Education Revolution

The Magazine of Alternative Education

417 Roslyn Road, Roslyn Heights, NY 11577

ISSN#: 110679219

Phone: 516-621-2195 / 800-769-4171

Fax: 516-625-3257

Email:  info@educationrevolution.org

Web Site: http://www.educationrevolution.org

Executive Director: Jerry Mintz

Director of Research and Development: Dana Bennis

Education Revolution Editor: Albert Lamb

Mail and Communications Editor: Carol Morley

Printer: Brenneman Printing Inc., Lancaster, PA

AERO 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, Dave Lehman, Mary Leue, Ron Miller, Ann Peery, John Potter, Mary Anne Raywid, John Scott, Tim Seldin, Elina Sheppel, Andy Smallman, Nick Stanton, Corinne Steele, Tom Williams     

The mission of The Education Revolution magazine is based on that of the Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO):  “Building the critical mass for the education revolution by providing resources which support self-determination in learning and the natural genius in everyone.”  Towards this end, this magazine includes the latest news and communications regarding the broad spectrum of educational alternatives:  public alternatives, independent and private alternatives, home education, international alternatives, and more.  The common feature in all these educational options is that they are learner-centered, focused on the interest of the child rather than on an arbitrary curriculum. 

AERO, which produces this magazine quarterly, is firmly established as a leader in the field of educational alternatives.  Founded in 1989 in an effort to promote learner-centered education and influence change in the education system, AERO is an arm of the School of Living, a non-profit organization.  AERO provides information, resources and guidance to students, parents, schools and organizations regarding their educational choices.

Welcome to the Education Revolution!

And welcome to our Double Issue for the summer. AERO is joining in with democratic schools around the world to host a special conference in upstate New York this July and you will probably feel our growing excitement as you look within these pages. 

I hope we’ll see many of you there!

Albert

A Word From Jerry:

On the afternoon of Friday, February 23rd I got a phone call, out of the blue, asking me if I would be able to come on the Hannity and Colmes Show on the Fox News Network to talk about a proposal to do away with valedictorians in schools. It seems that they had found my name in an old experts book, and looked at our website. They said they would send a limo to pick me up.

It was only later that I found out that the Fox News Network now has twice the viewership of CNN, and that Hannity and Colmes is one of their top rated shows, with three or four million watching.

I ran out and got a haircut. The woman who cuts my hair two or three times a year laughed that the only time I go there is when I’m going to be on TV.

The limo came, took me to the studio in New York, and they brought me to the Green Room to get ready. I briefly said hello to Hannity and to Colmes as they went through to makeup. Then it was my turn.

This is a “left wing/right wing” show, with Hannity on the right on Colmes on the left. I was warned that Hannity could be pretty rough. I knew I’d only have a few minutes. I hoped to get in as much as I could.

I waited through most of the show in the Green Room.. I was afraid I’d be preempted by Iraq news, or news of the Rhode Island club fire. They put me at the end.

After I was seated between them and the microphone hooked up, before we were on the air, Hannity looked at his notes, looked at me and said, “Oh! A liberal!”

I shot back, “You’ll have a lot of trouble figuring out just what I am!”

Then we were on the air. It didn’t take me too long to shift from the basic topic to the general concept that education should not be a competition. I pointed out than when someone goes to the library they do not sit them down, test and rank them on the way out. That’s not the purpose of the library. It isn’t competitive. The same should be true of schools.

“So, you are against all competition. I suppose you don’t think they should keep score in soccer games!” they both said.

One the contrary, I replied, “In fact I’m taking a group of students tomorrow to a ping pong tournament!”

At that point, a fellow member of my table tennis club, Dan Green, told me later: “I was watching my favorite TV show, Hannity and Colmes and reading a book. Suddenly someone on the show said “ping pong!” I looked up and it was you!

During the break Hannity said he was just he could beat me in ping pong. Then he asked a bit about my level of competition. “Oh,” he said. “Well, maybe not.”

After the break I went further into descriptions of democratic education, mentioned the International Democratic Education Conference, and talked about the virtues of homeschooling. Now Hannity was really disarmed and at one point wound up defending me to Colmes!

The whole segment was perhaps seven or eight minutes. At the very end they let me get in a mention of our website.

Afterward the producer said she was very happy with the segment and would be happy to have me back some time.

The limo driver was waiting for me outside. He said that he hadn’t heard the show, but could see the TV show in the windows from the limo. He said he could tell from the body language that I had done very well. Clearly I had held my own.

In the next 24 hours we received 3500 hits on our website and a lot of email. Some of the first email was nasty, but most of the emails were from distraught parents who hadn’t realized they have educational options.

JerryAERO@aol.com

IDEC 2003

Troy NY July 16 -24

The central themes for IDEC 2003 are to challenge the high stakes testing movement, discuss democratic schooling, and learn about the approaches taken by educational alternatives throughout the United States and the world. 

IDEC 2003 unites those from diverse  areas of education, such as democratic  schools, public alternatives, private alternatives, international schools, charter schools, homeschooling, holistic approaches  to education, and more.  What these educators share is a caring approach towards children that respects their interests and opinions.

The IDEC will include students and teachers from both industrialized countries and the third world. For example, we will have groups from an orphanage in Nepal, from The School of Self-determination in Russia, from democratic schools in Australia and New Zealand, from the Stork Family School in Ukraine, from the Naleb School in Guatemala, from many democratic schools in the United States, from a new school in Finland, from the Rogers School in Hungary, and street kids traveling with an organization in India.

The goal of IDEC 2003, www.IDEC2003.com

is to gather a critical mass of people deter-mined to push the momentum of education in a different direction, towards an approach based on respect, equality and democracy.

The 2003 International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) will be held at Russell Sage College in Troy, New York from July 16-24.  This will be the first IDEC in the United States in the 10-year history of the conference. The conference is being hosted by The Albany Free School in association with AERO, and the organizers include Free School teachers, students, graduates, parents, and AERO staff.

Although there is much focus on standardization, there is also good reason for hope. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation and the Annenberg Institute, among other foundations, have provided funds for the creation of small, innovative schools. The number of democratic schools in the U.S. and throughout the world is growing each year. Furthermore, research from the U.S., England and Japan shows that students from democratic schools are academically and socially as well off or more so than those from conventional schools.  Some of that important investigation, carried out by such researchers as Derry Hannam of England and Yoshi Nagata of Japan, will be available at the 2003 IDEC conference.

Everyone who attends IDEC 2003, students and adults, can put items on the conference schedule.  This open scheduling format has been used at IDECs since the 1997 conference at Sands School in England, which was completely organized by two Sands School students.  The goal of this format is to insure that the conference is relevant and interesting to all attendees, and to give each individual a say in what goes on at the conference.  This is a similar approach taken by many of the democratic schools throughout the world in their day-to-day practices.  There will be a large conference schedule posted prominently, on which attendees can add a workshop, presentation, game, or other activity.

Another characteristic of the IDEC that distinguishes it from other conferences is that it is just as much for students as it is for adults.  Just as democratic schools involve both students and staff working together, the IDEC often has as many students in attendance as adults.  Present students and graduates of The Free School are involved in the organization of the conference.  Isaac Graves, a 15-year old graduate, designed the conference website, www.idec2003.com and coordinated the 2002 and 2003 Free School IDEC Magazines, with help from many present Free School students. The students have brainstormed many ideas of activities that youth in particular may enjoy at the conference, in addition to those activities and workshops in which both students and adults will be interested.  You can see those ideas on the website.

As of early May, students and/or teachers from 35 democratic or alternative schools are registered for IDEC 2003, including those from 20 countries and 25 U.S. states.  Much of our energy in organizing this conference has been fundraising to help those from third world and low income schools get to the conference. We have raised some funds through small foundations and individual donations, but are still hard at work to help as many students and teachers as we can. We are also talking with airlines about possible ticket donations or discounts.

