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10:30 - 11:00 am Welcome & Overview
Main Room
Now that the Education Revolution has happened: What will we do next?
Jerry Mintz has been a leading voice in the alternative school movement since establishing AERO in 1989. In addition to his seventeen years as a public and independent alternative school principal and teacher, he has also helped found more than one hundred public and private alternative schools and organizations. He has lectured and consulted in more than twenty-five countries around the world.
In 1989, he founded the Alternative Education Resource Organization and since then has served as it’s Director. Jerry was also a founding member of the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) in 2013.
In addition to several appearances on national radio and TV shows, Jerry’s essays, commentaries, and reviews have appeared in numerous newspapers, journals, and magazines including The New York Times, Newsday, Paths of Learning, Green Money Journal, Communities, Saturday Review, Holistic Education Review as well as the anthology Creating Learning Communities (Foundation for Educational Renewal, 2000).
Jerry was Editor-in-Chief for the Handbook of Alternative Education (Macmillan, 1994), and the Almanac of Education Choices (Macmillan/Simon & Schuster, 1995). He is the author of School’s Over: How to Have Freedom and Democracy in Education (AERO, 2017) and is editor of Turning Points: 35 Visionaries in Education Tell Their Own Story (AERO, 2010).He is the editor of the AERO weekly free e newsletter with 15,000 subscribers.
Jerry Mintz has spoken at Alternative Education Resource Organization Conferences from its inception in 2004 through 2019 in locations such as Troy, NY, Albany, NY, Portland, OR, and Long Island University. He has spoken at the International Democratic Education Conference in locations including Hadera, Israel, Vienna, Austria, Devon, England, Summerhill School, England, Vinnitsa, Ukraine, Tokyo, Japan, Christchurch, New Zealand, Sydney, Australia, Berlin, Germany, Bhubanashwar, India, Vancouver, Canada, Nuestra Escuela, Puerto Rico, Boulder, Colorado, Gwangmyeong, Korea, Mikkeli, Finland, and Kiev, Ukraine. He has done TEDx talks in Brooklyn and Norway. He has also spoken at the Reevo Conference in Bogota, Colombia, the ED Crunch Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Eureka Conferences in Narva, Estonia, Simferipol, Ukraine, and Moscow, Russia, The Green Festival in New York, International Association of Learning Alternatives Conferences in Deluth, MN, Portland, OR, St. Augustine, FL, Atlanta, GA, Des Moines, IA, Denver, CO, Amsterdam, NY. He has spoken a homeschooling conferences such as in Albany, NY, Montreal, Quebec, Dallas, TX. He has spoken at the Montessori Foundation Conference in Sarasota, FL. He spoke at numerous National Coalition of Alternative Community School conferences such as in Salem, OR, Chicago, IL, Santa Fe, NM, Ann Arbor, MI, Bloomington, IN, San Diego, CA, Summertown, TN, Glenmoore, PA. He has done consultations in nearly every state and over 22 countries, most recently in Eger, Hungary, Chalford, England and Kiev, Ukraine.
Articles by Jerry Mintz
Democratic School Governance
Sustainable Education
Ten Signs You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child
https://www.educationrevolution.org/store/jerrymintz/
In 1989, he founded the Alternative Education Resource Organization and since then has served as it’s Director. Jerry was also a founding member of the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) in 2013.
In addition to several appearances on national radio and TV shows, Jerry’s essays, commentaries, and reviews have appeared in numerous newspapers, journals, and magazines including The New York Times, Newsday, Paths of Learning, Green Money Journal, Communities, Saturday Review, Holistic Education Review as well as the anthology Creating Learning Communities (Foundation for Educational Renewal, 2000).
Jerry was Editor-in-Chief for the Handbook of Alternative Education (Macmillan, 1994), and the Almanac of Education Choices (Macmillan/Simon & Schuster, 1995). He is the author of School’s Over: How to Have Freedom and Democracy in Education (AERO, 2017) and is editor of Turning Points: 35 Visionaries in Education Tell Their Own Story (AERO, 2010).He is the editor of the AERO weekly free e newsletter with 15,000 subscribers.
Jerry Mintz has spoken at Alternative Education Resource Organization Conferences from its inception in 2004 through 2019 in locations such as Troy, NY, Albany, NY, Portland, OR, and Long Island University. He has spoken at the International Democratic Education Conference in locations including Hadera, Israel, Vienna, Austria, Devon, England, Summerhill School, England, Vinnitsa, Ukraine, Tokyo, Japan, Christchurch, New Zealand, Sydney, Australia, Berlin, Germany, Bhubanashwar, India, Vancouver, Canada, Nuestra Escuela, Puerto Rico, Boulder, Colorado, Gwangmyeong, Korea, Mikkeli, Finland, and Kiev, Ukraine. He has done TEDx talks in Brooklyn and Norway. He has also spoken at the Reevo Conference in Bogota, Colombia, the ED Crunch Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Eureka Conferences in Narva, Estonia, Simferipol, Ukraine, and Moscow, Russia, The Green Festival in New York, International Association of Learning Alternatives Conferences in Deluth, MN, Portland, OR, St. Augustine, FL, Atlanta, GA, Des Moines, IA, Denver, CO, Amsterdam, NY. He has spoken a homeschooling conferences such as in Albany, NY, Montreal, Quebec, Dallas, TX. He has spoken at the Montessori Foundation Conference in Sarasota, FL. He spoke at numerous National Coalition of Alternative Community School conferences such as in Salem, OR, Chicago, IL, Santa Fe, NM, Ann Arbor, MI, Bloomington, IN, San Diego, CA, Summertown, TN, Glenmoore, PA. He has done consultations in nearly every state and over 22 countries, most recently in Eger, Hungary, Chalford, England and Kiev, Ukraine.
Articles by Jerry Mintz
Democratic School Governance
Sustainable Education
Ten Signs You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child
https://www.educationrevolution.org/store/jerrymintz/
Killing Curiosity
An adventure questioning how we learn - Are schools killing curiosity? Join us in the first official presentation of the documentary film Killing Curiosity (“La Revolución del Aprendizaje” in Spanish), the result of +100 interviews in some of the most innovative learning centers of 12 continentes. Travel, education and a quest for purpose collide in this adventure around the world questioning not only how we learn, but how we live. The creators of the film and founders of Evolving Education, Luz Olid and David Caballero, will guide this interactive session to move from awareness to action.
Luz Olid and David Caballero are the founders of Evolving Education, whose mission is to democratize the most innovative educational practices in the world. They have traveled around the world interviewing +100 educators, parents and learners in some of the most innovative learning centers of 4 continentes. The film “Killing Curiosity” (“La Revolución del Aprendizaje” in Spanish) and the online training experience “Expedición Aprendizaje” are the first outcomes of this adventure. They both trained as scientists and worked in biomedical research before making a big shift in their lives to focus on social entrepreneurship and education. Luz has experience in Spain’s educational system and in agile learning centers (ALC); while David also mentors social entrepreneurs and connects them with university students to inspire them to become change makers through U4Impact. They are originally from Spain and have lived in the UK, Belgium and Mexico.
Luz Olid and David Caballero are the founders of Evolving Education, whose mission is to democratize the most innovative educational practices in the world. They have traveled around the world interviewing +100 educators, parents and learners in some of the most innovative learning centers of 4 continentes. The film “Killing Curiosity” (“La Revolución del Aprendizaje” in Spanish) and the online training experience “Expedición Aprendizaje” are the first outcomes of this adventure. They both trained as scientists and worked in biomedical research before making a big shift in their lives to focus on social entrepreneurship and education. Luz has experience in Spain’s educational system and in agile learning centers (ALC); while David also mentors social entrepreneurs and connects them with university students to inspire them to become change makers through U4Impact. They are originally from Spain and have lived in the UK, Belgium and Mexico.
Creating a Youth-Led Free Learner Movement
Discussing (or presentation) of the Youth Led Free Learning Movement. Currently being initiated as part of a Riipen.com project sponsored by UnSchoolingSchool Youth should have lots to say about how the process of creating the movement and how others can become involved.
