons to demonstrate a meeting, and how they marched on 10 Downing Street.
In the evening there was some great music with Albert and a whole lot of other former pupils and one older woman by the name of Dahpne Olliver, playing the trombone, who had been housemother to the rest of the band at Summerhill when they all were young children. It was neat, with people from the various generations playing a lot of nice old music, jazz and standards, and so on. This was Albert and Popsy’s first time back to Summerhill for three years. There was a long toast by Hilda Sims, who is a former student, to A.S. Neill, and another long toast by Albert to Ena Neill.
Michael Newman is a staff member who is doing a lot of outreach work. In the next few months he’ll be working with state schools helping them with democratic processes and also he is going to be working with people to try to get the study of Summerhill and democratic education into the standard curriculum. I talked to Hilda Sims who has a new novel that features a school like Summerhill. She gave me another novel, with an educational theme, that was just written by David Gribble - one of the founders of Sands School. I met an 87-year-old man who had been at Summerhill in the 1920s and I spent a lot of time with younger ex-Summerhillians that I have known over the years.
At her meeting Zoë talked about how the state wanted to withdraw its complaints against the school and in some ways Zoë hesitated to go along with their deal because the school hadn’t really used all their ammunition – the huge files that they had built up for defending the school. One of the things I pointed out, that I learned from Saul Alinski (the great civil rights organizer) was that some of his best ploys were ones that he never had to use. In this case, the government will never exactly know what Summerhill had up its sleeve if they had continued the case and they may be less likely to mess with them in the future.
A Russian Alternative Education Newspaper
We were met at the Moscow airport by Artiom Solivitchek. I knew his father Simon who was the founder of the First of September newspaper, which is a newspaper for alternative education in Russia. Simon took us into his office in Moscow and gave us a tour of the offices. I was pretty dumbfounded.
This newspaper has a circulation of about 250,000. That’s their regular newspaper, which comes out twice a week with 8 pages. Then they have 21 supplements that come out every two weeks. They’re each 16 pages long and in 21 different specialty areas, but all of them with an alternative slant. Those specialty area publications have a circulation of about 10 or 15,000 each. They cover everything from chemistry, physics, psychology, counseling, to geography. Each supplement has an office and arranges for teachers to contribute to them. Virtually every school in the country is a subscriber.
Artiom Solivitachek recently traveled around Russia and went to different schools and found that they all had some subscriptions to the paper. He said that he writes checks for about 1,000 people, including all the contributing editors. They also have a book publishing business, where everything is done extremely inexpensively.
They sold something like 2 million of them last year. These are books that written by teachers with alternative and innovative methods. They also have a website in which they put all of their regular publications and a couple of their specialty ones. He’s convinced that this does nothing but increase the circulation. They have some advertising on the website and some in the magazines. But they make a profit.
Artiom told us a lot of his life story. Of course he grew up with his father, a fairly famous writer and educator. But he did terribly in school, went into the Navy for a few years, and wound up going to university after that, studying psychology. He eventually went back to the US, where he had studied, and taught at Lesley College for about 8 years. They have a sort of extension program where people form small groups all over the country - if they can get 20 people, the program can run a course that is accredited by Lesley College.
It turns out he made a lot of his money in the United States as a storyteller when he first got there, traveling around with a famous storyteller. After that he did workshops and courses on storytelling for Lesley College. At one point he was even flying back to the States to do two weekends out of the month. He is just an amazingly entrepreneurial guy.
He came back to Russia in the early 90’s because his father needed his help at the newspaper. He thought it would be just for a short time but his father died in 1993. At the time he had some very successful businesses going in the US. His whole orientation actually was more business. When his father died, he decided to try to stay on for a few years to keep it going and build it up and he has done an amazing job of it.
A Russian Alternative Education Newspaper My traveling companions, Steven Sanford and Peter Christopher, and I were met at the Moscow airport by Artiom Solivitchek. I knew his father Simon who was the founder of the First of September newspaper, which is a newspaper for alternative education in Russia. Simon took us into his office in Moscow and gave us a tour of the offices. I was pretty dumbfounded.
This newspaper has a circulation of about 250,000. That’s their regular newspaper, which comes out twice a week with 8 pages. Then they have 21 supplements that come out every two weeks. They’re each 16 pages long and in 21 different specialty areas, but all of them with an alternative slant. Those specialty area publications have a circulation of about 10 or 15,000 each. They cover everything from chemistry, physics, psychology, counseling, to geography. Each supplement has an office and arranges for teachers to contribute to them. Virtually every school in the country is a subscriber.
Artiom Solivitachek recently traveled around Russia and went to different schools and found that they all had some subscriptions to the paper. He said that he writes checks for about 1,000 people, including all the contributing editors. They also have a book publishing business, where everything is done extremely inexpensively.
They sold something like 2 million of them last year. These are books that written by teachers with alternative and innovative methods. They also have a website in which they put all of their regular publications and a couple of their specialty ones. He’s convinced that this does nothing but increase the circulation. They have some advertising on the website and some in the magazines. But they make a profit.
Artiom told us a lot of his life story. Of course he grew up with his father, a fairly famous writer and educator. But he did terribly in school, went into the Navy for a few years, and wound up going to university after that, studying psychology. He eventually went back to the US, where he had studied, and taught at Lesley College for about 8 years. They have a sort of extension program where people form small groups all over the country - if they can get 20 people, the program can run a course that is accredited by Lesley College.
It turns out he made a lot of his money in the United States as a storyteller when he first got there, traveling around with a famous storyteller. After that he did workshops and courses on storytelling for Lesley College. At one point he was even flying back to the States to do two weekends out of the month. He is just an amazingly entrepreneurial guy.
He came back to Russia in the early 90’s because his father needed his help at the newspaper. He thought it would be just for a short time but his father died in 1993. At the time he had some very successful businesses going in the US. His whole orientation actually was more business. When his father died, he decided to try to stay on for a few years to keep it going and build it up and he has done an amazing job of it.
From Moscow to the RiverArtiom Solivitchek took Steven Sanford and Peter Christopher and I on a little tour of Moscow and again I was amazed to see how vibrant the city is and how much it has changed from the dull, drab city it was even five years ago. There are all kinds of construction and reconstruction projects and exciting things being built everywhere. He says the same is true in other places and it’s really a boom area and whatever you want to start a business in, you can make money. He said one of his friends took over a couple of little factories that were doing nothing and is making more money than he ever dreamed of. So it seems we’re being given a somewhat inaccurate impression in the US of what’s going on in Russia. He also said that education is doing well and that there are many innovative schools now that are taking the ideas of Tubelsky and others, and things they read in First of September, and making them work.
We had to get up at 5:00 in the morning as the boat was now about 200 kilometers away. Artiom Solivitchek’s driver took us there. We drove for about three hours and we got to the boat. We had a little problem figuring out how to get our stuff down to it because there wasn’t a road right down to the dock. We hadn’t even unpacked my bags from the car when they had me joining a presentation of teachers at this first town. They weren’t planning to do a presentation there but the local teachers wanted to hear about what the First of September was doing and what our group was doing. I talked a little about what AERO does and other people made presentations but we had to pull out of there early to start getting our baggage down to the boat.
10th Anniversary Conference There was a little hassle on the boat at first but eventually we got a room for the three of us. Pretty soon we were off on the river. There were about 90 people on the boat who were part of the floating conference, to celebrate the Festival of New Schools of the Soviet Union ten years ago, and then there were maybe another 30 people who were just tourists. It turns out that very few of the participants brought students.
AERO raised funds for seven students. One is a current Stork student. That’s Oleg’s grandchild. There are |