While there will be a great deal of open scheduling throughout the conference, there will also be a handful of pre-set events and speakers. Some speakers include John Taylor Gatto (author of Dumbing Us Down), Ron Miller (author of What Are Schools For?), Bill Ayers (author of To Teach), Zoe Readhead (principal of Summerhill School), Yaacov Hecht (Director of Israel’s Institute for Democratic Education), Pat Montgomery (Founder and Director of Clonlara School and Home Education Center), Monty Neill (director of FairTest), Susan Ohanian (author of One Size Fits Few), Mikael and Susan Klonsky (director of the Small Schools Workshop), Dave Lehman (principal of Alternative Community School), and Matt Hern (editor of Deschooling Our Lives).  Panel discussions will include such topics as school decision-making practices, how to challenge the tests, students’ views on education, authentic assessment, teaching and social justice, and creating a democratic school. 

Additional highlights of IDEC 2003 include film showings featuring the premier of a documentary about The Albany Free School, a new Summerhill film, a documentary on the New Orleans Free School, and a movie trailer based on John Taylor Gatto’s recent book, Underground History of American Education. 

Another exciting event is the “Innovative College and School Fair.” We are gathering alternative and experiential colleges from around the country to display their programs for the students, parents, and teachers of democratic schools.  The democratic schools will also set up displays about their programs – a perfect match! 

Evenings will involve more social activities such as a talent show, dancing, and musical entertainment.  The warm weather should allow us to take advantage of the fields on location at Russell Sage College.  Additionally, we are planning excursions to Albany, the Albany Free School, and the beautiful land 30 minutes away in Grafton, NY that is owned by The Albany Free School.

For more conference information, conference flyers (which you can post freely!) and to register, you can go to the conference website at www.idec2003.com, or contact us at info@idec2003.com or by phone at (518) 928-1234 or (800) 769-4171.  We hope to see you in July.                                 Dana Bennis

What’s An IDEC?

The IDEC (the International Democratic Education Conference)  is an annual gathering of educators and students from across the US and around the world involved with or interested in democratic education. Previous conferences have been hosted in several different countries including Japan, Israel, England, Japan, and New Zealand. 

IDEC began in 1993, when teachers and students from democratic schools found themselves at a large conference in Jerusalem, Israel called “Education for Democracy in a Multi-cultural Society.” The participants were mostly philosophers, professors and politicians, and the teachers and students hardly had any opportunity to contribute. A small group of teachers and students was invited to the Democratic School of Hadera, a democratic school with 200 students, for two days after the big conference. The discussions were so stimulating that it was agreed to meet annually. For the first four years it was known as the Hadera Conference before being officially dubbed “IDEC” by the student organizers at the 1997 meeting at Sands School. 

IDECs reflect the approach chosen by the numerous democratic schools around the world. At these schools, the realization of equal human rights for all members is their “standard of achievement.” Staff work with each student individually, and students and teachers have the opportunity to be involved in the decision-making process of the school. Democratic schools are usually no more than 200 students in size to insure that each student’s voice is heard.

Although IDEC exists mainly as an annual conference, the attendees have been active in promoting democratic education. AERO, partnering host for IDEC 2003, directs an email listserve for those who have attended or are interested in IDEC.  Two hundred teachers and students from around the world are on this list, which helps to network the schools between conferences.  To be added to the list, email Jerry Mintz at jerryaero@aol.com.  AERO also features an IDEC section on its website, www.educationrevolution.org, including articles on the conference and democratic education, conference videos, and a listing of democratic schools worldwide.

Attendees have also helped to establish the International Democratic Education Net (IDEN) as a resource for those involved with IDEC.  IDEN maintains a members list and puts out an email newsletter.  The website for IDEN is http://www.idenetwork.org, run by David Gribble from England. 

At IDEC 2002 in New Zealand attendees initiated a Student Exchange program. This program is designed so that students from democratic schools can spend time at similar schools around the world.  An email listserve for this program is up and running. If you would like to be included on the list, email Isaac Graves at nomoretests@earthlink. net. It is hoped that this program can be expanded at IDEC 2003.

Previous IDECs

·      2002 Tamariki School, New Zealand

·      2001 Institute of Democratic Education, Israel

·      2000 Tokyo Shure, Japan

·      1999 Summerhill School, England

·      1998 Stork Family School, Ukraine

·      1997 Sands School, UK

·      1996 Democratic School of Hadera, Israel

·      1995 The WUK, Austria

·      1994 Sands School, UK

·      1993 Democratic School of Hadera, Israel

The countries that have been represented at IDECs include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Philippines, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, UK, Ukraine and US.                            

A HARSH AGENDA

Paul Wellstone

Far from improving education, high stakes testing marks a major retreat from fairness, from accuracy, from quality and from equity.

First and foremost, I firmly believe that it is grossly unfair to not graduate, or to hold back a student based on a standardized test if that student has not had the opportunity to learn the material covered on the test. When we impose high stakes tests on an educational system where there are, as Jonathan Kozol says, savage inequalities, and then we do nothing to address the underlying causes of those inequalities, we set up children to fail. Research on high school dropouts indicates that students who do not graduate are more likely to be unemployed or hold positions with little or no career advancement, earn lower wages and be on public assistance. 

The effects of high stakes testing go beyond their impact on individual students to greatly impact the educational process in general.  They have had a deadening effect on learning. Again, research proves this point.  Studies indicate that public testing encourages teachers and administrators to focus instruction on test content, test format and test preparation. Teachers tend to overemphasize the basic skills, and underemphasize problem-solving and complex thinking skills that are not well assessed on standardized tests.  Further, they neglect content areas that are not covered such as science, social studies and the arts.

High stakes tests are part of an agenda that has been sweeping the nation.  People use words like ‘accountability’ and ‘responsibility’ when they talk about high stakes tests, but what they are being is anything but accountable or responsible. They do not see beyond their words to the harsh reality that underlies them and the harsh agenda that they are imposing on teachers, parents and most of all students.

It’s Happening

All Over the World!

Conventional education violates children’s originality instead of nurturing it

David Gribble

A new understanding of education is beginning to emerge from a hundred different sources in dozens of different cultures. I know of schools in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Holland, Israel and Japan - and that’s just the beginning of the alphabet. I have also visited or communicated with free schools in New Zealand, Australia, India, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States, and I have heard of many more in other countries.

It has been good to see Summerhill getting a positive response from the media. Even The Times carried a supportive article by Libby Purves on 13th December. However, it has become plain that many of those who are in sympathy with Summerhillian ideas still believe Summerhill to be unique.

In fact there are scores of schools all over the world with similar ideals, and some of them offer different freedoms to Summerhill, and some of them work in tougher social conditions.

Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, USA, for instance, with two hundred students between the ages of four and twenty, has no timetable of lessons at all. Children who want to learn to read or to study chemistry do it on their own or with friends, or find a staff member who is willing to help them. More than half of the students who have spent all their school years there have gone on to get university degrees. Many other children, who had suffered humiliation and failure at other schools, have recovered their self-respect at Sudbury and gone on to lead happy and purposeful lives.

At the Fundacion Educativa Pestalozzi in Ecuador, staff have to accept that instructing, pointing out, motivating, persuading and anticipating are not adequate interactions between an adult and a child. Children are allowed absolute freedom of choice within a carefully prepared environment. The school provides no lessons, and if parents are discovered arranging lessons for their children after school they are told to take their children away.

At Bramblewood, a country community in the USA, children live with their families or on their own as they choose, and arrange lessons with adults, singly or in groups when they feel they want to.

I have been to all these places and everywhere I have met relaxed, confident, friendly young people concerned about each other’s welfare and the welfare of the world in general. I have also seen some remarkable examples of academic success, but in most places that seems to me to be of secondary importance.

At Sumavanam, though, in Andhra Pradesh in southern India, success in examinations is the children’s prime objective. The school is in a poor rural area where poverty means a one-room mud house with no furniture and the threat of starvation. Children come to the school when they are able to walk there on their own. Even the very youngest come to school to learn, so that they may pass exams and escape from the poverty that surrounds them. The teachers treat the children with kindness and respect and in break times they play with radiant freedom, but lesson times are serious. All the children work independently at their own level, and they help each other as a matter of course.