Self-Directed Education Youth Advocates
18 year old Selva Lorenz is passionate about creating change, and recently founded the Self-Directed Education Youth Advocates group. She has personal experience of three different public schools, a Montessori school, unschooling, online public school, and a democratic self-directed setting. The contrast of changing back and forth between systems has given her a very clear sense of the key problem with education as well as the solution.
Modern Homeschooling: Tiptoeing from Conventional Education to …
- The decades’ long growth trend in homeschooling has been largely driven by “accidental homeschoolers”, families that shift to homeschooling as a last resort to flee problems in the formal education system. These new homeschoolers are often unprepared and somewhat fearful about homeschooling. They usually decide to “try” homeschooling for a short period which then extends into years or forever. Many of these initially reluctant homeschoolers develop into very enthusiastic ones. Time4Learning has almost two decades facilitating their homeschooling experience with both an automated interactive curriculum and with help to parents understanding the basics and possibilities of homeschool education. In this talk, the founder of Time4Learning will share advice about homeschooling as well as how to blend interest driven education into the mix. Time4Learning provides an online K-12 multi-subject curriculum which includes instruction, practice, assessment, planning, and record-keeping which does much of the heavy lifting of homeschooling. Time4Learning is the leader in modern homeschooling with over 150,000 students and continuous operations since 2004. http://www.time4learning.com
John Edelson is the founder and president of Time4Learning, a leader in modern homeschooling. Prior to starting Time4Learning in 2003, John Edelson spent decades in video game development and technology in Silicon Valley and London. His goals in starting Time4Learning were to enrich the homeschooling space by using game concepts to drive meaningful learning and to deliver the best possible educational programs to support homeschoolers. John Edelson started his career with two years in the Peace Corps in West Africa. John Edelson worked in video games for five years: he was an executive producer on Croc, Legend of the Gobbos,a game that went platinum on the Playstation. He has lived for a decade in Europe. He is the proud father of three children. https://www.time4learning.com/aboutus.htm
John Edelson is the founder and president of Time4Learning, a leader in modern homeschooling. Prior to starting Time4Learning in 2003, John Edelson spent decades in video game development and technology in Silicon Valley and London. His goals in starting Time4Learning were to enrich the homeschooling space by using game concepts to drive meaningful learning and to deliver the best possible educational programs to support homeschoolers. John Edelson started his career with two years in the Peace Corps in West Africa. John Edelson worked in video games for five years: he was an executive producer on Croc, Legend of the Gobbos,a game that went platinum on the Playstation. He has lived for a decade in Europe. He is the proud father of three children. https://www.time4learning.com/aboutus.htm
Assessing with Respect
Every Day Practices that Meet Students' Social and Emotional Needs - Participants will examine their own implicit biases to improve their relationships with students, deepen their understanding of the impact of grades and assessments on students' self-image and their ability to reach their full potential as learners and develop personalized assessment systems that ensure an accurate, fair, and equitable portrayal of what students know and can do.
Starr Sackstein, a National Board-certified teacher, spent 16 years as a HS English and Journalism Teacher in NY and then was a curriculum leader for two years. She has been passionate about assessment reform and student empowerment for more than a decade.
She completed her advanced leadership certification at SUNY New Paltz and is a certified Master Journalism Educator through the Journalism Education Association.
In 2012, Education Update recognized her as an outstanding educator, and in 2016, she was named one of ASCD's Emerging Leaders.
Sackstein is currently a consultant with the Core Collaborative, working with teams on assessment reform and bringing student voice to the front of classroom learning, and publisher at Mimi & Todd Press. She is the host of AuthorED & InspirED, a video program of author interviews, and the author of the ASCD books Teaching Students to Self-Assess and Peer Feedback in the Classroom and Assessing with Respect. She has written several other education books and has contributed to many others on issues related to assessment.
Starr Sackstein, a National Board-certified teacher, spent 16 years as a HS English and Journalism Teacher in NY and then was a curriculum leader for two years. She has been passionate about assessment reform and student empowerment for more than a decade.
She completed her advanced leadership certification at SUNY New Paltz and is a certified Master Journalism Educator through the Journalism Education Association.
In 2012, Education Update recognized her as an outstanding educator, and in 2016, she was named one of ASCD's Emerging Leaders.
Sackstein is currently a consultant with the Core Collaborative, working with teams on assessment reform and bringing student voice to the front of classroom learning, and publisher at Mimi & Todd Press. She is the host of AuthorED & InspirED, a video program of author interviews, and the author of the ASCD books Teaching Students to Self-Assess and Peer Feedback in the Classroom and Assessing with Respect. She has written several other education books and has contributed to many others on issues related to assessment.
Democratic Education 2.0: Sociocracy in Schools
Sociocracy is a toolkit that takes democracy a step further, where instead of majority vote or labored consensus agreements, decisions are made by integrating the voices of everyone affected by the decision through consent.
In this workshop, we will explore sociocracy as implemented in a public charter school and a private homeschool community in the US. In schools that use sociocratic tools, one can find students, teachers and staff members coming together in small groups (circles) to make decisions about their school life. Further, we’ll compare majoritarian democracy, consensus, and sociocratic decision-making processes and governance structures in schools.
Hope Wilder is the core founder of Pathfinder Community School (pathfindercommunityschool.com), a self-directed and self-governed learning community for ages 5-14 in Durham, NC, USA. Pathfinder started as a Sudbury-inspired founding group and evolved to use sociocracy. Hope is also a member of the Sociocracy for All (sociocracyforall.org) Academy and Schools and Education Circle and helps support schools to implement sociocracy through training and consulting. (hopewildertraining.com)
Will Gowen is a social studies teacher at Morey Flextech High School (https://www.facebook.com/flextechshepherd/), a small public charter school in Shepherd, MI, USA. In addition to teaching, for the past 3 years Will has been leading an evolving democratic implementation at Morey Flextech that began with consensus and landed on sociocracy. Will is also a member of the Sociocracy for All (sociocracyforall.org) Academy and Schools and Education Circle and is currently on track to become a certified trainer.
In this workshop, we will explore sociocracy as implemented in a public charter school and a private homeschool community in the US. In schools that use sociocratic tools, one can find students, teachers and staff members coming together in small groups (circles) to make decisions about their school life. Further, we’ll compare majoritarian democracy, consensus, and sociocratic decision-making processes and governance structures in schools.
Hope Wilder is the core founder of Pathfinder Community School (pathfindercommunityschool.com), a self-directed and self-governed learning community for ages 5-14 in Durham, NC, USA. Pathfinder started as a Sudbury-inspired founding group and evolved to use sociocracy. Hope is also a member of the Sociocracy for All (sociocracyforall.org) Academy and Schools and Education Circle and helps support schools to implement sociocracy through training and consulting. (hopewildertraining.com)
Will Gowen is a social studies teacher at Morey Flextech High School (https://www.facebook.com/flextechshepherd/), a small public charter school in Shepherd, MI, USA. In addition to teaching, for the past 3 years Will has been leading an evolving democratic implementation at Morey Flextech that began with consensus and landed on sociocracy. Will is also a member of the Sociocracy for All (sociocracyforall.org) Academy and Schools and Education Circle and is currently on track to become a certified trainer.
Is the Revolution Really Over?
Next, We Can Decolonize Ourselves and Our Education, With Insights From Indigenous Wisdom - What does it mean to decolonize our minds? What does it mean to decolonize education; to throw off the shackles, and arrogance, of the power over, control model, and to have the Inner Wealth to be a part of the movement of healthy living, connection, and being that Indigenous Wisdom is?
In this 90-minute, experiential discussion, we’ll identify the key foundational mindsets of colonized thinking, and how we can grow ourselves together into ways of thinking and being that are whole, healthy, and thriving – with children, with the lands and oceans and critters, and with each other.
Micki O’Brien, M.A. is the Principal & Curator of The Sovereign Heartland: An Alternative Education International Resource Center. She is a leadership coach, writer, spiritual teacher, and student of Indigenous Wisdom. A strengths-based autism expert, who is neurodivergent herself, Micki coined the term “NeuroUniqueness,” and has a documentary and TEDx talk conveying a message of what is possible when we each understand and use our unique neurology well.
