Unschool Radical

The Alternative Education Resource Organization Presents the 3rd Annual AERO Conference

Come join teachers, students, families and many others involved in educational alternatives for an inspiring, thought-provoking 4-day event!

Our keynote speakers include John Taylor Gatto, Mimsy Sadofsky, Ron Miller, Susan Ohanian, Pat Farenga, Jerry Mintz, and Tim Seldin.

Highlights include keynote panel discussions, new school starters workshop series, communities workshop series, student film festival & speakers, documentaries & films, FREE child care throughout, huge bookstore, musical performances, talent show, open workshop space, and plenty of workshops & events for all!

Sponsored by The Montessori Foundation, the International Montessori Council, Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, Center for Liberty & Community, School of Living, Institute for Democratic Education, Students Against Testing, International Association for Learning Alternatives, & Life Learning Magazine.

-Isaac Graves
Conference Director
Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO)
417 Roslyn Road, Roslyn Heights, NY 11577-2620
(800) 769-4171 (toll-free) or 516-621-2195
www.EducationRevolution.org
isaacgraves@gmail.com

3rd Annual AERO Conference
June 29th - July 2nd, 2006
Russell Sage College, Troy, NY
www.EducationRevolution.org/conference.html

Website: www.EducationRevolution.org
Detailed Info Packet: www.EducationRevolution.org/packet.html

Conference Theme: “Educational Alternatives: Finding Our Commonalities & Celebrating Our Differences”

“Allow children to be happy their own way, for what better way will they ever find?”
Samuel Johnson

What people say about Aerp Conference:
“I saw John Taylor Gatto (author of “Dumbing us Down”) there a couple of years ago and that is what inspired me to homeschool.” - SE, New York

“I learned a lot about Education but much more about myself. Thanks :)” - OR, Pennsylvania

“The open workshops allowed for the kind of spontaneous discussions that felt important and authentic.” - GM, Montana

Tags: Upcoming Unschool Conferences // Add Comment »

I am posting this because this is the way people define homeschooling as being successful or not- do this get into college. Somehow a homeschooler is successful if they go to college or university. My husband’s sisters were homeschooled and the first question people ask me ( including other homeschoolers and unschoolers) is- what do they do for a living? Second most popular question is- are they successful. What does this mean? I know what they are asking- but the whole point of unschooling is to challenge the idea of success.

CNN Article
College after homeschooling: The right decision?

CNN’s Pat Etheridge looks into how well home-schooled students fare in college

October 3, 2000
Web posted at: 11:52 a.m. EDT (1552 GMT)

(CNN) — Homeschooling isn’t for everyone, but it seems to have worked for Matt Martin and Sasha Wexler.

Martin attends Piedmont College, a small, liberal arts school in Georgia that actively recruits homeschoolers and currently has 12 of them on campus. Homeschooling “made me very motivated, very self-reliant,” says Martin, a sophomore on full scholarship.

For Wexler, 18, the “home” in homeschooling is wherever she and her laptop computer happen to be. The Washington student is working toward an online high school degree while also pursuing an acting career that occasionally takes her on the road.

Being able to do both makes her better at both, Wexler told CNN. “When I’m doing theater I am happier and I’ll do better school work as well.”

By some accounts, Martin and Wexler missed out on the social life that comes with a traditional high school education. But, to hear them tell it, homeschooling was still the right decision.

Tags: Unschooling Articles in Mainstream Press, Unschooling Concepts and Ideas // Add Comment »

From The Toronto Star, April 27: Tales out of school

Who started it?

The age-old question

“He started it!”

But did he? A new study shows teachers often struggle to recognize when bullying is taking place among their students, especially if it’s the psychological kind, rather than the physical bullying for which teachers often get less training.

In a University of Toronto study of 157 Grade 4 and 5 students in Toronto, researchers interviewed 18 students who had been bullied — but their teachers were aware of only 10 of the victims, and they tended to be children who had been bullied physically, rather than through other methods such as text messaging.

The study, led by U of T social work professor Faye Mishna, found teachers sometimes don’t recognize bullying if it takes place between friends, and that students often don’t report bullying to teachers early enough to allow for intervention.

“Most teachers would like more training to provide them with better intervention strategies,” said Mishna. “To understand bullying, we need to examine not only the behaviours of children who bully and the children they victimize, but also teachers who may be present when bullying happens.”

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Discovered: the missing link that solves a mystery of evolution
Interesting article in the Guardian newspaper about new evidence supporting evolution. “Scientists have made one of the most important fossil finds in history: a missing link between fish and land animals, showing how creatures first walked out of the water and on to dry land more than 375m years ago.

Palaeontologists have said that the find, a crocodile-like animal called the Tiktaalik roseae and described today in the journal Nature, could become an icon of evolution in action - like Archaeopteryx, the famous fossil that bridged the gap between reptiles and birds.

As such, it will be a blow to proponents of intelligent design, who claim that the many gaps in the fossil record show evidence of some higher power.

Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, said: “Our emergence on to the land is one of the more significant rites of passage in our evolutionary history, and Tiktaalik is an important link in the story.”

Read complete article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1747926,00.html

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CNN piece on Unschooling
Unschooling Article from CNNBy Traci Tamura and Thelma Gutierrez, CNN

I am always looking for articles on unschooling- feel free to post in comments if you come across some. This one was but wishy-washy, and emphaisis was on how there were no rules, she could stay up late, sleep in , watch tv.. Then of course comments from the school board board “authorities” that need socialization - and not sure what this means- but “interacton with adults in school setting” think this means needs to be a plce where adult can pummel you with theire power and need to learn to submit. Interesting that they did story on unschooling but hate the slant they took on it.

excerpt:

– It’s a child’s dream. Wake up whenever you want, with nobody telling you what to do and when to do it. And here’s the kicker: No school to rush off to.Welcome to the world of “unschooling” — an educational movement where kids, not parents, not teachers, decide what they will learn that day.

“I don’t want to sound pompous, but I think I am learning a little bit more, because I can just do everything at my own pace,” said Nailah Ellis, a 10-year-old from Marietta, Georgia, who has been unschooled for most of her life.

Nailah’s day starts about 11 a.m., her typical wake-up time. She studies Chinese, reading, writing, piano and martial arts. But there’s no set schedule. She works on what she wants, when she wants. She’ll even watch some TV — science documentaries are a favorite — until her day comes to an end about 2 a.m.

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Unschooling article:’Unschoolers’ chart their own course
By Chris Kenning
ckenning@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Excerpt:

Mandy Ridiman is 17 years old, but she’s never been in a classroom, taken a test or followed a school schedule.

When it comes to Mandy’s education, her curiosity dictates what she learns. Take, for example, the time she got interested in mummies after seeing one on TV.

Soon she was soaking up the science of mummification, the history of ancient Egypt, comparative religions, hieroglyphics, how rivers flood and mathematical riddles of the pyramids — until she decided to move on.

“I was just amazed at so many things,” she said.

Read rest of article here:

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060130/NEWS01/601300384

Tags: Unschooling Articles in Mainstream Press // 1 Comment »