At Sumavanam the education is free; none of the children’s parents have any money. The same is true at Moo Ban Dek, which follows a Summerhillian pattern enhanced by Buddhist principles. Children who have had to beg for food in the city live together in peace and security.

I could write about a dozen more schools, each different in its way but each demonstrating that children’s self-respect guides them more effectively than adult authority. Adults can be appallingly unimaginative - how could anyone seriously put forward the idea that every child in this country needs to cover the same curriculum? - and children are innovative and individual. Schoolteachers and governments tend to strive to keep the world the same, and to keep it under control: children want to change the world and make it free.

In the west it is usually only children who have failed in conventional education who are allowed the experience of freedom at school. Parents who have the money can send them to Summerhill or Sudbury Valley, but children whose parents have no money only get the chance if they live in an area where there is a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) like the Oakley Project in Surrey. Liz Noble and Helen Nelson who run it, work on the principle that “if the self-esteem of the individual is enhanced then the unwanted behavior pattern will cease” The system works, but the authorities cannot believe it; they insist on sending the staff on courses in physical restraint.

Physical restraint is of course inevitable in the end if you want to run your school like a dictatorship. Those with ideas of their own have to be controlled by force.

Conventional education violates children’s originality instead of nurturing it. It is only when they behave badly enough to be sent to a PRU like Oakley that at last they are respected for their ability to think for themselves.

Summerhill shows that children develop when they are not forced to conform; Sudbury Valley shows that children learn when they are not taught; Sumavanam shows that children may strive for conventional objectives when they see a purpose behind them; Oakley shows that children can redeem themselves when they are given the chance. I worked for five years at Sands School in Ashburton, Devon, which also demonstrated these truths. I used to think that it was the only school in the world, apart from Summerhill, that was taking children seriously. Since retiring five years ago I have been around the world and seen how wrong I was.

There are state schools, private schools and schools dependent on charity; there are boarding schools and day schools, schools for rejects and schools which select their pupils with care, schools with rules and without rules, with punishments and without punishments, with lessons and without lessons, each schools with an individual way of sharing the responsibility for its affairs. What unites them is the understanding that children need freedom to think for themselves if they are not to lose their natural eagerness, sociability, curiosity and self-respect. It happened early this century with Ferrer in Spain, it happened in the early ‘30s with Summerhill and Dartington Hall in Britain, and it is happening now all over the world. Surely this time the message must get through.

Being There

With Jerry Mintz

On The Bounce

We’re now in the third year of our experiment with setting up a democratically run table tennis club within a local Boys and Girl’s club.

I should make it clear that this was not originally done as an experiment or demonstration of anything. I was a volunteer table tennis teacher at the Club because I love the game and love to teach it. When I was overwhelmed by interest from younger players, I instinctively went to the democratic process as an organizational tool.

There are two elements which this process tests and demonstrates: The first deals with the question of whether a mixture of public school students aged 7-12 could learn to effectively use the democratic process in a very limited situation, although they continue to be public school students.

The second element deals with something I have often asserted about unschooling and democratic schools—that if students follow their interest and study anything passionately and in depth, it ultimately broadens out to connect to a spectrum of learning, because all information ultimately connects. So in this case the question was, how far could a ping pong program at a Boys and Girls Club go educationally?

One first question to answer is just how motivated were these students, and why? I think that part of the motivation was that each student received individual attention. Each was treated with respect and got to choose what aspect of the game they wanted to work on. This may have been something that did not happen elsewhere in their lives.

How motivated were they? One day when I came in on a different day from my usual volunteer time, I walked down the sidewalk, past a baseball game, toward the Club. As I got out of view I heard someone yell my name. By the time I got inside the door to the Club, the baseball game had emptied out and the students were lined up to sign up for table tennis lessons. When I asked former US Association of Table Tennis President Ben Nisbet where else this phenomenon might happen he said, “China?”

Another key was the democratic process. When I first started the democratic meetings, the kids acted as if it was something like a public school class: talking, not paying attention, and so on. Eventually, as they began to realize that every decision they made was implemented as the decision for the club, they got more and more serious about the meetings and wanted to make sure that they were in them and that their votes counted.

One event involved their questioning the work ethic of two of their elected supervisors. This led to them electing, for one week, temporary assistant supervisors who would take their places. The supervisor’s job is to take responsibility for the Challenge Ladder and make the changes that need to be made, resolve any disputes and referee any matches where people seemed to have some problem, and basically keep the program going smoothly. The idea was that the temporary supervisors might become permanent, and the others might be removed, depending upon how it went. It was to be decided at the next meeting.

The kids felt that two of the more recently elected supervisors were doing a good job but two of the ones that had been in longer weren’t doing as good a job. In fact, there was one issue, to do with one of them, that had come up in which the number one player was saying that he would accept a challenge if people would basically give him a bribe, in other words give him some food or money. That was brought up in a meeting and it was voted that this was not allowed; they didn’t make it retroactive because it hadn’t been a rule before.

At one of the meetings there was a discussion about a new rule we made that you had to accept two challenges a day, which was raised from one. The question was whom you’d have to accept as challengers.

They were trying to put in a rule that you could choose whom you wanted to accept - because any of the people six places away from you could challenge you.  That was voted on and passed. There were two dissenters: one student who was afraid that his challenges wouldn’t be accepted, and myself. According to our democratic system we asked the minority to say, if they wanted to, why they voted against the proposal. I said I felt this would possibly create a situation in which certain kids could be effectively excluded from being able to make challenges because as soon as they challenged somebody, that person could try to get someone else to challenge them and then play that match. Then we had a re-vote and they unanimously changed it, deciding that you have to accept the first challenge and other challenges in the order that they are made.

An 8-year-old student, who was elected as an Assistant Supervisor, was recently given a warning by the meeting for “abuse of power” when he threatened to put someone at the bottom of the ladder if he didn’t accept his challenge. I wish some of our elected officials could have such an experience.

One day I got a call from one of the students who thought that I should be informed about an incident that happened that day. It really felt just like the kind of call that I would get from another staff member when I was running my school. He told me that one of the supervisors had made an error in judgment in which there was a conflicting challenge going on between and 8-year-old and a 9-year-old. The 9-year-old was calling the 8-year-old names and this supervisor, instead of just correcting him on that, took the side of the other boy, the eight-year-old, and was rooting for him during the match. It eventually reduced the 9-year-old to tears and he wasn’t even able to continue. The feeling was that that was the wrong approach. So this other more newly elected supervisor, a 12-year old, was calling me to let me know what had happened.

When I came in we had a special “staff meeting.” We had never before had a meeting of the supervisors – the four kids and the three temporary assistants. We discussed the best way to handle that kind of situation and everyone agreed that the supervisor should never take sides, that they should always be fair in handling these things.

For a long time I had to chair the meetings myself, and they were relatively infrequent, perhaps one or two a month. But the students began to put more items on the agenda, and even bring each other up. This was significant, because it can be a turning point when students are not afraid to confront a peer in a meeting.

A short time into the third year, the students began to chair the meetings, and they did a more and more effective job. They learned how to keep order, stay on the subject, and not be overly aggressive about sending disruptive members out of the meeting for a few minutes after two warnings. But I wondered how much the meeting process still revolved around me, and whether they really believed in it.

Then one day that question was answered. Some of the students had started to send me email. One 10 year-old-boy, of Arab background, emailed me that the students had organized a meeting that Saturday because “everyone was yelling and arguing.” He helped organize the meeting. A chairperson was selected. The issue was that a new student had improperly changed the challenge ladder. They would let the students meet without an adult in the room where we usually met, so they organized the chairs near the office. They voted to teach the new student all of the rules they had passed, and resolved the problem. A rule was passed that all meetings must be recorded in a logbook. This was the first time there had been a democratic meeting with no adult. There have been many since then.

Meanwhile, the students were winning many trophies at the tournaments in which we participated. The biggest day was when we went to the New York State Championships in New Rochelle. The Club provided a van and brought 11 students. We won the New York State Boys and Girls Club Championship, as well as the individual under 12-years-old and under 10-years-old championships. Since then our students have also won the under 13, under 14 and under 16 year old events at area sanctioned national tournaments.