She utilizes what is commonly called “hacking” to find the very best, most effective, and most fun ways to engage greatness in leadership, learning, systems, and unique neurology. To this end, she became an Advanced Certified Nurtured Heart Approach® Trainer, a methodology used across the globe for: healthy communication between adults and children, building Inner Wealth™, and being strengths-based. (The state of New Jersey trained their entire Department of Children and Families in NHA.)
People say that Micki is an engaging and enthusiastic teacher. She earned her Master’s in Environmental Leadership from Naropa University (a Buddhist-inspired institution), where she wrote her thesis on applying Integral Theory to Education Systems. She has AMI Montessori Teacher Training, conventional Special Education Teaching Credentials, student taught at Jefferson County Open School, taught the night-shift program at PS1 Charter School in Denver, and served on the board of the National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools (NCACS).
In this 90-minute, experiential discussion, we’ll identify the key foundational mindsets of colonized thinking, and how we can grow ourselves together into ways of thinking and being that are whole, healthy, and thriving – with children, with the lands and oceans and critters, and with each other.
Micki O’Brien, M.A. is the Principal & Curator of The Sovereign Heartland: An Alternative Education International Resource Center. She is a leadership coach, writer, spiritual teacher, and student of Indigenous Wisdom. A strengths-based autism expert, who is neurodivergent herself, Micki coined the term “NeuroUniqueness,” and has a documentary and TEDx talk conveying a message of what is possible when we each understand and use our unique neurology well.
She utilizes what is commonly called “hacking” to find the very best, most effective, and most fun ways to engage greatness in leadership, learning, systems, and unique neurology. To this end, she became an Advanced Certified Nurtured Heart Approach® Trainer, a methodology used across the globe for: healthy communication between adults and children, building Inner Wealth™, and being strengths-based. (The state of New Jersey trained their entire Department of Children and Families in NHA.)
People say that Micki is an engaging and enthusiastic teacher. She earned her Master’s in Environmental Leadership from Naropa University (a Buddhist-inspired institution), where she wrote her thesis on applying Integral Theory to Education Systems. She has AMI Montessori Teacher Training, conventional Special Education Teaching Credentials, student taught at Jefferson County Open School, taught the night-shift program at PS1 Charter School in Denver, and served on the board of the National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools (NCACS).
Supporting Neurodivergent Students in Progressive and Radical Educational Contexts
In this workshop, we’ll explore how neurodivergent students needs can be met in non traditional educational contexts — where they may face different challenges than in standardized education. Our emphasis will be on ways educators can uphold & advocate for student autonomy while still providing needed supports.
Tay Arrow is a non-binary, AD(H)D alumni of the self directed education movement, who started participating in youth led direct actions at age 10. They were diagnosed with AD(H)D as a teenager, and after dropping out of four conventional high school programs, learned to thrive within self-directed education. They later worked as a staff in self-directed education schools between 2007 and 2020, and completed 3 college degrees. They currently serve as a board member at Sprig Institute, a nonprofit which seeks to further access to self directed education in Southern California, and are a working artist and copywriter. In their spare time, they maintain a “guerrilla” food garden for their local community. Brian Conner is a queer, nonbinary college student and community organizer, NYRA's Human Resources Lead, and a member of NYRA’s Board of Directors. Brian’s interest in youth rights and self-directed education began their sophomore year of high school, when they participated in a student uprising against their school’s administration. Brian studies film, theatre, music, and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, where they are also a member of the Midnight Cabaret, a sketch comedy group which performs at midnight every Friday. They are a member of the autistic self-advocacy community and hope to found a commune centered on queerness and neurodivergence.
Tay Arrow is a non-binary, AD(H)D alumni of the self directed education movement, who started participating in youth led direct actions at age 10. They were diagnosed with AD(H)D as a teenager, and after dropping out of four conventional high school programs, learned to thrive within self-directed education. They later worked as a staff in self-directed education schools between 2007 and 2020, and completed 3 college degrees. They currently serve as a board member at Sprig Institute, a nonprofit which seeks to further access to self directed education in Southern California, and are a working artist and copywriter. In their spare time, they maintain a “guerrilla” food garden for their local community. Brian Conner is a queer, nonbinary college student and community organizer, NYRA's Human Resources Lead, and a member of NYRA’s Board of Directors. Brian’s interest in youth rights and self-directed education began their sophomore year of high school, when they participated in a student uprising against their school’s administration. Brian studies film, theatre, music, and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, where they are also a member of the Midnight Cabaret, a sketch comedy group which performs at midnight every Friday. They are a member of the autistic self-advocacy community and hope to found a commune centered on queerness and neurodivergence.
Breaking down global silos in education
CEO & Founder of k20 Educators
Why I didn't stand for the pledge
I’m a black Native American 16 year old and I sat for the pledge at my school. I go by she/ her. I take a lot of AP classes and play a few sports as well. I try my best at everything I do. I’m a very passionate and opinionated person but I like to hear other sides and understand where they’re coming from. I’m really into arts a crafts and like to fix things. I strive to inspire people everyday!
The Generation We Have Been Waiting For
The Youth Rights Day is about much more than youth rights.
It is inspired by youth saying, “We are the generation we
have been waiting for.” It is ultimately about the leadership
needed to put the world on a far better course.
A major reason why youth and their supporters have not
made more progress getting major injustices addressed is that they have remained too
disconnected. The Youth Rights Day is created to change this. By rallying for one
grand show of solidarity on November 20 th , the day the United Nations celebrates its
Convention on the Rights of the Child, a much higher level of public awareness and support for
youth efforts can be achieved.
The Youth Rights Day is conceived as a meeting place, not an organization. It is creating a space
for youth and advocating for social, environmental and learning justice. By bringing them
together under one umbrella, they can better see how to build the alliances that will further
their particular causes. Education is over-riding. As the documentary film Schooling the World
conveys, if you want to change a culture in a single generation, you have to change how it
educates its children. We need for young people to have learning environments that allow
them to use their time learning about what matters to them, and respect their right to
participate as equals in decisions that affect them.
There is still the general perception that young people are to be seen and not heard, or that
they are too irresponsible and inexperienced to be given an equal say. The Youth Rights Day
Movement will help to dispel this misconception by dramatically increasing the opportunities
for the public to meet young people who they not only need not fear, but who they need to
hear.
This session will introduce participants to youth from four corners of the globe: India, the UK,
Canada east, and the US west. They will tell their stories about how they got involved and the
work they are doing. The session serves as one example of a possible Youth Rights Day event.
Panels of local youth activists could be hosted by community associations to build awareness of
how youth are valuable citizens when treated with respect.
After hearing from the panelist, specifics about the Youth Rights Day and how youth and their
supporters can take advantage of it will be covered. A question period will end the session. To
receive updates on the Youth Rights Day, please register at:
https://youthrightsday.wordpress.com/contact/.
Following are brief bios of the people who will be speaking at this session.
Kyrstin Dumont
Kyrstin is a passionate and caring young woman and proud band member of the Algonquins of
Kitigan Zibi. She is an awardee for her dedication to the indigenous community, she has taken
part in sacred walks to protect the water, spoken on Parliament Hill about climate justice and
human rights, created cultural art tutorials during covid for indigenous youth to stay connected
to their cultures as well as continuously raised money for the moose moratorium and low
income families during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has worked with schools, organizations
and churches such as OCDSB, CAS, the child welfare league, UNICEF Canada, the Kitchissippi
church as well as the Woodroffe church and while she is currently completing her high school
education at Urban Aboriginal she works as a strong role model for other students who have
fallen through the cracks of mainstream colonial education systems. She is an advocate, an
aspiring future social worker, and a mentor to her family and community alike.
Yumna Hussen
Yumna is a student advocate and campaigner, elected as the Member of the UK Youth
Parliament for Birmingham and Chair of Birmingham Aspiring Youth Council, representing
200,000+ young people in the UK Youth Parliament. She is also a Bite Back Youth Leader, which
is an organisation which aims to revolutionise the food system and place young people's health
first. An avid writer, public speaker and co-author to the fiction book 'Struggles of War', she is
keen on using creative approaches to explore social justice issues. Currently, she is launching
RESILIENCE - a youth-led organisation, with the mission of elevating key systems in humanity
and in particular, envisioning the future of our education system.
