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Register for the AERO Conference today!

Don't Miss the AERO Conference, May 20-25 at LIU/Post University, near New York City!

 

The AERO conference is a unique event. There is no other one like it in the USA and only one other in the world, the IDEC, this year in New Zealand. It is a gathering of people who are involved with revolutionizing education, and who already have some of the answers. They demonstrate and work toward a learner-centered approach, one that empowers students, teachers and parents. It is based on the fact, confirmed by brain research, that children are natural learners and do not need to be forced to learn. In fact, if students are forced to learn it extinguishes their natural ability to learn, something that, unfortunately, happens in 95% of all schools.

 

One of this year's keynote speakers is Sugata Mitra, winner of the TED Award and famous for the "Hole in the Wall Experiment" in which he put a computer in a wall in a slum area of India. Over the next few months the children not only taught themselves to use the computer, but also taught themselves English!

 

There will be five documentaries featured, some premiering, some with the filmmakers presenting! For example, Amy Valens, who made "Good Morning Mission Hill," about the extraordinary public school Debbie Meier started, will present her film, and Debbie Meier will join her! Jeremy Stuart, who made the critically acclaimed "Class Dismissed," which followed an unschooling family for two years, will come from California to present his documentary!

 

For the first time in five years the North American Democratic Education Conference will be part of the AERO conference, bringing students and staff members from many democratic schools and presenting their own workshops for all. On Wednesday, the 20th there will be visits to democratic and alternatives schools in the area. There will also be a Minecraft server for the conference.

 

We are offering the readers of this message the possibility of registering for the AERO conference at the earlybird rate, which actually lapsed at the end of January. To register just go to the AERO conference site, 

and to get the 10% discount to the earlybird rate, put in the coupon 2014member

 

Here's a link to the conference flyer.

For more information or special arrangements write to info@educationrevolution.org or call 800-769-4171. 

 

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Mycelium is looking for a Director of Operations

Google's Co-Founder, Larry Page, said "99.999% of people aren't working a job that can change the world."

Are you ready to be join the 00.001%? We're looking for a Director of Operations. If you think you are the person for the job or you know someone who could be,check out the application here. Apply by March 2nd.

 

 

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John Taylor Gatto: Advice from Harvard: 10 Skills for Success in the Global Economy

As I have often said, and proved with documentation, forced institutional schooling was never a home-grown American phenomenon, but from the beginning was an importation from a socialist European military state by our industrial leadership, an import imposed by force on our population which, in many locations reacted violently to what was widely seen as a coup by financial interests, a coup intended to prepare our future citizen base to abandon its dream of independent livelihoods in favor of competing for “good” corporate “jobs,” employment subservient to managers.

 

It was a transformation noted with horror by Abraham Lincoln, who thought it signified a re-assertion of the British social class system on our shores, brought back by British bankers financing the westward expansion of the U.S., in the middle 19th century, men made uneasy by the voice given by America to ordinary families and working class individuals; men determined to end popular interference in management by infiltrating, and weakening the minds of future citizens. According to a brilliant American scholar, Anthony Sutton, writing in a book I highly recommend, entitled, "America's Secret Establishment," schooling was inserted into America by an elite German secret society, working through Yale University and Johns Hopkins to gradually infiltrate every institution, directing all policy toward the end of American sovereignty. Sutton supplies chapter and verse of this sophisticated conspiracy, tracking it through its inception at the University of Berlin and the Prussia of Von Bismarck and following it through the thousands of American young from wealthy families studying in Prussia for the coveted PhD degree, granted only there in the 19th century, not in the states.

 

To achieve this ambitious goal of national domination, the common American population, according to the plan was to be converted from an independent citizenry into a proletariat, a landless, lightly-rooted ignorant rabble, one freed from religious faith, an inactive, indifferent mass, one content to be taken care of by a paternalistic government, one stripped of religion and traditions of liberty, independence, self-sufficiency, family ties, and concern for politics, content to cede all such matters to bankers, lawyers, business interests and the American counterpart to Britain and Germany's upper classes.