We’ve been able to get some lessons for our students with a former Chinese men’s champion, Coach Li, and the number 1 and 4 women in the USA, Wang Chen and Lily Yip.

And now to the other element I mentioned at the beginning, the question: To what extent does this interest reach out and connect to a spectrum of learning?  The results are becoming clear. The students are becoming more and more articulate, with better vocabularies in the meetings. They voted to have a fundraising auction, and I taught them how to go into a store and ask for a donation for the auction. Since then shopkeepers have stopped me on the street to tell me how well spoken and polite the students were. Now they are concentrating on publicity and PR, taking responsibility for putting out signs, and press releases, etc. One just emailed me with an idea to put a notice in the bulletin of a nearby church. They have also been working with the Club art teacher to make posters and a big sign to hang outside of the Club.

I had an interesting discussion on-line with two of the students. They started talking about problems in their schools. One goes to a public school and the other to a Catholic school. One student said, “I think the teachers should hear what the kids have to say more often, instead of not listening.” They suggested we discuss the problems in schools at a table tennis meeting, and they subsequently did organize that discussion. They also were trying to figure out a way that I could speak in their schools.

Ben Nisbet was so impressed with the students in our program that he came down to the Club and tested five of the students who successfully passed and became the youngest certified table tennis coaches in the country.

It is clear to me now that students who get a glimpse of respect and empowerment will effectively extrapolate something from that experience and use it to “connect to a spectrum of learning.” It will be interesting to see what the next stages of development might bring.

Street Kids

My time in India, late last November, was something like being in a dream. It was such a different reality. I was only there a week and was almost never on my own. My hosts at the conference always provided a driver and guide for me, put me in hotels, took care of all of my meals.

On the trip from the airport through Bombay, when we drove by the slums, I saw kids run up to the car. They pointed to their mouths. They wanted food and money. People had warned me not to respond to them but I looked at them, looked into their eyes, and saw that they did not look beaten down or blank, but on the contrary, their eyes looked alive. They looked confident, even proud of themselves. And where there was a group of kids, they seemed to help and support each other, not fight.

My hosts were the DAV. Organization. The DAV (Dayanand Anglo Vedic) is one of the oldest and most influential educational groups in India. It is a private organization but it played a very vital role in the social transformation of India during British time and the post independence era.

We had supper at Le Meridian Hotel. The whole leadership of the DAV organization was there and I had a lot of very interesting conversations with people who are publishing major national magazines, one on alternatives in general, one on education. I was given the statistic that there is something like 50 million street kids, working children, who don’t go to school.

I met Prof. Sharma and  Mr. Chopra, the founder of DAV and a doctor of alternative medicine, also  Dr. K.B. Kushal, who has done some amazing things in the years that he’s been here, organizing the western branch of DAV. He apparently has a fairly radical and visionary orientation.

The highlight of the alternative education conference in Pune, for me, was on the first morning. Usha Nayar, who has an organization that works with street kids and AIDS, gave an interesting speech. Her office is right in Bombay. She works with two NGOs, one called TATA, and another called TASH (Technology And Social Health Foundation), which works with people in slums, and handicapped people.

On the last day, after the conference, they said I could go where I wished. They would provide a car and driver. First they brought be to another DAV school in New Bombay. I got there for the afternoon session, when there were mostly younger students. Although it was another big school, with over 2000 students, the children seemed quite happy and interested, and the teachers were engaging.

They brought lunch, which I had with the principal and some teachers. Then they provided me with a guide, a Miss Ranjeet, who was a bright young woman who did the administration for the school. I asked them to take me to see Usha Nayar.

We drove to her office, located in a nice wooded complex in Bombay itself. We talked to Usha, who was going to have some social workers bring me to a slum, but I had another idea.

Ever since I met Rita Paniker of the Delhi based Butterflies organization, at the Japan IDEC, I have wanted to understand more about the street children of India. Butterflies has a democratic program through which street children and working children can get schooling. At that IDEC, Rita had brought with her a 15-year old-boy named Amin, who still lived at the Delhi train station. He was a speaker at the IDEC, and talked about how he had organized a union of working children and was fighting to get recognition from the Indian government as a union. The government said they were too young, to which he countered that they were not too young to work. I taught Amin how to play table tennis in Japan. Later he sent me an email from the Butterfly office, expressing wonder that he, a street kid in India, and I, from New York, had become friends in Japan. Still later he e mailed me that he had passed a test and was going on to higher education, and that he had connected with his parents for the first time since leaving them at 11 years old.

Coincidentally, it turns out that Usha Nayar trained Rita Paniker.  I asked Usha if it would be possible to meet some working and street children. She didn’t know if it could be set up so quickly, but she called two of her social workers, women who usually worked with handicapped people in the slums, and we arranged to pick them up and go to the Bombay train station,

We drove over to the station, which was a beehive of activity. Usha had warned us that it was not likely we would meet any street kids, as they wanted to be invisible. When we first arrived, it certainly seemed to be a hopeless task. But the social workers knew where to go. They bought us platform tickets so we would not get into trouble with the officials there. We went up one big set of stairs and down another. Then from the platform, the social workers motioned to a group of kids who were hanging out between the tracks. Some of them came over to us. They only spoke Hindi, so the social workers translated our communications. I shook hands with them and noticed a white powder on my hands. It was an opiate that many of the street children inhaled.

The platform we were on was very crowded, so the workers decided that we should cross the tracks to the quieter side. It must have looked strange: The administrator, the young woman from the DAV school, and the two social workers, in their beautiful saris, myself, and a half dozen street kids, all crossing the tracks. I’m sure the young DAV woman must have been wondering what she had got herself into, but she was a very good sport about it.

We talked on the quiet platform for almost an hour. Many other homeless people of all ages joined the circle. Eventually there were about 20 or 30 people surrounding us. As previously instructed, I kept my hand firmly in the pocket which had my wallet, as pickpocketing is a common occurrence here.

A woman came over who was living in the station with her four children. She said she couldn’t even live in a slum, as the slum-dwellers actually paid rent, and some of those cardboard and metal shacks even had electricity! So they were homeless at the train station. Nevertheless she sent three of her children off to school every day! One of the most startling sights was when her daughter came back from school, wearing her neat and clean school uniform, her big book bag on her back, only to sleep on the ground at the train station!

We met some brothers who had run away from a home which could not afford to have them live there. One brother, 15, bought combs and sold them to people at the station, making about 200 rupees a day, about $5. But half of that went to buy the opiate. And some he sent home to his parents! He said he wanted to get off the drugs.

The people who lived there used all kinds of innovative ways to survive, sometimes riding a train to the next station and another one back, just to be able to wash up, or to sell things on the train. Many of them picked rags and plastic to sell for recycling. The people I met were not emaciated, and did not seem downtrodden. The kids played and danced but did not fight with each other. Two girls hit a shuttlecock back and forth with two racquets. Another girl, who looked like a young teenager, took care of her baby.

I found out that the homeless people at the train station tended to form themselves into large family-type groups, and this was one of them.

The mother said she sometimes worked cleaning houses. She said that if someone needed medical help they would pool their money and bring them to a doctor.

I asked if people did anything to discourage young children from using the opiate. They laughed. The answer was no. But a 12-year-old boy who lived there said he refused to use drugs. He seemed very bright. He also went to school every day and came back to stay at the train station.

I quietly arranged for one of the social workers to get some food for the group. She was accompanied by the 15 year old. They went over to a far end of the station to buy something. I was told to be careful not to take out any money myself, but was to pay her back after we left.

We continued talking on the platform until it began to get dark. I then noticed small swarms of mosquitoes buzzing over everyone’s head, and I suddenly realized that I had come unprotected to the station, with short-sleeved shirt and no insect repellant. Since I didn’t want to get malaria, I decided that we had better leave, and we said our good byes just as the food arrived for the group, with a flurry of excitement. They yelled a farewell and thanks again as we left, and we waved back.

One of the social workers, Chitra, said she would follow up with some of the kids we had met. I gave her some extra money for that purpose. She said she would try to get the boy who wanted to quit drugs some help in a program to do that. And she said she’d try to find resources for the other kids.