Zineb Mouhyi
Zineb is the co-founder of YouthxYouth, a global community of youth education activists and
adults dedicated to the reimagination and transformation of education for collective liberation.
She is also one of the co-founders of the Weaving Lab, an international NGO and network of
weavers, i.e. social change-makers pioneering new approaches to collaboration and
ecosystemic transformation. Prior to that, she was the Policy & Partnership Development
officer at WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education), at the Qatar Foundation in Doha,
where she mainly worked on education development, policy research and implementation, and
on bringing together education stakeholders to collectively advocate for changes in education.
Mahi Thakur
I walked out of the conventional education system that was preparing millions of people for so
called mainstream careers untimely to fall into the never ending exploitative, consumerist
culture. I realized that these careers just add up to the modern problems that we are facing
instead of providing any solution to it. It was then, I began to question everything and the
alarming need to reimagine education. I am deeply interested in indigenous knowledge
practices and decolonising education. My search for alternative approaches to learning has led
to me having conversations with educationalists around the globe. I am now an active member
of Ecoversities Alliance. I am also one of the youth signatories of the initial letter launching the
Youth Rights Day movement and I'm committed to uniting youth in their effort to put the world
on a better course.
Richard Fransham
Richard is a supporter of youth. He co-founded Uniting for Children and Youth and The Ottawa
Public Education Remake Initiative (OPERI). Along with members of Unschooling School, he
organized the three-day Child Friendly Community Conference that started on November 20 th ,
2020. He is retired from teaching and has presented at previous AERO conferences.
It is inspired by youth saying, “We are the generation we
have been waiting for.” It is ultimately about the leadership
needed to put the world on a far better course.
A major reason why youth and their supporters have not
made more progress getting major injustices addressed is that they have remained too
disconnected. The Youth Rights Day is created to change this. By rallying for one
grand show of solidarity on November 20 th , the day the United Nations celebrates its
Convention on the Rights of the Child, a much higher level of public awareness and support for
youth efforts can be achieved.
The Youth Rights Day is conceived as a meeting place, not an organization. It is creating a space
for youth and advocating for social, environmental and learning justice. By bringing them
together under one umbrella, they can better see how to build the alliances that will further
their particular causes. Education is over-riding. As the documentary film Schooling the World
conveys, if you want to change a culture in a single generation, you have to change how it
educates its children. We need for young people to have learning environments that allow
them to use their time learning about what matters to them, and respect their right to
participate as equals in decisions that affect them.
There is still the general perception that young people are to be seen and not heard, or that
they are too irresponsible and inexperienced to be given an equal say. The Youth Rights Day
Movement will help to dispel this misconception by dramatically increasing the opportunities
for the public to meet young people who they not only need not fear, but who they need to
hear.
This session will introduce participants to youth from four corners of the globe: India, the UK,
Canada east, and the US west. They will tell their stories about how they got involved and the
work they are doing. The session serves as one example of a possible Youth Rights Day event.
Panels of local youth activists could be hosted by community associations to build awareness of
how youth are valuable citizens when treated with respect.
After hearing from the panelist, specifics about the Youth Rights Day and how youth and their
supporters can take advantage of it will be covered. A question period will end the session. To
receive updates on the Youth Rights Day, please register at:
https://youthrightsday.wordpress.com/contact/.
Following are brief bios of the people who will be speaking at this session.
Kyrstin Dumont
Kyrstin is a passionate and caring young woman and proud band member of the Algonquins of
Kitigan Zibi. She is an awardee for her dedication to the indigenous community, she has taken
part in sacred walks to protect the water, spoken on Parliament Hill about climate justice and
human rights, created cultural art tutorials during covid for indigenous youth to stay connected
to their cultures as well as continuously raised money for the moose moratorium and low
income families during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has worked with schools, organizations
and churches such as OCDSB, CAS, the child welfare league, UNICEF Canada, the Kitchissippi
church as well as the Woodroffe church and while she is currently completing her high school
education at Urban Aboriginal she works as a strong role model for other students who have
fallen through the cracks of mainstream colonial education systems. She is an advocate, an
aspiring future social worker, and a mentor to her family and community alike.
Yumna Hussen
Yumna is a student advocate and campaigner, elected as the Member of the UK Youth
Parliament for Birmingham and Chair of Birmingham Aspiring Youth Council, representing
200,000+ young people in the UK Youth Parliament. She is also a Bite Back Youth Leader, which
is an organisation which aims to revolutionise the food system and place young people's health
first. An avid writer, public speaker and co-author to the fiction book 'Struggles of War', she is
keen on using creative approaches to explore social justice issues. Currently, she is launching
RESILIENCE - a youth-led organisation, with the mission of elevating key systems in humanity
and in particular, envisioning the future of our education system.
Zineb Mouhyi
Zineb is the co-founder of YouthxYouth, a global community of youth education activists and
adults dedicated to the reimagination and transformation of education for collective liberation.
She is also one of the co-founders of the Weaving Lab, an international NGO and network of
weavers, i.e. social change-makers pioneering new approaches to collaboration and
ecosystemic transformation. Prior to that, she was the Policy & Partnership Development
officer at WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education), at the Qatar Foundation in Doha,
where she mainly worked on education development, policy research and implementation, and
on bringing together education stakeholders to collectively advocate for changes in education.
Mahi Thakur
I walked out of the conventional education system that was preparing millions of people for so
called mainstream careers untimely to fall into the never ending exploitative, consumerist
culture. I realized that these careers just add up to the modern problems that we are facing
instead of providing any solution to it. It was then, I began to question everything and the
alarming need to reimagine education. I am deeply interested in indigenous knowledge
practices and decolonising education. My search for alternative approaches to learning has led
to me having conversations with educationalists around the globe. I am now an active member
of Ecoversities Alliance. I am also one of the youth signatories of the initial letter launching the
Youth Rights Day movement and I'm committed to uniting youth in their effort to put the world
on a better course.
Richard Fransham
Richard is a supporter of youth. He co-founded Uniting for Children and Youth and The Ottawa
Public Education Remake Initiative (OPERI). Along with members of Unschooling School, he
organized the three-day Child Friendly Community Conference that started on November 20 th ,
2020. He is retired from teaching and has presented at previous AERO conferences.
Mini Talk with Shatiera Porte’e, MA, LAC
As a child, Shatiera always knew what she wanted; inspiring to help people one day. During her academic school years, she fell in love with the study of the mind and behavior.
Shatiera received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Bloomfield College, NJ where she was bestowed with the Bloomfield College Award in Psychology for outstanding academic performance and community service. She holds a Master of Arts in Counseling, and a certificate in play therapy. She received her certification as a school counselor and is a New Jersey Licensed Associate Counselor. Shatiera serves as a member with various organizations that include New Jersey and Union County School Counselor Associations, Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology, and Chi Sigma Iota, the International and Professional Counseling Academic Honor Society.
Shatiera has been working in the mental health field for over 14 years. She has successfully rolled out and optimized more than a dozen programs, initiatives, and projects for businesses, and communities. Shatiera has extensive experience in various counseling capacities, corrections, residential treatment facilities with adolescents, long term care facilities, emergency crisis and psychiatric screening services, homeless youth, support needs of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and substance abuse treatment centers.
Shatiera enjoys traveling abroad especially for community outreach which includes teaching at a school in Haiti and volunteering at an orphanage in Morocco. She is driven and loves working with at-risk youth. Every year Shatiera gives back to sponsor high school students who need assistance with their senior activities, spending countless hours in her free time mentoring and supporting our youth.
Shatiera, for over three years has been the administrator employed in an urban district K - 12 school as a Director of Student Services and Curriculum, as well as servicing the high school students as their College and Career School Counselor. She has helped design and assess programs to support students with the skills needed to succeed, to overcome challenges, and to cope with traumatic or extenuating life circumstances. Shatiera helped launch a local chapter of the successful school-wide Girls Who Code Program, which is a school program designed to provide STEM training education to teenage girls.
