AERO supports educational alternatives around the world. There are a lot of dramatic stories about transformation that AERO has been a part of. For example, we came back from the International Democratic Education Conference that we cosponsored in 2003 and worked with people to create the first democratic school in the NYC area in decades, Brooklyn Free School, which led to several others in the NYC area. Subsequently, we worked with people to start Manhattan Free School from the waiting list for Brooklyn Free School. When that nearly folded several years later I was invited to what was supposed to be their final meeting. At that meeting, I encouraged the parents, students and staff members there to use the resources they had, a nonprofit status and a building in which to operate and get volunteer parents to keep going. One parent, from a software background, volunteered to be the interim director. Because of his IT background, he applied the agile learning approach to the school and thus Manhattan Free School morphed into the first Agile Learning Center. The idea has now been spreading around the world.
One of the most dramatic alternatives we work with is the Sri Aurobindo Ashram/orphanage in Kathmandu, Nepal. It was started by Ramchandra who ran away from Nepal to India at 12 years old. Educating himself there, he returned 20 years later and saw the great poverty in Nepal with many homeless children on the street. He then started the Ashram, an orphanage that now takes care of over 200 children with nothing paid for the children and no government subsidies. They raise 100% of their food at the Katmandu location and at another one in southern Nepal. They also started a retreat center in the mountains, staffed with graduates, to help support the Ashram.
The children there are raised almost like middle-class children. They now have a school that goes through 10th grade, but they send their graduates on to high school and university. One, who came as a 4-year-old now has a masters’ degree in math and physics from Germany and has returned to be principal of their school. Another also came back to teach and is now teaching at a gap year program. He recently visited us after bringing 22 American students back from Nepal after visiting the Ashram and other adventures. Another graduate became a world-class dancer.
The Ashram was preparing to host the 2018 IDEC when the deadly earthquake hit Nepal. As fortune would have it, all the students were outside unloading hay when it hit, and nobody was injured. But it did tremendous damage to their buildings. AERO members raised $10,000 to help them with repairs and found other resources, such as an architect to help them design the repairs. We also arranged a $5000 donation from a famous actress to help them buy a new milk truck to help them deliver excess milk from their dairy to sell in Kathmandu. They now plan to host the IDEC in 2020 in the new school building they are erecting brick by brick. You can see a video we made of the ashram here.
This is an example of the work that AERO continues to do. We do not receive any government funds and foundation grants only cover about 20% of our costs. This is why it is important that our new membership initiative to get 100 more sustaining donors is so important. We are just a small nonprofit that depends on the niche of readers and supporters who understand that children are natural learners and believe in learner-centered education.
Nevertheless, we put out a newsletter every week of the year, have an annual conference, have published more than 10 books , and have an annual school starters course. We also have the #1 alternative education website, according to Google, with a half million accessing it every year. We don’t know how many schools and programs have been inspired by AERO but we do know of more than 100 we have directly helped to start. This year’s school starters online course begins September 24th.
So, if you see we have gone to the effort of putting out yet another e-newsletter, even if we seem to be selling something that helps us keep going, please open it, and if you have time, give us some feedback. If we ask you to become a sustainer or AERO member, please consider it.
Thanks!
Jerry and The AERO Team
