Category: News

Sent to AERO by the Fadels:

Teresa Thayer Snyder was superintendent of the Voorheesville district in upstate New York. She wrote this wise and insightful essay on her Facebook page.

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

I am writing today about the children of this pandemic. After a lifetime of working among the young, I feel compelled to address the concerns that are being expressed by so many of my peers about the deficits the children will demonstrate when they finally return to school. My goodness, what a disconcerting thing to be concerned about in the face of a pandemic which is affecting millions of people around the country and the world. It speaks to one of my biggest fears for the children when they return. In our determination to “catch them up,” I fear that we will lose who they are and what they have learned during this unprecedented era. What on earth are we trying to catch them up on? The models no longer apply, the benchmarks are no longer valid, the trend analyses have been interrupted. We must not forget that those arbitrary measures were established by people, not ordained by God. We can make those invalid measures as obsolete as a crank up telephone! They simply do not apply. 

When the children return to school, they will have returned with a new history that we will need to help them identify and make sense of. When the children return to school, we will need to listen to them. Let their stories be told. They have endured a year that has no parallel in modern times. There is no assessment that applies to who they are or what they have learned. Remember, their brains did not go into hibernation during this year. Their brains may not have been focused on traditional school material, but they did not stop either. Their brains may have been focused on where their next meal is coming from, or how to care for a younger sibling, or how to deal with missing grandma, or how it feels to have to surrender a beloved pet, or how to deal with death. Our job is to welcome them back and help them write that history.

I sincerely plead with my colleagues, to surrender the artificial constructs that measure achievement and greet the children where they are, not where we think they “should be.” Greet them with art supplies and writing materials, and music and dance and so many other avenues to help them express what has happened to them in their lives during this horrific year. Greet them with stories and books that will help them make sense of an upside-down world. They missed you. They did not miss the test prep. They did not miss the worksheets. They did not miss the reading groups. They did not miss the homework. They missed you.
Resist the pressure from whatever ‘powers that be’ who are in a hurry to “fix” kids and make up for the “lost” time. The time was not lost, it was invested in surviving an historic period of time in their lives—in our lives. The children do not need to be fixed. They are not broken. They need to be heard. They need be given as many tools as we can provide to nurture resilience and help them adjust to a post pandemic world.

Being a teacher is an essential connection between what is and what can be. Please, let what can be demonstrate that our children have so much to share about the world they live in and in helping them make sense of what, for all of us has been unimaginable. This will help them– and us– achieve a lot more than can be measured by any assessment tool ever devised. Peace to all who work with the children!

Co-Executive Director

The New School Kennebunk

LOCATION:  The New School is located in Kennebunk, Maine

POSITION:  This is a full time, salaried, exempt position. This is a co-leadership position with defined roles between two co-leaders.

START DATE: The preferred start date for this position is July 2021.  Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

ABOUT THE NEW SCHOOL

The New School is a progressive, independent high school providing a unique, student-driven, democratic learning experience for youth primarily from Maine and New Hampshire. The New School also operates a thrift store, Outta the Box,  whose profits go directly to the school.  Our campus is within walking distance of downtown Kennebunk, and it is a quick drive to the coast which often serves as a classroom.

As a private school, recruitment of students and development of additional financial resources are critical elements of the school’s success.  The Co-ED will promote the financial stability and growth of The New School by engaging in and providing leadership to the school community in the areas of recruitment of new students, donor development and recognition, fundraising events and activities, publicity, and nonprofit administration.  The Co-ED will also assist the Board of Trustees to fulfill its role in raising financial resources to sustain and enhance the school.

The New School is looking for a candidate with demonstrated strengths in development and fiscal management, external relationship building, and nonprofit administration and leadership. The successful candidate will have prior experience working in a nonprofit organization and preferably in an educational setting.  A strong background in nonprofit administration is required.