In an email she sent me two weeks later she said, “The boy who is going to school and not on drugs is Vikram Mandavkar. We saw his school books and note books. Writes very neatly but is not able to say what he wants to do - sports, read books etc.” She said she will try to get him a library card at the local library and see if she can get him into a sport program.

She continued: “The other boy, Umesh, who is around 15 and sells combs in the local trains appears to be a nice boy. We are working out an arrangement with Kripa Foundation an organization which works for de-addiction and I will find out the program schedule from them.”

I also had an email chat with Usha, who intends to come to the IDEC. I asked her if it was possible to set up a program in Bombay (Mumbai) similar to Butterflies.

Mail and Communications

Edited by Carol Morley

The New Federal Education Law “Stinks”:  There is no question where the Maine Education Association (MEA) stands when it comes to the new federal education law. “The new federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act stinks,” says MEA President Rob Walker. He believes the mislabeled ‘Leave No Child Behind Act of 2001’ promoted by President Bush transforms ESEA into a political instrument. “It is designed to make public schools fail,” he says. “This clearly is an attempt to set up so many unrealistic standards for student performance that we cannot meet them,” observes Walker. And, once a school fails it is subject to sanctions that divert funding and control from the public to the private sector “MEA believes that at the heart of the new law is an anti-public school bias,” Walker warns. “In return for minor funding, less than 9 percent of Maine’s total costs, the federal government imposes new standards for the profession, an elaborate curriculum, and an unrealistic accountability system.” www.maine.nea.org/dir2/esea_stinks.htm

From the Unkindest tax cut is bound to fail, by Julian Borger in the Guardian Weekly, 22-05-03: Bush cemented his image as a moderate by pushing though a bipartisan education reform bill entitled ‘No Child Left Behind’. The idea was to spend more on schools but to submit their pupils to more tests to ensure the money was not going to waste. The bill scored headlines and warm words from the icon of the Democrats, Senator Edward Kennedy.

Two years on, the plug is being pulled on the law’s ambitions. The funding proposed for the 2003 budget it $47bn below the scheme’s requirements. Kennedy derided the plan as a “tin cup budget” that “may provide the resources to test our children, but not enough to teach them.”

Consequently up to 85% of state schools may be classified as “failing” under the new law. As such, they face sanctions including “reconstitution” – the dismissal of a school’s entire staff. Even special school subsidies for soldiers’ children are being cut, an act of extraordinary hypocrisy for a president who lionizes the military.

Education reforms and standardized testing - from The Alternative to Testing Monomania in Schools, by John Katzman and Steven Hodas: Recent attention paid to a study from researchers at Arizona State University has highlighted some troubling fallout from the seemingly unstoppable movement for annual high-stakes testing of public school students. On the one hand, the authors found that the sudden and intense focus of teachers and administrators on these tests has failed to translate into gains on other standardized assessments such as college entrance exams or the National Assessment of Educational Progress. At the same time, the researchers documented instances of administrators failing to promote ‘problem’ students to grades in which they would be tested, encouraging students to drop out rather than sit for graduation exams, or simply expelling them prior to an important test. As experts in standardized tests we’d be the first to agree that testing as currently practiced is often incoherent and deeply flawed. In a high-stakes world you get what you measure. If the only thing that truly matters is performance on a single test, then educators will naturally focus on that test to the exclusion of all else. If on the other hand, schools are also held accountable for outcomes other than test scores, you can mitigate the testing monomania while deepening the theory and practice of accountability. Neither good nor bad accountability systems are foregone conclusions, and work done today by educators, researchers, policy-makers and parents will determine which we get. In the world of high-stakes testing, the highest stakes are on the creation of accountability systems that measure the right things and use those measurements in ways that support better teaching and learning.

Contrary to Orwell, Democracy Rules on the Big Animal Farm, by James Gorman, 1/14/03: When red deer stand up and honeybees dance, they are not simply stretching their legs or indicating where the nectar is, according to a new study. As bizarre as it may seem, they are voting on whether to move to greener pastures or richer flowers. The process is unconscious, the researchers say. No deer counts votes or checks ballots; bees do not know the difference between a dimple and a chad. But no one deer or bee or buffalo decides when the group moves. If democracy means that actions are taken based not on a ruler’s preference, but the preferences of a majority, then animals have democracy. Not surprisingly, decisions based on majority preferences tend to fit in with what most individuals in the group want. But, the researchers say, this is not a mere tautology. An analysis based on some hefty mathematical models that they developed shows that democracy in groups of animals can have a tangible survival edge over despotism. Dr. Tim Roper, of the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, who did the research with Dr. Larissa Conradt and reported it in the current issue of Nature, said that presumably the deer and swans don’t whine as much as people do, or threaten to find a new flock if everyone keeps going to the same place with the soggy French fries. But the question - how the decision gets made - is the same. When majorities decide, more individuals get what they want, and that should translate into better survival. There could, of course, be situations with incredibly smart or sensitive despots that maximize the benefit to the group, but Dr. Conradt and Dr. Roper did not come up with them. Dr. Roper said the research was meant to suggest a new way of looking at decision making and a new area for research. The models apply only to animals that make group decisions. It may be that some animals, like domestic cats, for instance, do not vote, do not care to vote, and have no interest in any sort of group activity. They were not, however, a subject of the paper.

Gates Gives $31 Million for Schools: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced $31 million in grants for what has become the singular focus of its education efforts: small high schools. This time, the world’s largest philanthropy gave grants to nine organizations to help them create a new breed of alternative high schools, the places students often go when they’ve left ‘regular’ schools. The idea is to create a network of 168 schools, possibly including private schools, which would combine the supportive environment of many alternative schools with high expectations. “For 20 years, many alternative schools have done a good job of providing a nurturing place for students, but they haven’t always had a strong academic component,” said Tom Vander Ark, the foundation’s executive director for education. The foundation spent the past year and a half searching the country for schools that provide good support and strong academics. They found several, and this grant is meant to create others that, like them, take kids on the verge of dropping out and turn them into college material. Some of the schools will be created from scratch; others will be revisions of existing programs. Public, private and charter schools will be included. The foundation estimates the schools will have about 33,000 students. seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/134641616_gates26m.html

From St. Paul Schools Reject Grant Money from Gates Because of Restrictions, by John Welbes: As a substantial chunk of Bill Gates’ grant money sat within their schools’ reach, some teachers in St. Paul decided the cash came with too many strings attached. Staff at Central and Como Park high schools this fall decided not to seek the high-profile grants that would have helped set up small learning communities in their schools. It’s rare for anyone to turn down the Microsoft billionaire’s money, but some teachers say signing on with Gates would have buried them under larger workloads and done nothing to fix their most pressing problem: big classes. Mike Humphrey, a math teacher at Central, said that referring to “small” learning communities doesn’t seem appropriate when many teachers are seeing 180 students move through their classrooms each day. More than $2.3 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation already is being used by three St. Paul high schools to implement small learning communities. All seven of St. Paul’s public high schools received planning money from the Gates Foundation to help them study the concept. The move toward small learning communities is a key part of the district’s plan to redesign its large high schools. Students pick a subject area, such as technology or global studies, and become part of a smaller group of students and faculty within the school. Both Central and Como still are moving toward some form of small learning communities, but they’ll have to look to federal grants or other funding sources to make it happen.

