Jerry Mintz, Speaker, Consultant

Jerry Mintz
Jerry Mintz

Jerry Mintz has been a leading voice in the alternative school movement for over 30 years. In addition to his seventeen years as a public and independent alternative school principal and teacher, he has also helped found more than one hundred public and private alternative schools and organizations. He has lectured and consulted in more than twenty-five countries around the world.

In 1989, he founded the Alternative Education Resource Organization and since then has served as it’s Director. Jerry was the first executive director of the National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools (NCACS), and was a founding member of the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC).

In addition to several appearances on national radio and TV shows, Jerry’s essays, commentaries, and reviews have appeared in numerous newspapers, journals, and magazines including The New York Times, Newsday, Paths of Learning, Green Money Journal, Communities, Saturday Review, Holistic Education Review as well as the anthology Creating Learning Communities (Foundation for Educational Renewal, 2000).

Jerry was Editor-in-Chief for the Handbook of Alternative Education (Macmillan, 1994), and the Almanac of Education Choices (Macmillan/Simon & Schuster, 1995). He is the author of School’s Over: How to Have Freedom and Democracy in Education (AERO, 2017) and is editor of Turning Points: 35 Visionaries in Education Tell Their Own Story (AERO, 2010).

His consultations and presentations can help anyone who:

is starting a new alternative

Is looking for an alternative for their children or in which to teach

wants to change their school or organization’s culture to a more learner-centered approach.

Jerry Mintz has spoken at Alternative Education Resource Organization Conferences from its inception in 2004 through 2019 in locations such as Troy, NY, Albany, NY, Portland, OR, and Long Island University. He has spoken at the International Democratic Education Conference in locations including Hadera, Israel, Vienna, Austria, Devon, England, Summerhill School, England, Vinnitsa, Ukraine, Tokyo, Japan, Christchurch, New Zealand, Sydney, Australia, Berlin, Germany, Bhubanashwar, India, Vancouver, Canada, Nuestra Escuela, Puerto Rico, Boulder, Colorado, Gwangmyeong, Korea, Mikkeli, Finland, and Kiev, Ukraine. He has done TEDx talks in Brooklyn and Norway. He has also spoken at the Reevo Conference in Bogota, Colombia, the ED Crunch Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Eureka Conferences in Narva, Estonia, Simferipol, Ukraine, and Moscow, Russia, The Green Festival in New York, International Association of Learning Alternatives Conferences in Deluth, MN, Portland, OR, St. Augustine, FL, Atlanta, GA, Des Moines, IA, Denver, CO, Amsterdam, NY. He has spoken a homeschooling conferences such as in Albany, NY, Montreal, Quebec, Dallas, TX. He has spoken at the Montessori Foundation Conference in Sarasota, FL. He spoke at numerous National Coalition of Alternative Community School conferences such as in Salem, OR, Chicago, IL, Santa Fe, NM, Ann Arbor, MI, Bloomington, IN, San Diego, CA, Summertown, TN, Glenmoore, PA. He has done consultations in nearly every state and over 22 countries, most recently in Eger, Hungary, Chalford, England and Kiev, Ukraine.

If you are interested in featuring Jerry Mintz as a keynote speaker, consultant or for a TV or radio show, contact him at Jerryaero@aol.com or call 516-621-2195.

Articles by Jerry Mintz

Democratic School Governance

Democratic Table Tennis Club

Sustainable Education

Ten Signs You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child

The Whys and Hows of Alternative Education: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Interviews, Podcasts & Articles Featuring Jerry Mintz

Why Unschool?

Podcast featuring Jan Hunt, Kelly Lovejoy, Jerry Mintz, Idzie Desmarais, Carsie Blanton, Michelle Loucas, Sandra Dodd and Nikiah Childs.

Listen HERE

Why Schools Have learning All Wrong

Listen Here.

Resources For Alternative Education

Listen Here.

Videos Featuring Jerry Mintz

Excerpt from Class Dismissed

Pioneers in Alternative Higher Education

The Power of Democratic Process in Schools

Jerry Mintz on Fox News Show, Hannity and Colmes

What is wrong with traditional education?

Jerry Mintz, Director of the Alternative Education Resource Organization, gives a broad overview of what is fundamentally wrong with the paradigm of human learning underpinning traditional education.