In addition, Shatiera is a co-owner and co-founder of A Dope Girl Vision, L.L.C, where she conducts seminars promoting self-discovery and empowerment to participants to cultivate visions of the person they are destined to become.
Shatiera resides in New Jersey with her son and loves spending time with family. She enjoys cooking, creating new recipes, which includes finding new places to travel, becoming an international foodie. She enjoys dancing while listening to her favorite selections of music. Shatiera is working diligently to one day establish her own nonprofit organization helping young ladies manifest desired dreams while working towards making them a reality.
Shatiera received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Bloomfield College, NJ where she was bestowed with the Bloomfield College Award in Psychology for outstanding academic performance and community service. She holds a Master of Arts in Counseling, and a certificate in play therapy. She received her certification as a school counselor and is a New Jersey Licensed Associate Counselor. Shatiera serves as a member with various organizations that include New Jersey and Union County School Counselor Associations, Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology, and Chi Sigma Iota, the International and Professional Counseling Academic Honor Society.
Shatiera has been working in the mental health field for over 14 years. She has successfully rolled out and optimized more than a dozen programs, initiatives, and projects for businesses, and communities. Shatiera has extensive experience in various counseling capacities, corrections, residential treatment facilities with adolescents, long term care facilities, emergency crisis and psychiatric screening services, homeless youth, support needs of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and substance abuse treatment centers.
Shatiera enjoys traveling abroad especially for community outreach which includes teaching at a school in Haiti and volunteering at an orphanage in Morocco. She is driven and loves working with at-risk youth. Every year Shatiera gives back to sponsor high school students who need assistance with their senior activities, spending countless hours in her free time mentoring and supporting our youth.
Shatiera, for over three years has been the administrator employed in an urban district K - 12 school as a Director of Student Services and Curriculum, as well as servicing the high school students as their College and Career School Counselor. She has helped design and assess programs to support students with the skills needed to succeed, to overcome challenges, and to cope with traumatic or extenuating life circumstances. Shatiera helped launch a local chapter of the successful school-wide Girls Who Code Program, which is a school program designed to provide STEM training education to teenage girls.
In addition, Shatiera is a co-owner and co-founder of A Dope Girl Vision, L.L.C, where she conducts seminars promoting self-discovery and empowerment to participants to cultivate visions of the person they are destined to become.
Shatiera resides in New Jersey with her son and loves spending time with family. She enjoys cooking, creating new recipes, which includes finding new places to travel, becoming an international foodie. She enjoys dancing while listening to her favorite selections of music. Shatiera is working diligently to one day establish her own nonprofit organization helping young ladies manifest desired dreams while working towards making them a reality.
Mini-Talk with Claire Fraise
Claire Fraise was homeschooled from fourth to twelfth grade, where she was given the freedom to direct her education. This freedom allowed her to experiment with many career paths and interests, eventually helping her realize what she wanted to do most in the world was write. Claire earned her B.A. in English from Tufts University, as well as a minor in Foreign Policy Analysis. She is the author of the YA dystopian novel Imperfect (winner of the San Francisco and Beverly Hills Book Festivals) which she published when she was 16, and is launching a new YA supernatural thriller series called They Stay in October. When Claire’s not writing, she likes crocheting amigurumi animals, reading, and hanging out with her dogs.
8:30 - 9:30 am Open Planning Session
Main Room Open Planning Session
Children are not Blank Slates
Candy’s interest in democratic schooling was sparked by reading A.S. Neill’s Summerhill in 1967. She co-founded The Highland School in 1981 and learned about Sudbury Valley School in 1983. Doing play therapy with children for 15 years and teaching public school teachers for West Virginia University are two of the professional activities Candy practiced over her career. She also participated in many education conferences as well as serving on staff at The Highland School.
Recently, Candy published Crying Under The Apple Tree: Children, Freedom, and Praxis in Democratic Schools, a book about why we do what we do in democratic education. The book also illustrates examples of life at The Highland School over almost 40 years. Candy is deeply committed to respectful relationships with children.
Recently, Candy published Crying Under The Apple Tree: Children, Freedom, and Praxis in Democratic Schools, a book about why we do what we do in democratic education. The book also illustrates examples of life at The Highland School over almost 40 years. Candy is deeply committed to respectful relationships with children.
Keynote Speaker
Henry Readhead was born in 1977. He is the
grandson of A.S.Neill, founder of Summerhill School, world renowned as a pioneer in democratic, learner-centered education.
His mother is Neill’s daughter, Zöe, current Head of Summerhill. She was famously mentioned as a toddler in Neill’s book, Summerhill, which was a best-seller with millions of copies sold in the early 1960’s. It led to the free school and alternative school movement.
Henry was a pupil at Summerhill from the age of 3 to 16. He studied sound engineering at SAE Institute in London in 1997 and started a recording studio in 2002. He returned to Summerhill for several years to help with the successful court case against the Department for Education in 1999. He was the music teacher at Summerhill between 2002-2012 whilst working in the music industry.
He is presently Deputy Principal of Summerhill School with his brother Will, in support Zöe, their mother, who is still the principal.
Over the past 6 years Henry has also been the main ambassador for Summerhill School, representing it all over the world. He has been doing talks, workshops and lectures about Summerhill and A.S.Neill’s educational philosophies, speaking in dozens of countries (see list below). He recently said, “I’m very excited about coming to America as it will be my first time and to speak at AERO as I have been friends with Jerry Mintz for many years.”
Here is a list of some of the places where Henry Readhead has presented:
Keynotes, Workshops and Lectures of Henry Readhead
2012
Global HR Forum, Arirang TV
2014
IDEC 2014 Urupia, University Lecture Conference
2015
Alicante University Lecture INNOVATION 2015, Free-Learning Education Conference University Lecture
2016
IDEC/EUDEC 2016
Seoul
Seou,l Puglia, Bielefeld Chichester
Madrid, Moscow, Prague, Castellon Valencia
South Korea, Italy, Germany, England
Spain, Russia, Czech, Spain
Mikkeli, Finland
Alicante University Lecture, APDEC 2016 , CAIEV Educational Project
2017
IDEC 2017 , APDEC and S-Hill Promo Events, Conversation for Change , University Lecture Multiple APDEC 2017, EUDEC, 2018 Oasis Movement Tour (9 dates), Poverty & Education, Kings College
2018
Freedom to Learn Forum , Humanity School Campaign Suppor,t Taipei, AERO 2018, Forgotten Majority, Invisible Minority New Oriental Education Conference
Madrid, Barcelona
Hadera, Kyoto & Tokyo, Anton, Madrid, Moscow, Tokyo, Paris Multiple, London
Summerhill
New York Hampshire
Spain, Taiwan, Spain
Israel, Japan, Austria, Spain, Russia, Japan, France, India, England
England, Taiwan, USA, England, China
Note from Henry Readhead to AERO Readers:
The subject of Summerhill School is not always so easy to cover in a short talk. Over the years I have covered most of the elements, so we thought it would be fun to give you all a list of topics I could speak about for my keynote and you can all vote on which ones you would like me to emphasize.
I will be giving a keynote speech with a Q&A, and a separate session later on in the conference. Here is a list of topics I can cover:
100 years of freedom within education
Social and emotional development
Community life and boarding at Summerhill
100 years of democracy at Summerhill
Learning at Summerhill with non-compulsory lessons
The meeting process, laws and conflict resolution
Parenting and Summerhill
Henry was a pupil at Summerhill from the age of 3 to 16. He studied sound engineering at SAE Institute in London in 1997 and started a recording studio in 2002. He returned to Summerhill for several years to help with the successful court case against the Department for Education in 1999. He was the music teacher at Summerhill between 2002-2012 whilst working in the music industry.
He is presently Deputy Principal of Summerhill School with his brother Will, in support Zöe, their mother, who is still the principal.
Over the past 6 years Henry has also been the main ambassador for Summerhill School, representing it all over the world. He has been doing talks, workshops and lectures about Summerhill and A.S.Neill’s educational philosophies, speaking in dozens of countries (see list below). He recently said, “I’m very excited about coming to America as it will be my first time and to speak at AERO as I have been friends with Jerry Mintz for many years.”