Schools that Do Too Much; Wasting Time and Money in Schools: In her new book, Etta Kralovec insists that schools scale back or even eliminate activities that aren’t central to their educational mission. She cites a long list of such activities; from drug-awareness programs to student fund-raising events that she believes distract teachers and students from learning. But competitive sports get most of her attention. While Kralovec acknowledges that athletics have value – indeed, she asserts that they’re “vitally important to adolescent development” – she also feels that they drain resources from classrooms and disrupt the education process. She suggests instead that community organizations take over the operation of sports teams. In this interview, Kralovec discusses the hidden costs of sports and extracurricular activities. www.teachermagazine.com/

From Perverting the SAT, by Julie M. Quist: The SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) has been used by colleges for many years to predict the success of students in college.  Colleges have found SATs to be an effective tool in measuring college aptitude, that is, the ability to do college work. Recently the Trustees of the College Board for the SAT voted to change the SAT from an aptitude test to an achievement test. With these changes, the SAT will be redefined as something entirely different from what it has been; it will now measure how well the student has absorbed the curriculum the school system has provided, which must match the new federal curriculum. The new federal K-12 curriculum requires little more than minimum competencies in knowledge-based learning. Attitudes and beliefs are the core curriculum of the new standards. The federal curriculum is based on creating a new global citizen, not educating children with broad-based knowledge. As a consequence, the SAT realignment will recommend for advancement to post-secondary education those students who most thoroughly parrot the worldview of the now required federal curriculum.  Unless nonpublic entities teach that curriculum, their students will have a harder time being accepted into colleges (or qualifying for scholarships, advanced placement and the like). The new SAT will marginalize nonpublic students who do not comply with the federal curriculum. Since the federal Goals 2000/School-to-Work laws were passed in 1994, restructuring education for ALL students in our country, the bringing of nonpublic students under its all-encompassing umbrella has been a top concern.  This SAT realignment is one significant way by which the agents of change in this country will accomplish that goal.  Julie M. Quist, Maple River Education Coalition (MREdCo) Vice President, 1402 Concordia Ave, St. Paul, MN 55104. Web: http://www.EdWatch.org.

From The Origins of Peace and Violence: It is generally known that deprivation of sensory stimuli like voice and vision in the early phases of human life will cause irreversible mental retardation in the child. Also the prevention of child play will cause intellectual deficits in the adult. Additionally there are the two body sensor systems, the ‘somatosensors’. One is the vestibular sensor for maintaining orientation and upright walk. The other one is the skin, for sensing touch. Through the work of James W. Prescott, Ph.D. and various others it was established that these previously neglected senses are of overwhelming importance for the development of social abilities for adult life. Their deprivation in childhood is a major cause for adult violence.  Web: www.violence.de/

Fertile Turtle: Liberty School’s new on-line zine is something worth checking out.  It was created by my journalism class and will now be an ongoing publication. The students have worked hard on the site and are covering stories about the school, as well as national and international issues.  We even have a story from our foreign correspondent in Australia.

We are open to stories from anyone – teachers, students, and parents. Just send to submissions@fertileturtle.org. To read the zine go to www.fertileturtle.org.

We’re a cooperative in Vermont that is starting a school this fall and recently started a quarterly fiction magazine for 9- to 14-year-olds. The magazine offers some opportunities for its readers to both contribute material to be published and to participate in the editorial process. In future we have plans to develop resources and discussion groups for student writers/poets/artists and some interested adults on our Web site. We make a specific effort to connect with our readers in a supportive and respectful way, supporting the tenets of egalitarianism and democratic education. We eschew gratuitous violence in the magazine’s contents and especially value pieces that tell a good story while helping bring out important issues. The magazine is called Just Weird Enough: Science fiction, fantasy & fable, and our Web site is www.justweirdenough.com . You can get a free copy through e-mail by sending a request to subscriptions@justweirdenough.com or by sending a letter to PO Box 247, Plainfield, VT 05667

The executive editor of Skipping Stones magazine, Arun N. Toke, has received the 2002 Writer Award from The Writer magazine. The Writer Awards celebrate and recognize writers who, through their work, contribute to the community of writers, bring about changes in the publishing field, or use their writing to make a difference by informing, inspiring and motivating others. Skipping Stones has also announced The 2003 Youth Honor Awards. This year’s theme is “Connecting with Nature.” Original writings and art from youth ages 7 to 17 may be entered by June 20, 2003. For more information, contact PO Box 3939, Eugene, OR 97403. Tel: (541) 342-4956. Web: www.skippingstones.org.

What Research Says About Montessori’s Effectiveness, by Tim Seldin, President of the Montessori Foundation: “More than 200 studies have been done about the long-term effects on children who have attended Montessori schools in the US. However, the research that has been done to date is far more limited than it should have been after its more than 90-year history in this country.” The author goes on to site the reasons for this lack of studies and goes on to highlight some of the most important studies that have been done to date. The article appeared in the Winter 2002 issue of Tomorrow’s Child, 1001 Bern Creek Loop, Sarasota FL 34240. Web: www.montessori.org.

Is This School a Learning Organization? Ten Ways to Tell: A school culture that invites deep and sustained professional learning will have a powerful impact on student achievement. Leaders of schools, like leaders of businesses and hospitals, want their organizations to be flexible and responsive, able to change in accord with changing circumstances. Individuals learn best when the content is meaningful to them and they have opportunities for social interaction and the environment supports the learning. That idea applies to organizations as well. In this excerpt, Ron Brandt describes 10 ways to tell whether your school is a true learning organization. http://www.nsdc.org/library/jsd/brandt241.html

SEAL is an international networking organization for people who are passionate about learning. We are interested in all approaches to learning which draw on the full capacity of the individual - body, emotions, mind and spirit. Typical areas of interest are Multiple Intelligences, Learning Styles, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. We organize groundbreaking conferences open to all, and provide networking opportunities for over 600 members in over 40 countries. Visit our website: www.seal.org.uk. 37 Park Hall Road, East Finchley, London N2 9PT.

The Alternative Schools Research Project web site has been developed and is now available on the Web. Be sure to bookmark the site and refer to it again in the future. We will be adding more information (e.g. presentations, publications, reports) as it becomes available. Web: ici.umn.edu/alternativeschools/

The Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT) project is based on the idea that democratic practices in schools play an important role in the transition toward more open societies. Active in 29 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and more recently Latin America and South East Asia, RWCT introduces research-based instructional methods to teachers and teacher educators. These methods are designed to help students think reflectively, take ownership for their personal learning, understand the logic of arguments, listen attentively, debate confidently, and become independent lifelong learners. The program can be used in all grades and subjects with existing curricula. http://www.rwct.org/

Virtual UK Education with Real Degree, by Rashmee Z. Ahmed: A British government-backed initiative offers students around the world a virtual UK education ending in a real degree from Cambridge, York or Sheffield universities. UK e-Universities Worldwide (UkeU), which has just opened its online doors for the spring courses, is specifically aimed at “students who recognize the quality of a UK education but cannot access it,” according to chief executive John Beaumont. It comes just four months after MIT kick started what it hoped would be a global revolution in education by putting its courses online for free. But unlike MIT’s attempt to stop the commercialization of online education, UKeU says it is setting out to enhance its quality by offering what it trendily terms “best of breed courses from some of the UK’s best-known universities.” Unlike the MIT’s no-degree online initiative, the students end up with real degrees at the end of the elearning period. UKeU claims a first in that “degrees are awarded by the university offering the course.” It says this makes it “significantly different from other Internet-taught degrees where degrees are awarded by an Internet university.” In effect, goes the marketing buzz, it offers everyone, everywhere, the possibility of becoming a Cambridge graduate without leaving the confines of, say, Coimbatore or Canberra. But realists point out that UKeU courses are unlike the MIT philanthropic project in another key way as well: they will cost the same as conventional university degrees. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

The Education Policy Studies Laboratory (EPSL) at Arizona State University offers high quality analyses of national education policy issues and provides an analytical resource for educators, journalists, and citizens. It includes the Commercialism in Education Research Unit (CERU), the Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA), the Education Policy Reports Project (EPRP), the Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU), and the Language Policy Research Unit (LPRU).  The EPSL is directed by ASU Professor Alex Molnar. Visit the EPSL website at http://edpolicylab.org/

The Braitmayer Foundation supports organizations and programs from across the U.S. that enhance the education of K-12 children.  The Foundation is particularly interested in curricular and school reform initiatives, professional development opportunities for teachers, and local community efforts that increase educational opportunities for students. Web:  www.braitmayerfoundation.org /guid.htm

Building-Bridges Conference, by Peter Staffa: Seven teachers from the Friedrichsgymnasium returned from a one-week visit to their Israeli and Palestinian friends in Israel. In a workshop we became mediators between Jewish and Arabic Israelis who met there for the first time. We had to convince our Israeli friends that we also wanted to visit the old city of Jerusalem and our friends in Bethlehem. They accompanied us to Jerusalem. The Old City was almost empty; there were hardly any visitors. We went to see the Grave Church and the Wailing Wall. On Monday we went to the checkpoint to Bethlehem. We walked across the border, this time accompanied by barbed wire, army vehicles and machine guns. The street, which had been crowded with people offering their goods in 1999, was completely empty and quiet. Then we made our way to the Hope Flowers School. Ibrahim, our Palestinian friend, picked us and took us to the roadblocks near the school. All the roads to the school are blocked though this is an autonomous Palestinian area with children living there. We also saw the three watchtowers with soldiers armed with machine guns and ready to open fire. Despite all the difficulties the school has changed since my visits in 1999 and 2000: they continued the school building, finished a sports field, work on a garden now, and completed a water treatment plant. We want to work with these special people and offer a piece of future.