This role will work closely with the present Co-Director known as the Educational Director,  who is responsible for the educational programing of the organization. The Co-Directors work closely with one another and with the Board of Trustees.                                                                                                            

RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Development
   
   
   1. Foster ongoing relationships with funders
      
      
   1. Identify funding opportunities and lead efforts to secure adequate funding
      
      
   1. Research grant opportunities, (delegate grant person) ensure grant compliance and complete grant reporting
      
      
   1. Work with Board of Trustees to contribute to fundraising efforts
      
      
2. Marketing
   
   
   1. Develop and implement strategies for promoting The New School and Outta the Box
      
      
   1. Develop and implement strategies for recruitment of students
      
      
   1. Expand the current website and social media platforms to reach students, family and the community
      
      
3. Finance
   
   
   1. Responsible for fiscal management, prioritizing diversified funding streams, ensuring maximum resource utilization and operating within the organization’s budget
      
      
   1. Develop annual operating budget and projections
      
      
   1. Develop systems to support program staff in monitoring spending
      
      
   1. Complete all day-to-day financial management tasks
      
      
   1. Approve and monitor contract agreements with administration, consultants, and Outta the Box
      
      
   1. Oversee tax filings and maintenance of 501c3 status
      
      
   1. Commitment to increasing staff salaries and benefits across the organization to enhance staff sustainability
      
      
4. Nonprofit Administration
   
   
   1. Support and enhance the Board of Trustees
      
      
   1. Continue The New School’s mission-driven, democratic process for decision making.
      
      
   1. Ensure staff have the supplies and resources needed to do their jobs
      
      
   1. Collaborate with Co-Director on hiring decisions
      
      
   1. Support the development of internal administrative and HR policies and ensure the organization is compliant with policies
      
      
   1. Develop and refine administrative systems within the organization
      
      
   1. Work with Outta The Box to develop management and operating policies
      
      

QUALIFICATIONS and SKILLS:

• Genuine dedication to working with youth and teens
  
  
• Educational background and/or equivalent work experience in nonprofit administration or development preferred
  
  
• Experience with organizational development and strategic planning
  
  
• Experience or aptitude for fiscal management including budget development, day-to-day oversight, and regular reporting
  
  
• Effective fundraiser, including direct cultivation and solicitation of donations or grants from individual donors, foundations, and government
  
  
• Strength in leading with a collective mindset and approach, including supporting other people’s leadership, taking direction from community, youth, staff, and Board; experience with consensus-based  decision making is preferred
  
  
• Ability to think critically and use a strengths-based approach to problem solving
  
  
• Marketing, public relations, and fundraising experience 
  
  
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
  
  
• Ability to work effectively in collaboration with diverse groups of people and work collaboratively with a team
  
  
• Highly organized and ability to multitask
  
  
• Must satisfactorily pass a comprehensive background check.
  
  

SALARY and BENEFITS:

This is a full-time, salaried position at $45,000 to $50,000 annually, with some flexibility in schedule and hours. This position is considered Exempt under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

TO APPLY:

If our work and this position resonates with you, please submit a cover letter and resume to employment@tnsk.org.  You must submit both a cover letter and a resume to be considered for this position. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Only candidates who are invited for an interview will be contacted.

The New School is an equal opportunity employer. The New School does not discriminate on the basis of gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, sex, religion, national origin, immigration status, age, or physical or mental ability.

What’s Going to Happen in September?

We established the Alternative Education Resource Organization 32 years ago with the mission of the Education Revolution: To make learner-centered education possible for students everywhere. We believe that children are natural learners and that this approach flows logically from that awareness.

Remarkably, the Education Revolution has happened, inadvertently, as a result of the pandemic. As educators around the world reached for alternatives when their schools were forced to close, some found the alternatives we had been promoting all along.They called it many things: virtual classes, distance learning, homeschooling, and later, pandemic pods. Some alternative educators argued that it wasn’t “really” homeschooling, for example, because they were simply doing “school at home.” But the reality was that real parents with real children were now responsible for their education. The paradigm had changed. Perhaps two billion people suddenly realized that going to the local assigned school wasn’t written in stone and that they had choices.

Now that the pandemic is ebbing in the United States and some other countries, people have asked me to predict what would happen now in education. At first, I ventured a prediction. Then I realized that to make a prediction now would be foolhardy. Things will certainly change in education, but it would be impossible to know what form they would take. But some things are becoming clearer.