Here is a list of some of the places where Henry Readhead has presented:
Keynotes, Workshops and Lectures of Henry Readhead
2012
Global HR Forum, Arirang TV
2014
IDEC 2014 Urupia, University Lecture Conference
2015
Alicante University Lecture INNOVATION 2015, Free-Learning Education Conference University Lecture
2016
IDEC/EUDEC 2016
Seoul
Seou,l Puglia, Bielefeld Chichester
Madrid, Moscow, Prague, Castellon Valencia
South Korea, Italy, Germany, England
Spain, Russia, Czech, Spain
Mikkeli, Finland
Alicante University Lecture, APDEC 2016 , CAIEV Educational Project
2017
IDEC 2017 , APDEC and S-Hill Promo Events, Conversation for Change , University Lecture Multiple APDEC 2017, EUDEC, 2018 Oasis Movement Tour (9 dates), Poverty & Education, Kings College
2018
Freedom to Learn Forum , Humanity School Campaign Suppor,t Taipei, AERO 2018, Forgotten Majority, Invisible Minority New Oriental Education Conference
Madrid, Barcelona
Hadera, Kyoto & Tokyo, Anton, Madrid, Moscow, Tokyo, Paris Multiple, London
Summerhill
New York Hampshire
Spain, Taiwan, Spain
Israel, Japan, Austria, Spain, Russia, Japan, France, India, England
England, Taiwan, USA, England, China
Note from Henry Readhead to AERO Readers:
The subject of Summerhill School is not always so easy to cover in a short talk. Over the years I have covered most of the elements, so we thought it would be fun to give you all a list of topics I could speak about for my keynote and you can all vote on which ones you would like me to emphasize.
I will be giving a keynote speech with a Q&A, and a separate session later on in the conference. Here is a list of topics I can cover:
100 years of freedom within education
Social and emotional development
Community life and boarding at Summerhill
100 years of democracy at Summerhill
Learning at Summerhill with non-compulsory lessons
The meeting process, laws and conflict resolution
Parenting and Summerhill
The Good News Science Behind Screen Time
In this session, participants will identify the screen time use of each age group and the benefits and challenges families face. Best practices will be discussed as well as current research on addiction and the affect of screen time on the developing brain at different ages. Don’t worry – it is good news!
Judy Arnall, BA, CCFE, DTM is a certified brain and child development specialist and master of non-punitive parenting and education practices. She is the founder of Unschooling Canada Association and is the bestselling author of 5 print books translated into 5 languages, including Unschooling To University, which is becoming a bestseller in an age of parents seeking educational options. She is the parent of 5 self-directed educated children of which 3 have already graduated university, 1 is halfway through, and 1 is enjoying a Masters program. 3 are in STEM careers in engineering, health science and chemistry. She can be reached at https://www.judyarnall.com or at https://www.unschoolingtouniversity.com
Judy Arnall, BA, CCFE, DTM is a certified brain and child development specialist and master of non-punitive parenting and education practices. She is the founder of Unschooling Canada Association and is the bestselling author of 5 print books translated into 5 languages, including Unschooling To University, which is becoming a bestseller in an age of parents seeking educational options. She is the parent of 5 self-directed educated children of which 3 have already graduated university, 1 is halfway through, and 1 is enjoying a Masters program. 3 are in STEM careers in engineering, health science and chemistry. She can be reached at https://www.judyarnall.com or at https://www.unschoolingtouniversity.com
Suvemäe: A democratic branch within a public school in Tallinn, Estonia
- Suvemäe is a pilot project in Estonia, aiming at consolidating a balance between academic learning and youth interests, while promoting self-directed learning, youth participation, age mixing and free play. Suvemäe is a branch within one of the oldest public schools in Estonia.
Charlie is a teacher and anthropologist with 15-year experience in public, private and international schools and universities. His doctoral studies brought him to learn about democratic education in relation to a framework designed to strengthening education actions for social justice and inclusion. Currently he works as the head of studies at Suvemäe, Estonia's first democratic branch within a public school.
Charlie is a teacher and anthropologist with 15-year experience in public, private and international schools and universities. His doctoral studies brought him to learn about democratic education in relation to a framework designed to strengthening education actions for social justice and inclusion. Currently he works as the head of studies at Suvemäe, Estonia's first democratic branch within a public school.
Following Your Heart in Education
What does it mean to tune into your heart and deepest calling in your educational journey.
This workshop will give you the chance to tune in with yourself and develop the tools and strategies to support others in following their heart as learners. This workshop will integrate self-reflection, brainstorming, and facilitated dialogue. Looking through the lens of personal experience, research, and teaching experience covering the intersections of social emotional learning, holistic learning, contemplative practices, and educational psychology to make sense of the best practices and challenges in striving for heart centered learning.
Michelle L. Tichy, Ph.D. She earned her doctorate in Educational Psychology with an emphasis on Social and Developmental Psychology from the University of Minnesota. Michelle works with and trains teachers to better support neurodiverse students including students who are Highly Sensitive, Gifted, live with anxiety and ADHD. Her heart centered commitment is to create access to holistic and authentic educational opportunities for all students. As a social and developmental psychologist she is fascinated by how people grow and thrive from prenatal development through life. She is also the Mommy to a 17 yo daughter and a 7 yo son.
This workshop will give you the chance to tune in with yourself and develop the tools and strategies to support others in following their heart as learners. This workshop will integrate self-reflection, brainstorming, and facilitated dialogue. Looking through the lens of personal experience, research, and teaching experience covering the intersections of social emotional learning, holistic learning, contemplative practices, and educational psychology to make sense of the best practices and challenges in striving for heart centered learning.
Michelle L. Tichy, Ph.D. She earned her doctorate in Educational Psychology with an emphasis on Social and Developmental Psychology from the University of Minnesota. Michelle works with and trains teachers to better support neurodiverse students including students who are Highly Sensitive, Gifted, live with anxiety and ADHD. Her heart centered commitment is to create access to holistic and authentic educational opportunities for all students. As a social and developmental psychologist she is fascinated by how people grow and thrive from prenatal development through life. She is also the Mommy to a 17 yo daughter and a 7 yo son.
Using Innovation to Meet Tomorrow's Education Needs Today
Educators must adapt to a changing world. Today's problems are real, complex, and
varied. Traditional thinking is no longer a viable option. Today’s challenges require new
thinking, new tools, and new approaches.
Learn in this session how to use innovative thinking to deliver educational experiences that:
- Engage students and inspire them to make right-brain thinking more a part of their education and future
- Help educators can implement new thinking to empower and stimulate students and help teach them more about ""how"" to think"" than only ""what"" to think.
"Jeff Warren is the President of Barkley Consulting Group, a Management Consulting Firm that combines real-world experience with thought leadership to bring transformative solutions to organizations. He is a creative and innovative thinker who uses a Design Thinking approach to help businesses and academic institutions explore possibilities of what could be – and to create desired outcomes that benefit the end-user. Jeff has a successful track record of using creativity and innovation to unlock the potential found within people to help them think differently and design solutions that meet the unmet needs of their customers.
Jeff has over 30 years of leadership and innovation experience in the Consumer-Packaged Goods industry, with a focus on business and technology. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Hofstra University and a Certificate of Professional Development from Wharton School of Management, University of Pennsylvania. Jeff received his training in Design Thinking at the Design School at Stanford University. He is a guest lecturer and speaker and works in an advisory capacity for start-ups in the technology sector.
varied. Traditional thinking is no longer a viable option. Today’s challenges require new
thinking, new tools, and new approaches.
Learn in this session how to use innovative thinking to deliver educational experiences that:
- Engage students and inspire them to make right-brain thinking more a part of their education and future
- Help educators can implement new thinking to empower and stimulate students and help teach them more about ""how"" to think"" than only ""what"" to think.