 

A mass man dedicated to the proposition that a person got ahead in life by pleasing higher authorities, and by surrendering any personal principles disfavored by one's superiors. These are the core principles taught by mass institutional schooling, habits drummed in by 12 years of confinement. If they were serviceable, according to what history shows to be America's unique genius—invention and innovation, this coup might not be so objectionable, but obviously they directly contradict what earned us our wealth and leadership position among nations—ingenuity, inventiveness and common ambition.

 

The children I taught had been deliberately infected with the delusion that an entity called “mass man” actually exists, that human individuality is largely a reflection of economic and social class, and that it can be scientifically engineered by bureaucracies interlinked with one another– the great socialistic fantasy, an ultimate statement of materialism. Socialist politics rejects individual enterprise as an enemy of collectivism; socialism holds that all human beings are the same at the core, without any proper claim to individualized treatment in preparation for maturity. In such a reality, only the political state can direct the training of young people. But because state prescriptions are too rigid to fit everyone, children rebel, listen less and less; their disobedience is a natural defense of their unique spirits. The delusion that people can be treated as a mass leads inevitably to types of organization and procedure which drive people literally insane because it bleeds significance from everyday choices, makes a mockery of free will; this mental distress is a legacy of bureaucratic schooling, a byproduct of efficiency engineer Frederick Taylor's notion that societies can be “scientifically managed” as if they were factories or coal mines, not much different than machinery.

 

But crucial differences exist, whether one believes in divine destiny or not; machinery can only be improved by interventions from outside while education only happens when much of the directing force is generated from inside the student; people only improve in limited ways from outside interventions. Individual growth has to be struggled for, to be taken. Nobody can do it for you.

 

A few years back, the School of Government at Harvard issued advice to those planning a career in the global economy of the future; it said that school credentials would be devalued compared to real world skills acquired by experience; it identified 10 qualities to acquire to meet the changing standards, none of which are usually found stressed by public schooling:

 

1. Ability to define problems without a guide.

2. Ability to ask questions that challenge common assumptions.

3. Ability to work without guidance.

4. Ability to work absolutely alone.

5. Ability to persuade others that yours is the right course.

6. Ability to debate issues and techniques in public.

7. Ability to re-organize information into new patterns.

8. Ability to discard irrelevant information.  

9. Ability to think dialectically.

10.Ability to think inductively, deductively, and heuristically.

 

How could schools even function if children were encouraged to challenge prevailing assumptions? If you want your kids to follow Harvard's advice, you'll have to arrange a work plan by yourself, expect no help from your school district.

 

How far we have fallen from educational schooling since colonial days can be measured by a book published in 1812 by Du Pont de Nemours, the man who owned the gunpowder monopoly during the war of 1812. In National Education In the United States, he wrote: "less than 4 in every thousand cannot read and do numbers with great facility.” He predicted that kitchen table debates about the meaning of disputed passages in the Bible would result in an explosive growth of lawyers in this country, a prediction the Wall Street Journal certified in 1990 when it reported that a quarter of all lawyers on earth were Americans!

 

A math book common in the northeast U.S. in the 1830's was The Self-Taught Mathematician, the story of an 18 year old boy who taught himself geometry, Latin, and physics, having learned to read at the age of 8, after which, one by one, he acquired scholar textbooks, and by asking questions of adults, self-taught a college-level curriculum. The message was that if he could do it, so could you. And if Harvard is right about its 10 precepts, so had you better.

 

One final sign of educational deterioration is to examine the first 3 subjects George Washington studied, without a school to assist him. They were: 1) geometry 2) trigonometry, and 3) surveying. By age 11 he was official surveyor for Culpepper County, Virginia, earning the contemporary equivalent of $100,000 a year, a base from which he built the largest fortune in the colonies. Force-feeding young minds with stimulating intellectual challenges is part of the time-honored formula of classical education repudiated by institutional forced compulsion schooling that seeks a different end-result than traditional educational purposes that lead to an active citizenry– the last thing wanted in a socialist state.

