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Alternative education
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Featured Website
AERO
The Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO) was founded in 1989 by Jerry Mintz. AERO's goal is to advance student-driven, learner-centered approaches to education. AERO is the primary hub of communications and support for educational alternatives around the world. Our network includes Montessori, Waldorf (Steiner), Public Choice and At-Risk, Democratic, Homeschool, Open, Charter, Free, Sudbury, Holistic, Virtual, Magnet, Early Childhood, Reggio Emilia, Indigo, Krishnamurti, Quaker, Libertarian, Independent, Progressive, Community, Cooperative, and Unschooling.
AERO's mission is to help create an education revolution to make learner-centered education available to everyone.
One of AERO's areas of expertise is democratic process and democratic education, but equally important is the networking of all forms of educational alternatives. Towards this end, AERO provides information, resources and guidance to families, schools and organizations regarding their educational choices. AERO disseminates information internationally on topics such as: homeschooling, public and private alternative schools, and charter schools. Visit AERO
Featured Article
The Ten Signs You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child
Many parents don't realize that the education world has changed drastically since they were in school. Schools and class sizes used to be smaller, dropout rates lower, in-school violence almost unheard of, and teachers weren't terrified of showing affection to their students, or of discussing moral values. Of course, even then, school was far from perfect, but at least the teachers—and usually the principal—knew every student by name, something that is increasingly rare today.
Featured Books
Top Books to Start Your Jourmey
Here are a few highly recommended books on learner-centered education. They are inspiring and will help you realize that people have been experimenting successfully with alternatives to traditional schooling for many years. I will update this regularly.
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
John Taylor Gatto's classic on his journey from New York State teacher of the year to advocate of alternatives to schooling.
John Holt's book written 50 years ago is as valid today. "John Holt was the first to make clear that, for small children, "learning is as natural as breathing."
Free at Last: The Sudbury Valley School
Dan Greenberg, one of the founders of the pioneering Sudbury Valley School explains how it began. It was a pioneer in "democratic education." "It provides a wealth of personal experience, gleaned from the first twenty years of the school's life. It is not a treatise on educational philosophy or practice, nor is it a formal history of the school. Rather, it is a human story of an experiment absolutely unique in the annals of education."
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