"Jeff Warren is the President of Barkley Consulting Group, a Management Consulting Firm that combines real-world experience with thought leadership to bring transformative solutions to organizations. He is a creative and innovative thinker who uses a Design Thinking approach to help businesses and academic institutions explore possibilities of what could be – and to create desired outcomes that benefit the end-user. Jeff has a successful track record of using creativity and innovation to unlock the potential found within people to help them think differently and design solutions that meet the unmet needs of their customers.
Jeff has over 30 years of leadership and innovation experience in the Consumer-Packaged Goods industry, with a focus on business and technology. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Hofstra University and a Certificate of Professional Development from Wharton School of Management, University of Pennsylvania. Jeff received his training in Design Thinking at the Design School at Stanford University. He is a guest lecturer and speaker and works in an advisory capacity for start-ups in the technology sector.
What is school?
Over the course of history, different cultures have known a wide variety of schools. But when and where were the first schools actually established? What kinds of schools were there, and which ones still exist today? How were, say, the Prussian schools of the nineteenth century different from the schools that the European settlers built for North America’s native people? Did Native Americans have schools before the colonial era? How did their children learn? How do the monks in Tibet teach, and what’s it like to study at Summerhill, one of the most famous schools in the world, where the students go to class only when they feel like it and no one ever gets any grades?
The a4kids book 'What is school?" introduces you to schools in different countries and eras in history and to the ideas, observations, and drawings of children who participated in the project “The School of the Future.” There’s also a lot of room for you to participate. During the workshop you can print out pages from the book, answer questions, draw and make up ideas. Watch what other children have made and invented and share the results of their comments by posting them on the project website.
https://a4kids.org/book/shkola/
Nika Dubrovsky is the author of A4kids. She started it for her son Ben, when he was 6 years old in 2008.
Her practice evolved from visual arts, journalism and publishing.
Her critical position on educational regimes led to the development and publishing of interactive children books. Anthropology For Kids aims at creating an open educational platform with a participatory approach. Reframing crucial aspects of human life – family, money, citizenship, beauty, and alike – Anthropology For Kids seeks to deconstruct conditioned notions of how we (should) live, demonstrating the diversity of perspectives and possibilities that exist in different cultures.
As an artist Nika showed her works in deferent museums and galleries around the world. Most recently in ShowRoom (London, UK), KryakK (Krasnoyarsk, Russia). Nika writes for such publications as eflux, artnet, publishing house of Hermitage St. Petersburg and others. Her books have been published in Russian, Finish, English, Polish and now in Japanese.
Nika Dubrovsky was born in Leningrad / St. Petersburg. She currently lives and works in Berlin and London.
The a4kids book 'What is school?" introduces you to schools in different countries and eras in history and to the ideas, observations, and drawings of children who participated in the project “The School of the Future.” There’s also a lot of room for you to participate. During the workshop you can print out pages from the book, answer questions, draw and make up ideas. Watch what other children have made and invented and share the results of their comments by posting them on the project website.
https://a4kids.org/book/shkola/
Nika Dubrovsky is the author of A4kids. She started it for her son Ben, when he was 6 years old in 2008.
Her practice evolved from visual arts, journalism and publishing.
Her critical position on educational regimes led to the development and publishing of interactive children books. Anthropology For Kids aims at creating an open educational platform with a participatory approach. Reframing crucial aspects of human life – family, money, citizenship, beauty, and alike – Anthropology For Kids seeks to deconstruct conditioned notions of how we (should) live, demonstrating the diversity of perspectives and possibilities that exist in different cultures.
As an artist Nika showed her works in deferent museums and galleries around the world. Most recently in ShowRoom (London, UK), KryakK (Krasnoyarsk, Russia). Nika writes for such publications as eflux, artnet, publishing house of Hermitage St. Petersburg and others. Her books have been published in Russian, Finish, English, Polish and now in Japanese.
Nika Dubrovsky was born in Leningrad / St. Petersburg. She currently lives and works in Berlin and London.
Building Momentum After the Pandemic!
A panel of teens and a staff member from various Liberated Learners centers will share their thoughts about how we can support the trend towards more self-directed learning. What were some positive impacts on learning and independence for young people during the pandemic? How will homeschooling grow and evolve as we are able to return to public gatherings, in-person classes, and group activities? What do the young people that loved the opportunity to have more control over the time, pace, and content of their learning need to continue with this lifestyle? Hear from the participants on our youth panel about their own choices and their views on what is needed to include more of their friends, families, and neighbors to choose a self-directed path rather than return-to-school-as-normal.
A group of Liberated Learner Teens and the Founder of Liberated Learners - Ken Danford
A group of Liberated Learner Teens and the Founder of Liberated Learners - Ken Danford
Does your pedagogy include healthy integrative, interactive, and expressive learning?
This arts based workshop includes an introduction to innovative presentation tools. This engaging discussion will explain to the teacher or parent how to successfully inspire academic learning for the whole child. You will learn how to stand back and observe while fully supporting student engagement and expression. Join with others and learn by doing while having fun. Brighten your day... act, sing, and play!
Jan Magray has combined her love for music, traditional musicianship training, and contemporary improvisational techniques into a unique method of learning musical skills while making music with others. Realizing the challenge facing most educational and after-school programs, she sought to design and test effective yet affordable ways to incorporate positive music expression to share musical success through singing and playing games in a safe and supportive context.
The outcome of this effort is the production of video songs prepared and presented by children for children. Jan holds a B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Minnesota, an M.A. in Pastoral Ministry from Boston College, completed a graduate certificate in Music Education at The Kodaly Center of America, Boston, and is a graduate of the musicianship program at Music for People.
Jan Magray has combined her love for music, traditional musicianship training, and contemporary improvisational techniques into a unique method of learning musical skills while making music with others. Realizing the challenge facing most educational and after-school programs, she sought to design and test effective yet affordable ways to incorporate positive music expression to share musical success through singing and playing games in a safe and supportive context.
The outcome of this effort is the production of video songs prepared and presented by children for children. Jan holds a B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Minnesota, an M.A. in Pastoral Ministry from Boston College, completed a graduate certificate in Music Education at The Kodaly Center of America, Boston, and is a graduate of the musicianship program at Music for People.
Education for Emotional Resilience
Education for Emotional Resilience - We teach a lot of information, but very little skills for being human. We also often pass on a dependency on approval which thwarts emotional freedom. In this workshop we will discuss education for self-awareness, such that students can grow to be able to handle intense emotions, failures and successes, relationships, and life's unpredictable twists, with power that results from not seeking approval. This will include communication skills; avoiding blame and defense; dealing with anxiety, emotional hurts, and, a technique to free oneself from victimhood, and from needing approval; enabling the power of inner peace and loving connections.
Naomi Aldort is the author of Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves, (published in 19 languages). Aldort guides parents by Phone/Skype sessions and workshops internationally. Her guidance is not about gentle ways to control a child, but about how to have peace without having to control. It is about a way of being and of understanding children so they can do their best, not because they fear us or seek our approval, but because they want to, of their own free will.
Aldort brings peace and clarity to difficult situations as well as to ordinary parenting issues, including marriage, pregnancy, birth, baby care, toddlers children, teens, adult kids and relatives. She also guides families about diet and lifestyle that promotes emotional and physical wellbeing and impacts a child’s behavior and development. From attachment parenting to optimal learning, siblings, aggression, sleep, tantrums, teens, marriage, educational choices and more; Naomi works holistically toward a peaceful and powerful parent-child relationships. Her SALVE communication formula has been praised as providing the best of The Work of Byron Katie and Nonviolent communication combined, and more. http://NaomiAldort.com or, AuthenticChild.com
Naomi Aldort is the author of Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves, (published in 19 languages). Aldort guides parents by Phone/Skype sessions and workshops internationally. Her guidance is not about gentle ways to control a child, but about how to have peace without having to control. It is about a way of being and of understanding children so they can do their best, not because they fear us or seek our approval, but because they want to, of their own free will.