 

This philosophical debate between warring visions of the best future society should be understood by anybody seeking education because the reality of both sides in the debate must be dealt with by anyone growing to adulthood in societies divided against themselves; a price must be paid by those who deviate from the leadership point of view, and that must be weighed in decision-making. Educated men and women understand every side of an argument and are careful to stay away from one-sided presentations which customarily distort half of every issue. Mastering all points on the political/social compass demands toleration of perspectives one may not like much, but which must be confronted.  

 

If you can successfully predict what your source of data is going to say, that is cause enough to dismiss it as accurate or fair-minded– which is why CNN, FOX News, and partisan talk radio commentators are held in low regard by educated people. Some years ago, a famous satire in Harper's Magazine by its editor, Lewis Lapham, reported at length on the Republican Party political convention without even attending it! That was a flagrant example of so relentlessly broadcasting a biased point of view that one's message is discredited in advance of being heard.

 

For devotees of television serial dramas like “Law and Order” and “CSI Miami” or followers of genre fiction like westerns, horror movies or science fiction, the formulas followed are so rigid that artistic insights into the human condition are unlikely and even unwelcome, so any educational value is strictly limited. Once a commercial formula for storytelling is established, the tendency of financial investors in “popular culture” projects is to demand repetition of what worked in the past, making mass entertainment in movies, music, and drama virtually devoid of artistic insights and thus of educational value, reducing their value to time-killers.

 

For these reasons, and because time to learn is limited, prudent seekers of intellectual development often focus their investigations to time-tested “classics,” acknowledged by respected critics to contain artistic value. This is to illustrate the Harvard principle that the best minds screen irrelevant material from their attention, principle number eight on the list above; of course, in institutional schooling one attends to what is ordered by superiors, no selectivity is allowed to students. Merely disliking material is insufficient reason to avoid it, a case proving its irrelevancy must be mounted and accepted by authorities, Harvard principle number five in action. Finding ways to  practice all 10 of these assertions will be a useful tool for all your students to use in demonstrating an educated command of mind. 

 

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/

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An education in a democracy of freedom without concessions

At Clearview Sudbury School in Austin, Texas, all staff members and students -even the youngest among them- have a voice and a vote that carries the same weight in decisions going beyond what they wish to learn and the rules governing their interactions. The school meeting decides over all matters regarding the management and operation of the school, including its finances, the hiring of the staff, and the decision to approve the request that made my visit possible.

 

The day I visited, I arrived at the school at approximately 9:00 am. The school is open from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, and students can arrive at any time before 11:00 am as long as they complete an attendance requirement of at least 20 hours per week.

 

This school is not affiliated to any religious group, but it is located in a small building that a church shares with it. It is worth mentioning that the school is surrounded by a park and large green areas in a very lovely neighborhood.

 

Upon my arrival, the first impression I had crashed against all stereotypes regarding the popular notion of what a school looks like. I could not see desks and blackboards anywhere; there were no uniforms; several students were not wearing shoes inside the school; and no one, including the staff members, was wearing formal dress.

 

On this day, the school meeting had programmed a trip to Thinkery, one of those interactive museums where children can play freely with all the exhibits. Usually, the parents cannot stay with their children at school, but this day several of them had volunteered to facilitate the school trip. This way, groups of two or three students would be free to go anywhere inside the museum, not having to depend on the decisions of a much larger group or an itinerary. While we spent some hours at Thinkery, some students decided to stay at the school with one of the staff members.

 

During the time I spent at the school, I had no restrictions. I was allowed to talk to all staff members, several parents, and many of the students.

