Alternative Education Resource Organization

Mathew Davis

Mathew Davis grew up in Indianapolis and began community organizing when he was fourteen. He began public speaking at age fifteen. Mathew has also been performing slam poetry for over a year. Mathew attended public schools his entire life and has been critical of his schools throughout his schooling career. He has expressed that his vocation is focused on social justice and simply helping people survive.

John Taylor Gatto

John Taylor Gatto taught for 30 years in public schools before resigning on the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal during the year he was named New York State’s official “Teacher of the Year.” In his resignation he claimed he was no longer willing to hurt children. Since then he has traveled three million miles lecturing on school reform. John is the author of such titles as Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, The Underground History Of American Education, and most recently Weapons of Mass Instruction.

Shilpa Jain

Shilpa spent the last ten years as a learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development, based in Udaipur, India, where she researched, wrote books and articles, facilitated workshops and hosted gatherings on topics ranging from globalization, creative expressions, ecology, democratic living, innovative learning and unlearning. Shilpa is currently working with Other Worlds Are Possible, a multi-media collaborative focused on grassroots alternatives, and with YES! (based in Santa Cruz, CA) as coordinator of the Global Youth Leadership Collaborative and of the Leveraging Privilege for Social Change Jam. All of her work seeks to uncover ways for people to free themselves from dominating, soul-crushing institutions and to live in greater alignment with their hearts and deepest values, their local communities, and with nature. She is excited about growing new roots and new possibilities in the US after many years away.

Herbert Kohl

Herbert Kohl is the author of more than forty books, including the bestselling classic 36 Children. A recipient of the National Book Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, he was founder and first director of the Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York City and established the PEN West Center in San Francisco, where he lives.