When I saw the recent headlines that New York City, New York State and others would be ending virtual options for parents I was struck by the arrogance of their tone. Regular public schools are used to having a virtual monopoly and a captive audience. Those administrations seemed to have learned nothing from this dramatic educational experience or at least are desperate to go back to the previous situation when they had all the power. An AERO committee created a list of ways that schools could reopen in a more learner-centered way, but it was mostly ignored. They have been pushing the narrative of “learning loss” to scare people into going back. But that is not likely to happen. Parents and children now know they have choices and have experienced some of them.

When schools try to open in September without the virtual and other choices, I think those administrators are in for a big shock. One indication of that is what has happened in New York City: Personal attendance has been available for all students this school year, but, shockingly, 60% of the families kept their children at home! Of course, some part of that was simply because of health fears. But we don’t know what part. Does the system really believe that all of them will just obediently send their children back to school just because they say so?

In September this will be playing out everywhere. Previous to the pandemic only about 3% of children were homeschooling and a similar number were in other kinds of alternatives. I think that a much larger percentage of families won’t send their children back. There are many reasons for this: Some parents and children have discovered they the really like having school in their home. Some parents suddenly realized how creative and entrepreneurial their children were, and how boring and rigid the classes were that were being piped in through Zoom. And many parents will continue working from home. In a recent Newsday article it noted that 71% of employers want to continue some form of work from home “with only a quarter requiring full-time return to in-person attendance.” This really reflects the potential impact this will have on homeschooling.

Schools made the huge mistake of thinking the monologs from their teachers were the most important part of their school experience. Some weren’t even interactive. But the only thing most students missed about school was interacting with the other students. The system might have saved itself if this was realized. But very few set up systems by which the students could simply interact with each other.

One tired criticism of homeschooling often heard is what homeschoolers call “the S word,” socialization. But virtually all homeschoolers know that their children are being well socialized, experiencing a myriad of activities and situations every day. In fact, studies have shown this and have even expressed alarm at the narrow socialization public school students experience, with classes of children their same age, something they will never experience again in their lives after school.

So, what’s going to happen? Most likely the school year will start, and a surprisingly large number of parents won’t send their children to the school. Only then will administrators in the school system have to confront the reality that things have changed.

There is precedent for this. In California there have always been more homeschoolers than in other parts of the country. This represented a potentially huge loss of state funding for school systems. So in self-defense, almost all California school districts created “independent study” options. Essentially this was legitimizing homeschooling as a public school choice. This enabled school districts to claim homeschoolers as registrants. Some homeschoolers in California were worried that the system would try to co-opt the registrants back into the system, but decades later it hasn’t happened, because they knew the homeschoolers knew how to walk away, if necessary.

What does this mean for other states? It is a template for them to claw back the funding they might lose if a high percentage of parents simply left the system. For example, in New York State it is not legal to get credit from virtual learning. Ironically, this meant that last year every student in New York was technically truant and couldn’t get credit. But of course, that didn’t happen. So, this coming school year New York and many other states and countries will have to confront this phenomenon head on, and make some drastic changes in the way they do things, if they want to keep their funding.
Only then will we come to understand what the new educational landscape will look like. 

Feel free to send feedback or to use this essay with a link to www.educationrevolution.org
Jerry Mintz

Schools don’t need to teach democracy

April 11, 2021

Stephen Gessner criticizes the failure of schools to teach about democracy in his op-ed “Our schools fail to teach democracy,” Opinion, April 7]. But I believe he misses the point.

The need is not for schools to teach “about” democracy, critical thinking and decision making. Students need to grow up practicing democracy, to be “in” democracy.

Obviously, the best way to prepare students to participate in a democracy is not to be subjected to 12 years of authoritarianism in schools.

In our current system, students get rewarded for doing what the teacher and the system tells them to do rather that initiating their own directions of learning, based on their interests. They do not grow up making decisions democratically about their education or their school.

It is important to note that the education revolution has just happened, thanks to remote learning. At one point, we went from less than 5% of students learning alternatively to more than 90%! Now, 50 million American families know they have choices.

Where will this lead? We don’t know, but we should make sure that it leads to a learner-centered, democratic experience for all children. This actually is practiced by more than 250 schools around the world and, for example, over 30 public democratic schools in Israel.

Jerry Mintz, Roslyn

Editor’s note: The writer is director of Alternative Education Resource Organization, based in Roslyn Heights.