 

Among those parents with whom I was able to spend time talking, some explained to me that they wanted an opportunity for their children to grow happier and healthier. This is the reason why they took the decision to give them this type of education. Others took this decision because they had already had bad experiences in the traditional school. In one instance, a father told me that he did not want his son to be labeled. It happened that his son understood the school content but he did not feel the need to prove this in writing. I know that in this case, even if the teacher had been understanding, it is very likely that she wouldn't had been allowed to keep a student off-task. It would've been almost impossible as well to prevent the student from taking standardized tests. The parents of this child had already tried with homeschooling, but that had proven to be frustrating.

 

Among the youngest children, I was able to observe a great self-confidence and assertiveness in the way they approach adults -to whom they always address by their first name. A little girl told me that her mother teaches Spanish, and very sweetly and politely, she also told me: “I know some words in Spanish, but I'm not in the mood to say them right now”. Afterward, she made me several questions, inquiring about the bilingual class that I used to teach in Dallas. She wanted to know if my children knew how to speak English and when we spoke Spanish. She was very curious about the fact that my children understood English but they always preferred to speak Spanish.

 

I believe that in any other environment, this same child would've felt somewhat obliged to tell me those words she knows in Spanish. It is obvious that the children at Clearview Sudbury School are not there to obey or to satisfy adult expectations. It is also obvious that they can establish more direct and horizontal relationships. This is an important difference with many of the public schools in Texas, especially in the poorest areas of urban districts, where there are rules designed to create a great distance between students and adults. In order to consolidate adults as authority figures, teachers are sometimes advised to never smile to children or allow them to hug them. This is another reason why teachers must were formal clothing.

 

But perhaps the largest contrast with the traditional school has to do with having an environment in which everyone can feel relaxed. There is no pressure to follow a schedule, and time seems to run slower. Sometimes it even seems to stop. Around here, no one is worried about proving that something concrete is being learned or that something even remotely productive is being done. In no way I imply that they are not learning something or not doing productive things. What I mean is that they do not attend to someone else's judgment regarding the worthiness of what they do.

 

In this sense, the freedom at Clearview Sudbury School is complete and without concessions.

 

The freedom of students is only limited by the necessity to respect the freedom of others and by practical considerations regarding the safety and operation of the school. In any case, the rules governing social interactions within the community are decided by a school meeting in which everyone has a voice and a vote; and when there is a transgression to the rules, through a judicial committee, the students themselves decide what actions to take.

 

The compulsion of the official curriculum and the policies of the public school are not being replaced by the compulsion of an alternative curriculum and methods that are considered to be better. Nor is there proselytism or indoctrination of any kind. In this school, students are truly free to decide what to think as well as what, when, and how to learn. It doesn't matter if it implies that some students will decide to take all day doing fun activities that even some alternative schools would consider to be a waste of time.

 

Nevertheless, what might otherwise be deemed as lack of accountability in a traditional public school may possibly help to build a great sense of self-esteem and self-confidence in students as there is no need to satisfy the expectations of an external authority that is evaluating them constantly.

 

Just as A.S. Neill suggests in his book Summerhill, this freedom may help to raise human beings with a greater degree of authenticity, sincerity, and honesty, given that there is no need for simulation or artificial pretensions. Daniel Greenberg, co-founder of the first Sudbury school, would add that only when no one tells us what to do, it is that we can develop a true sense of responsibility. I would add that only in an environment of freedom in which we are accepted unconditionally, we can learn to respect others; and likewise, only in an environment of freedom in which there is no fear, we can learn to treat ourselves as equals.

 

In this sense, no account of my visit to this school would be complete without saying that I was not able to observe conflicts or behavior problems. Even if this doesn't mean that conflicts and behavior problems are absent from this type of schools, I feel that this is something very important to remark. Given our prejudices against freedom, many people would think that children would start acting like savages. Well… This does not happen. In fact, people who have spent a considerable amount of time at Sudbury schools report that bullying is almost nonexistent. This might be the case because of their democratic structure and the mixture of ages.