Founded on 1/1/2001, The National At-Risk Education Network (NAREN) is a 501(c)(3) non-sectarian educational grassroots membership organization dedicated to both promoting the success of at-risk youth in school and life, and supporting the educators who work on their behalf. NAREN is a vehicle of information, support, networking and educational reform for people interested in the field of at-risk education. The NAREN website is free, except for the database of effective hands-on and action-research oriented programs and practices. Membership may be gained online at http://www.atriskeducation.net. Email: info@naren.info.

Harvey B. Scribner, a no-nonsense former teacher from Maine who went on to become the chancellor of New York City’s school system as it underwent a turbulent shift toward local control in the early 1970’s, died December 23, 2002 in Waterville, Me. He was 88. Dr. Scribner arrived in New York after two decades as a teacher and administrator in Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Jersey, compiling a record of innovation and gentlemanly leadership. After leaving the New York school system, Dr. Scribner became a professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where he researched educational leadership and school administration. At the university, he wrote an acclaimed book based on his experiences: ‘Make Your Schools Work: Practical, Imaginative and Cost-Free Plans to Turn Public Education Around’ (Simon & Schuster, 1975). Dr. Scribner also helped develop alternative schools in Boston for underprivileged children and a master’s degree program for teachers in Washington.

From Survey: Students Give Schools Middling Marks, by Erik W. Robelen: Most high school students do not believe their public schools are preparing them “extremely well” to know how to learn, get a good job, or go to college, according to an annual survey of teachers and students released last week. Teacher confidence was not much higher. Fewer than one-fifth of the teachers surveyed gave the top rating to their schools in preparing students to learn. The findings are part of the 19th annual survey of teachers and students conducted by Harris Interactive for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., a New York City-based insurance company. They were based on interviews earlier this year with a nationally representative sample of 2,049 public school 7th to 12th graders, 1,273 public school teachers of kindergarten through 12th grade, and 1,004 K-12 principals.

Children’s Bill of Rights, Lawrence de Bivort: The Children’s Bill of Rights project involved over 650 children from three continents, and resulted in the first Bill (or Declaration) of Rights drafted, in part, by children.  Summary: (1) Children’s universal rights. As compared to adults, children until the age of 18 have the right to receive special care and protection. (2.) Right to inherit a better world. (3) Right to influence the future. (4) Right to freedom of thought, opinion, expression, conscience and religion. (5) Right to media access. (6) Right to participate in decisions affecting children. (7) Right to privacy. (8) Right to respect and courtesy. (9) Right to an identity. (10) Right to freedom of association. (11) Right to care and nurturing. (12) Right to leisure and play. (13) Right to safe work. (14) Right to an adequate standard of living. (15) Right to life, physical integrity and protection from maltreatment.  (16) Right to a diverse environment and creativity. (17) Right to education. (18) Right to access appropriate information and to a balanced depiction of reality. (19) Right not to be exposed to prejudice. (20) The right to a clean environment.  (21) Right to a small national debt. (22) Right to vote over 14. (23) Right to medical care. (24) Legal rights.  (25) Right not to participate in war.  The Children’s Bill of Rights secretariat is at ESI, 5504 Scioto Rd., Bethesda, MD 20816. It may also be reached via e-mail to debivort@umd5.umd.edu and lenar@tenet.edu.

The goal of the Soros foundations network throughout the world is to transform closed societies into open ones and to protect and expand the values of existing open societies. In practice, an open society is characterized by the rule of law; respect for human rights, minorities, and minority opinions; democratically elected governments; a market economy in which business and government are separate; and a thriving civil society. Web: http://www.soros.org/

Global Education Gulf Increasing: The learning gulf across the globe is deepening, with schooling systems in some countries actually regressing, according to the United Nations. Eighty-three countries were on track to deliver by 2015 an ‘Education For All’ (EFA) target, set by the World Education Forum in Dakar two and a half years ago. But at the same time, 70 other countries would fail to meet the target and some were actually going backwards. The problem is being made worse by a shortage of teachers – some 35 million more are needed throughout the world. The findings appear in the ‘Education For All Global Monitoring Report: Is The World On Track?’ published by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 11/13/02.

Test Scores Lag as School Spending Soars: Spending more money on education won’t improve test scores, says a new report on academic achievement. The American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative think tank, studied two generations of students, 1976-2001, and graded each state using over a hundred measures of educational resources and achievement. A key finding of the report shows there is no immediate evident correlation between conventional measures of education inputs, such as expenditures per pupil and teacher salaries, and educational outputs, such as average scores on standardized tests. Web: www.alec.org/viewpage.cfm?pgname=3.1085

U.S. Youth Can’t Find Iraq, (AP), 11/20/02: Young Americans may soon have to fight a war in Iraq, but most of them can’t even find that country on a map, the National Geographic Society said. The society survey found that only about one in seven – 13 percent – of Americans between the age of 18 and 24, the prime age for military warriors, could find Iraq. The score was the same for Iran, an Iraqi neighbor. Although the majority, 58 percent, of the young Americans surveyed knew that the Taliban and al Qaeda were based in Afghanistan, only 17 percent could find that country on a world map. The survey asked 56 geographic and current events questions of young people in nine countries and scored the results with traditional grades. The surveyed Americans got a ‘D,’ with an average of 23 correct answers. Mexico ranked last with an average score of 21, just three points from a failing grade. Topping the scoring was Sweden, with an average of 40, followed by Germany and Italy, each with 38. None of the countries got an ‘A,’ which required average scores of 42 correct answers or better on the 56 questions.

The BioCultura Conference is Spain’s largest gathering for complimentary and natural approaches to conventional living. For the second year in a row, Dr. Pat Montgomery, Founder and Director of Clonlara School, has been invited to speak at the conference to take place in Madrid in November. Pat was invited to speak about Clonlara School and its home-based education program. For more information about Clonlara, contact Terri Wheeler at 1289 Jewett Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. Tel: (734) 769-4511. Web: www.clonlara.org.

News of Schools

Endicott College and The Institute for Educational Studies New Masters of Education In Montessori Integrative Learning: Beginning July 2003 we will offer the new Masters of Education concentration in Montessori Integrative Learning. The three-semester course of study includes elementary (six -12 years) teacher preparation. The on-line seminars and course work are divided into three sections: I. The Context; 2. Montessori Theory; 3. Presentations and Practicum. Since much of the experience of learning how to teach in a Montessori environment is based on the presentations of didactic materials this course of study utilizes recent technological advances. We are now developing an interactive CD that will enable students at a distance to have the same experiences groups have “face to face.” For further information see http://www.ties-edu.org or write Cate Turner-Jamison at ties@endicott.edu.

Puget Sound Community School:  Originally, PSCS was a home school co-op with no permanent classroom, but they recently acquired a space, which finally qualified them to become an official private school. Early on, PSCS hooked up with Speakeasy to provide web hosting, Internet access and e-mail accounts. One of the earliest series of field trips they had was to the Speakeasy Cafe where students would teach a group of senior citizens how to work computers. Eventually, they started holding monthly overnight trips to the cafe where students would teach each other computer skills, bring their own computers in to form Local Access Networks, and hold talent shows or all night poetry readings. Before long, several of the young prodigies had jobs here. www.speakeasy.net/main.php?page=community&profile=pscs

The Institute for Social Ecology was established in 1974 as an independent institution for the purposes of education, research, and outreach in the field of social ecology.  For over a quarter of a century, ISE has inspired individuals involved in numerous social change movements to work toward a directly democratic, liberatory, and ecological society.  The educational programs of the Institute for Social Ecology have served more than 2,000 students around the world. For further information on our programs, contact the ISE by email at info@social-ecology.org, telephone 1 (802) 454-8493, or visit our website at http://www.social-ecology.org/.

