Year: 2017

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Authoritarian Culture Caused by Schools and it May be Too Late

Editorial by Jerry Mintz

‘There is much talk and hand wringing these days about the authoritarian turn in our government and the racism that seems to be bubbling up in our society. But none of this should be surprising when you consider the environment that most Americans have experienced as they have grown up.

Perhaps 95% of Americans, in public or private schools, have experienced a basically authoritarian system for 12 years in which they were expected to sit quietly at their desks most of the time, study the things that the teachers told them to study, not veer off into other directions, and prepare to be rigorously tested on these things (rigor, as is rigor mortis).
They also, for the most part, grew up in segregated or resegregated communities, based largely on discriminatory housing and economics. Many have not had much of a chance to really get to know people of other races or ethnic backgrounds.
All of this is effective training for craving the continuation of what they became used to, of authoritarian political rule and racist beliefs. It is therefore no wonder, as some have noted, that we now have an authoritarian government with racist tendencies.
By happenstance I was in Russia for the First New Schools Festival of the Soviet Union in August of 1991. There was a lot of positive optimism there about the future. After the conference we were hosted at Yeltzin’s While House in Moscow. While I was on my way back by train to England, the very next day, Yeltzin faced down the tank during the coup, from the very spot I had been standing the day before. There was no more Soviet Union.
This ushered in a period of real experimentation and change in Russia and people hoping to work toward real democracy. But because the population was very used to authoritarian dictatorship they seem to have devolved back to it. The majority seem comfortable with that while dissidents are again squashed.
If we want to avoid a similar fate in the United States I believe it is urgent to change our schools to empower students, to have them grow up experiencing responsibility and making real decisions about their education and their lives.
But how can we do this? We’ve only found one way so far, but it is too slow. We help change or create one learner-centered school at a time.
We truly need an Education Revolution now, before it is too late, and it may already be too late.
Please make a donation here to support AERO’s work.
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Bay State Learning Center is looking for an Instructor/Program Director to join their alternative self-directed learning community

Bay State Learning Center is a non-coercive and self-directed learning community, we believe that learning is natural and teachers and students can collaborate to make education a dynamic creative process. We are a departure from traditional education and do not make use of tests, grades, negative reinforcement and extrinsic motivators. We believe in helping students to access resources so they can work to reach their own goals and cultivate their own passions.

We are looking for a forward thinking educator with enthusiasm and creativity to not only teach but serve as program director. We have been developing BSLC for four years now and we are a stable thriving program on the cusp of growing much larger. Do the kind of creative teaching you have always wanted to do, without the power struggles and unnecessary difficulties of traditional school. In a small setting like BSLC the potential for developing new ideas is limitless.

Bay State Learning Center is based on the model pioneered by Northstar Self-DIrected Learning for Teens in Sunderland, Massachusetts. There are over 14 Liberated Learners Self-Directed Learning Centers across North America and the movement is growing. Become a part of the future of education.

Hear About Bay State Learning Center On NPR! http://news.wgbh.org/2017/06/13/local-news/kids-struggling-class-dedham-school-may-have-answer

Here too. http://news.wgbh.org/2017/06/16/local-news/honors-student-ditches-public-school-design-his-own-education

Instructional Responsibilities:

  • Work as part of a small team running a self-directed learning community of about 27 kids ages 10-19

  • Flexibly teach a small variety of subjects in once a week classes; topics include the instructor’s training areas and personal interests as well as the student’s interests and needs.

  • Guide students to an excited, open-minded and active interest in learning.

  • Advise students in one on one advising sessions with an assigned selection of students. Assisting students to define their goals, pursue class work, develop general/life organizational strategies, begin college planning, etc.

  • Maintain good documentation of class sessions as well as all advising sessions in the dedicated online databases for each.

  • Work with parents and families to help with the ongoing learning and development of the students.

  • Be available for students if they need assistance with any self-directed activity from getting started and organized to completion.

    Organizational Responsibilities:

  • Help organize the weekly class schedule, as well as the yearly calendar.

  • Manage/Work with volunteer teachers to find, schedule and maintain a diverse selection of classes.

  • Help to run fundraising and outreach events to promote our program and keep it vital.

Help maintain a social media presence and assist with mass emails/newsletters
Bonus if able to help with website update and marketing graphic design

To apply send resume and cover letter explaining your interest in our program to both george@baystatelearning.org and marjorie@baystatelearning.org

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Instructors in Holistic Education needed for brand new kindergarten opening this spring in Shishi, China.