 

It is interesting to see that through this freedom that makes no assumptions concerning how and in what sequence learning should happen, students may be able to continue learning in the same natural and instinctive way in which they learned how to walk and how to speak during their first childhood years, identifying and attending their own needs, and obeying to what seems to be some kind of inner teacher. I was able to observe this firsthand.

 

When we were back from the school trip, a group of three girls embarked on the task of drawing the ancient symbol of the Yin and Yang. If an observer at a traditional school had asked them what they were learning, they probably wouldn't have been able to produce an articulate answer, and the teacher would've been told that these girls were wasting their time in a task unrelated to one of the official standards. Nevertheless, an artist with a more educated viewpoint would know that this is in no way a trivial task. In fact, there is a famous legend about how Giotto won a papal commission by proving that he could draw a perfect circle with red ink and without a compass.

 

Why and how did these little girls decide to spend a long time trying to draw this symbol with great meticulousness? I don't know, but this does indeed suggest a natural process in the development of artistic expression. This is what Arno Stern has observed among children from several different countries when there is no instruction, no expectations, no evaluations, and no requests to explain or to describe what is being drawn.

 

Needless to say, what I observed is an activity of great value and something immensely more productive than, for instance, learning to identify the difference between a straight and a curve line -as trivial as this may seem and as difficult as it may seem to believe, it is something that first graders in the public schools of Texas must learn in their art classes.

 

It is worth noting that in many public schools of the United States, students are now required to take standardized tests in their art classes. By doing this, the focus of art education is being placed on memorizing definitions that make no contribution to the development of artistic expression. The only real accomplishment of standardized tests in this regard may be about developing hate against the arts, much the same way it happens with mathematics education.

 

The truth is that at the traditional school, it seems that everyone is working when in fact very few may be busy doing something truly important. In this school, in contrast, it looks like no one is working when in fact everyone is busy doing something important.

 

Around here, free and unstructured play is considered serious business, and no form of play is censored. It doesn't matter if a student decides to spend all day playing videogames. I must say that this may be the most shocking thing to see at a Sudbury school, especially for a person used to the pressures and prejudices of the traditional school. To say the least, I know that the principal of the public school where I used to work at that time would've been horrified. I confess myself that this required an adjustment on my part when I had the chance to observe this directly. A member of the staff confessed to me that it is not at all unusual for them to receive disapproving looks from some of their visitors.

 

At some point, while remembering the restrictions of my own classroom, I felt very emotional. The difference between Clearview Sudbury School and the school where I used to work was abysmal. In my classroom, there was a constant tension between children -who quite naturally wanted to play and talk- and a nervous teacher, always afraid of losing control and then having the principal come in at any time. For my first graders, even coloring was very limited because that was considered crayola curriculum. They were forced to walk in straight and silent lines; there was no recess; and just as it would happen in a jail or a convent, they were asked on occasion to eat their lunch in complete silence and then rest their little heads on the tables after finished. The following Monday, when I was back in my classroom, a little girl asked me about Clearview Sudbury School. I had no heart to tell her the truth of what I had seen because that truth implied that she was being robbed of her childhood.

 

Somehow, the students of many public schools in the United States are treated like prisoners or delinquents. In contrast, at the Sudbury school there is complete respect and confidence in children. Of course, this must require a lot of integrity and commitment on the part of the staff and parents who must resist all criticisms and temptations to run the lives of children given just how radical and controversial this type of education still is for many people.

 

Before concluding my visit, Kimberly Engleman, co-founder of the school, gave me a copy of the book Free to Learn by Peter Gray. I strongly recommend reading this book to all people interested in the foundational ideas of this type of education.

 

This school follows a model inspired by Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Massachusetts. Currently, there are approximately 34 Sudbury schools in the United States and several other countries around the world, but still none in Latin America.