The Living School is a democratic educational environment that is community-based, self-directed and focused on the creativity and intelligence inherent in each person. The school fosters inquiry in each participant by allowing the school itself to be a living experiment in learning. The school provides a safe and supportive learning environment as well as access to a wide variety of mentors, materials, and experiential learning situations. For more information call (303) 449-0866 or email livingschool@aol.com. PO Box 6105, 5001 Pennsylvania Ave., Boulder, CO 80306. Web: www.livingschool.org.

HeartLight Port Elizabeth is Thriving: Sue Spies, our resident permaculturist, has created a cohesive community of learners of all ages.  She has shown her mettle in being the Heartlight role model of learning and living as a conscious, creative, competent individual compassionately and collaboratively fulfilling her role as Director of the first HeartLight Learning Community. The students have chosen to call the ‘lead learners/educators’ by their first names and collectively they are called ‘wrinklies’.  Students are seen as an integral part of the decision-making process yet this ‘power’ has not affected the respectful way in which they interact with the staff and each other. Each group has a mentor (a wrinkly/adult) who tunes into that specific group’s needs. 

I’ve been helping to start a new school, on Vashon Island (a 20 minute ferry ride from Seattle) this last year. It’s a nonprofit independent school, and trying to be somewhat a blend of Montessori, Waldorf, unschooling, freeschooling, with a touch of influence from the Reggio Emilia model. I would not call it a democratic school, though many decisions and agreements are made as a group. It’s been interesting to develop a curriculum of sorts, in response to what the families asked for, to expose the kids to things in the form of presentations or experiential learning centers. We’ve been experimenting with various kinds of structure, trying to suit the 10-12 families involved. The name of this project is Madrona Primary School, and the website is www.madronaprimary.org. Email: reallifeeducation@consultant.com.

Golden Independent School is a private elementary school opening in Golden CO in the fall of 2003. It will serve grades K-6. Kindergarten will be comprised of 10 students, with readiness, not age, as the entry requirement. The other grades are combined in small, multi-age classrooms. Children spend two years with the same teacher. The school follows the progressive philosophy rooted in the ideas of John Dewey. Instruction is child-centered and teacher-guided. Golden will function as a mini-society, with equal importance placed on the individuals and the group as a whole. For more information, contact Dr. Erika Sueker, PO Box 441, Golden, CO 80402. Tel: (303) 279-3708. Web: www.goldenindependent.org.

Chula Vista Learning Community Charter serves as a multi-generational center, with the intent to build senior housing on the same site as the school. Integrated curriculum incorporates a variety of learning/teaching styles and utilizes community resources. There are small class sizes, cross-age tutoring and cross-generational learning. Contact:  Jorge Ramirez, 939 4th Ave. Chula Vista,  California  91911 email: jramire2@cvesd.k12.ca.us

The Mountain Gardens Learning Center is loosely based on learning systems such as Waldorf, Sudbury, HeartLight, Montessori, and homeschooling. The children choose their own paths of study and discovery. There is no set curriculum, although if the Learner asks for guidance, a loose curriculum created by the Learning Center (called ‘New Day Learning Way’) will be available.  The lack of curriculum encourages learners to explore interesting subjects without feeling that they are neglecting something. When we’ve raised the needed funds, we’ll open the permanent facility on several-acres in Northwest Denver for up to 50 children, both day and boarding. For more information or an application, please e-mail Vikki Lawrence at MGCLC2002@hotmail.com. P O Box 1283, Wheat Ridge, CO  80034-1283. Tel: (720) 940-7910. Web: www.earth2spirit.org /mountaingardens.

Kfar Saba Democratic School’s design has won a citation award by DesignShare, an online journal, forum, and library of school designs. The site fosters best practices and innovation in schools from early childhood through the university level. More than 20,000 architects, planners, educators, and facility decision makers visit the site each month. From the award report: “The Democrat School is a twelve year grade school, starting at the age of six years old up to eighteen years old and includes matriculation exams. The school is located in the heart of an orchard, as part of an agriculture farm in the eastern side of the city. Democracy is everywhere. Each individual student gets special attention and an emphasis is put on Personality rather than Technologies. There is a Parliament – the heart of the school. Decisions are made by students and staff who have equal votes. The openness of ideas is reflected in the openness of the design. The school is environmentally friendly, with wooden roof construction and natural materials.” www.designshare.com/awards/review.asp?project_ id=154

Schumacher College, in the UK, is pleased to announce a generous grant of $60,000 from the Educational Foundation of America (EFA), which will make it possible for the College to offer a new scholarship program to suitable US citizens. Sophie Style, Schumacher College. Email: schumss@gn.apc.org.

Maine’s New Visionaries, by Jen Fish, Portland Press Herald, 12/31/02:

In her three decades in education, Marylyn Wentworth, a former art teacher at Kennebunk High School, doesn’t know how many classrooms she’s seen. But she does know public schools do not provide the best education for all students. This is not to say she thinks public schools are wrong - Wentworth says she thrived in that environment. But, she said, there are many students who, for a variety of reasons, need a more personal and holistic touch to learn well. With this in mind, Wentworth worked with a group of families in 1970 to establish The School Around Us, a K-8 school in Arundel that still exists. In 2001, Wentworth, a state-certified principal, established The New School, an extension of The School Around Us for high schoolers in Kennebunk. The school is run cooperatively by parents, community members and students. Students are involved in every aspect of the school - from hiring of teachers to disciplining their classmates. The school is also closely intertwined with the community. Students have an open campus, and the school has dozens of community teachers who come in to talk about subjects ranging from poetry to solar engineering.

High Stakes Testing

Student Rebels at Taking Standardized Test, by Mc Nelly Torres, San Antonio Express-News, 2/1/03: Kimberly Marciniak is boycotting the standardized testing this spring with the support of her parents. The 15-year-old freshman at the North East School of Arts at Lee High School hopes her actions will send a message to her school district: High-stakes testing has stolen her thirst for knowledge and tarnished what she treasures about school — learning. “I don’t want to be a statistic and I don’t want to be a human guinea pig for the district,” Marciniak wrote. Marciniak’s decision to put her pencil down reflects a growing national anti-testing trend. In Massachusetts, New York, Washington and California, students and parents have boycotted state tests in recent years. The test she plans not to take, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, will make its debut this spring. After attending private schools in Boston, she moved with her parents and young brother to San Antonio in 2001, when she enrolled in Eisenhower Middle School. The freshman student saw how her favorite class — history — became a grind because of preparation for the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, or TAAS. Marciniak wrote an essay depicting the transformation of a once-fun class into a test academy. The essay, in which she presents her opposition to high-stakes testing, was given an award as the most persuasive work in the class.

Survey: Testing Leads to Unsound Teaching, by Kevin Rothstein: A majority of teachers believe state testing programs lead them to use unsound teaching practices, according to a nationwide survey of educators released by Boston College’s Lynch School of Education. The report, billed as the broadest of its kind, also revealed that nearly half of all teachers thought test scores could be raised without really improving learning. The report, prepared after surveying 12,000 teachers in 47 states, found that educators did not object to standards but did not like being held to a single test. In a related study, researchers compared high-stakes Massachusetts with no-stakes Kansas and medium-stakes Michigan. They found that the higher the stakes, the greater the impact on classroom teaching. Boston Herald, 3/5/03.

From Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs (MAAP) Position Paper: High-stakes Testing, 1/10/03: We oppose high-stakes testing required by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) statute for reasons widely shared among scholars, researchers and psychometricans. We do not believe that high-stakes testing leads to achievement of broad educational goals and the efficient learning of basic skills. We believe high-stakes testing produces unintended co