Originateve is sponsoring the recruitment of 4 instructors in Holistic Education with a focus on Cultural and Ecological Regeneration for Master Tree Kindergarten set to open up in the Spring of 2018.

Certification in Mentorship of Holistic Learning Designs is a requirement for this position. Completion of the program can be carried on site upon being hired. For more information please visit here: http://www.originateve.org/public_html/programs.html

Compensation:

Position starts at 10,ooormb/month + housing + insurance + paid holidays + one-way air-ticket home upon completion of contract and other benefits to be discussed with interested candidates.

Interested applicants should send a resume and brief cover letter to: carlemmons@originateve.org

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Chris Mercogliano: 20 Characteristics of a Good Teacher

All good teachers:
1. Genuinely like children and enjoy being around them. Just like parents with their own kids, they take pleasure and pride in their students’ growth and development.
2. Genuinely enjoy teaching, too. This is a critical factor because teaching is essentially a modeling process and students learn much more readily when their teachers exhibit joy in what they’re doing. And as a result, good teachers feel energized at the end of the day, not drained.
3. Are openhearted. They care about their students’ lives, present and future, and they address their students’ shortcomings and transgressions compassionately, not judgmentally.
4. Recognize that teaching isn’t something they do to or for children; rather it’s a reciprocal exchange of energy within a relationship. Good teachers also realize they are continually learning from their students too.
5. Trust in the innate wisdom of the learning process and in their students’ intrinsic desire to learn. They don’t try to force learning to happen by resorting to extrinsic motivators like rewards and punishments.
6. Are authoritative, not authoritarian. Authoritarian teachers are highly controlling,consider their authority non-negotiable, and maintain their control with punitive discipline. They feel threatened by a child’s expressions of independence and individuality. Authoritative adults set firm, consistent limits on out-of-bounds behavior, but don’t hem students in with restrictions. They maintain their natural adult authority while at the same time respecting the child’s point of view and encouraging verbal give and take. As their students grow more responsible, they extend them increasing levels of independence.
7. Understand the fundamental role that emotions play in a child’s complete development. They are emotionally self-aware and make sure the environment is welcoming and safe so that their students feel comfortable being themselves and don’t feel they have to hide their vulnerabilities.
8. Continue to work on their own personal and professional development, because as Joseph Chilton Pearce once said, “Teachers teach who they are.” Good teachers realize they can’t guide their students to places they haven’t already been themselves.
9. Are facilitators of learning, not taskmasters. “Facilitate” literally means “to make easier,” and the most fundamental purpose of teaching is to help the student learn how to learn with ease and efficiency.
10. Acknowledge the individuality of their students and don’t expect them all to be interested in the same things at the same time, or to learn in the same way.
11. Assume it’s their responsibility to present things in a way that every individual learner can understand, and not the learner’s job to adapt to the teacher’s methods. Good teachers continue to try different approaches until they find the key that unlocks the door to the learner’s understanding.
12. Are good communicators. They speak clearly, with honesty and respect; and they make sure that their criticism is constructive and always based on “I” messages. And then they listen carefully to what their students have to say, encourage them to speak freely, and value their opinions.
13. Understand that learning doesn’t happen under duress. They make sure that anxiety and stress have no place in the learning environment.
14. Are flexible. Aware that a lot of important learning is serendipitous and synchronistic, they are able to shift gears quickly in order to stay in synch with their students’ shifting moods and interests.
15. Know how important it is for children to take responsibility for their own education and their own actions, and so they share initiative, power, and control with them.
16. Respect a child’s inalienable right to say “no.” They don’t force their students to do things they aren’t ready or willing to do.
17. Build strong relationships with each and every student. They also facilitate students doing the same with one another.
18. Recognize the deep developmental value of play. They provide ample free play opportunities for their students, and they also make sure there’s enough play in their own lives because they know how much play re-energizes and restores them.
19. Understand that experience is the best teacher. They minimize the amount of instruction they do by creating a rich, resource-filled environment—with abundant connections to the outside world—that enables students to learn by doing and discovering.
20. Consider teaching to be a calling. They view their work as an authentic sharing of themselves and a way to make the world a better place, not a professional role that confers them status and a paycheck.