Aldort brings peace and clarity to difficult situations as well as to ordinary parenting issues, including marriage, pregnancy, birth, baby care, toddlers children, teens, adult kids and relatives. She also guides families about diet and lifestyle that promotes emotional and physical wellbeing and impacts a child’s behavior and development. From attachment parenting to optimal learning, siblings, aggression, sleep, tantrums, teens, marriage, educational choices and more; Naomi works holistically toward a peaceful and powerful parent-child relationships. Her SALVE communication formula has been praised as providing the best of The Work of Byron Katie and Nonviolent communication combined, and more. http://NaomiAldort.com or, AuthenticChild.com
Learner Community at Outschool
Creating a place for kids to connect and inspire one another - Outschool is a platform where learners can connect with educators who teach to their passions. What happens when we build ways for learners to connect and inspire each other outside of those classes? In this presentation we want to tell you about some of the incredible interactions our learners are having, some of the learner community features we've already built and where we think it's all going.
Fernando Tarango is known to Outschool learners as Fernando, the Learner Community Guy. From working for a Grammy award-winning boychoir school, to music edutainment, to online teaching and learning communities, Fernando has a unique approach to creating safe spaces where learners feel comfortable, creative and collaborative. Check out what Fernando is up to in the Learner Community here: https://info.outschool.com/learner-community
Fernando Tarango is known to Outschool learners as Fernando, the Learner Community Guy. From working for a Grammy award-winning boychoir school, to music edutainment, to online teaching and learning communities, Fernando has a unique approach to creating safe spaces where learners feel comfortable, creative and collaborative. Check out what Fernando is up to in the Learner Community here: https://info.outschool.com/learner-community
Re-Evaluating and Re-Designing for Thriving and Sustainable Wellness
The Maui Aloha Project EcoVillage Initiative. - Evolution and core principles of the Maui Aloha Project (MAP) living, learning and healing EcoVillage initiative will be highlighted. Participants can explore values with regard to setting and realizing priorities.
New opportunities for the cultivation of sustainable wellness and thriving will be explored through intersections of health, wellness, indigenous wisdoms, cultural and cognitive diversity, holistic learning, psychology, community relations, housing and food security, permaculture, play, inclusive design, happiness, multiliteracies, ancient and modern technologies, and stewardship of the planet.
MAP offers itself as a catalyst for the expansion of human potential and for responsible paradigms for peaceful living on planet Earth.
Stephanie is the mother of three young adults and lives in Toronto, Canada. She is in the final year of her Doctoral studies in education that explores Parent Narratives of Their Experience with Their Child’s Language based Learning Difficulties.
As a Learning and Community Design Consultant, Stephanie’s research explores sustainable wellness, thriving, neuroscience, multi-literacies, socio-emotional development, inclusive and growth-based design. Merging the intersections of education and health and wellness, Stephanie is an active participant of many global initiatives pursuing the co-construction new paradigms that encourage meaningful and peaceful coexistence.
Stephanie has spent much of her life as a holistic educator designing, guiding, visiting and participating in hundreds of diverse living and learning spaces. Stephanie promotes play, permaculture principles and the forging of relationships with each other and the natural world.
Stephanie is a founder and Co-Director of Maui Aloha Project (mauialohaproject.org), an intergenerational living, learning and healing EcoVillage initiative in Maui, Hawaii.
As a social entrepreneur, Stephanie’s research in the area of thriving interrogates value systems and identifies personal and communal hierarchies for children, society and the planet.
New opportunities for the cultivation of sustainable wellness and thriving will be explored through intersections of health, wellness, indigenous wisdoms, cultural and cognitive diversity, holistic learning, psychology, community relations, housing and food security, permaculture, play, inclusive design, happiness, multiliteracies, ancient and modern technologies, and stewardship of the planet.
MAP offers itself as a catalyst for the expansion of human potential and for responsible paradigms for peaceful living on planet Earth.
Stephanie is the mother of three young adults and lives in Toronto, Canada. She is in the final year of her Doctoral studies in education that explores Parent Narratives of Their Experience with Their Child’s Language based Learning Difficulties.
As a Learning and Community Design Consultant, Stephanie’s research explores sustainable wellness, thriving, neuroscience, multi-literacies, socio-emotional development, inclusive and growth-based design. Merging the intersections of education and health and wellness, Stephanie is an active participant of many global initiatives pursuing the co-construction new paradigms that encourage meaningful and peaceful coexistence.
Stephanie has spent much of her life as a holistic educator designing, guiding, visiting and participating in hundreds of diverse living and learning spaces. Stephanie promotes play, permaculture principles and the forging of relationships with each other and the natural world.
Stephanie is a founder and Co-Director of Maui Aloha Project (mauialohaproject.org), an intergenerational living, learning and healing EcoVillage initiative in Maui, Hawaii.
As a social entrepreneur, Stephanie’s research in the area of thriving interrogates value systems and identifies personal and communal hierarchies for children, society and the planet.
The Forgotten History of Froebel Kindergarten
A surprising few educators know the story of the Froebel Kindergarten and the battle that raged a century ago which put the American education system on its current trajectory. We've always known the best way for children to learn, so why isn't available to all? To chart a course to that goal, we need to know how we got here in the first place. Scott Bultman has begun a documentary series to tell this story and he'll encapsulate that story for you.
After graduating from the Univ. of Michigan with a degree in Film/Video Studies, Scott was diverted from film-making into the family toy manufacturing business (Uncle Goose) unexpected death of his father in 1992. A chance 1996 meeting with representatives from the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, introduced Scott to the story of Froebel Kindergarten. He has amassed a large archive of historical research and artifacts, and with a diverse network of experts on the subject, has launched a documentary series.
After graduating from the Univ. of Michigan with a degree in Film/Video Studies, Scott was diverted from film-making into the family toy manufacturing business (Uncle Goose) unexpected death of his father in 1992. A chance 1996 meeting with representatives from the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, introduced Scott to the story of Froebel Kindergarten. He has amassed a large archive of historical research and artifacts, and with a diverse network of experts on the subject, has launched a documentary series.
Keynote - Zak Stein
Zak Stein is a philosopher of education working at the interface of psychology, metaphysics, and politics. He has published two books, including Education in Time Between Worlds, along with dozens of articles. He has worked co-founding a non-profit and think tank, teaching graduate students at Harvard, and consulting with technology start-ups. Zak is a long time meditator, musician and caregiver, which has shaped him more than any professional engagements.
Mental Health & Trauma Informed Pracitces in Alternative Education
Dr. Peter Berg, the founder of Youth Transformations, works with teenagers as a mental health and transition counselor at an alternative high school.
He is an adjunct instructor at Southern New Hampshire University, in the Doctor of Educational Leadership program. Previously he was a Principal at a democratic school in Maine.
The author of the best-selling book The Tao of Teenagers: A Guide to Teen Health, Happiness & Empowerment, his work includes helping teenagers empower themselves so they can take charge of their health and happiness and be the masters of their own lives. His mission is to guide youth and families to create transformations that lead to health, happiness and empowerment.
He holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and has written extensively on alternative, holistic, integrated educational theory and integrated health.
Peter organizes the Alternative Education Resource Organization representatives worldwide, as well as AERO events and is a reviewer for the American Educational Research Association. He has consulted on many school and organizational startups.
He is an adjunct instructor at Southern New Hampshire University, in the Doctor of Educational Leadership program. Previously he was a Principal at a democratic school in Maine.
The author of the best-selling book The Tao of Teenagers: A Guide to Teen Health, Happiness & Empowerment, his work includes helping teenagers empower themselves so they can take charge of their health and happiness and be the masters of their own lives. His mission is to guide youth and families to create transformations that lead to health, happiness and empowerment.
He holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and has written extensively on alternative, holistic, integrated educational theory and integrated health.
Peter organizes the Alternative Education Resource Organization representatives worldwide, as well as AERO events and is a reviewer for the American Educational Research Association. He has consulted on many school and organizational startups.
The Sacrifices of a Valedictorian
Jada Polard is a high school student and an aspiring part-time author. Although she is a passionate writer, she also enjoys reading and drawing in her free time
Democratic Culture and Teacher-Development
Amukta Mahapatra, founder of SchoolScape has been associated with the field of education since many years, since she was a teenager. She has worked with small schools and also developed programmes that have been implemented by the education departments across a state or many states in India. Wherever she has worked, she has fought for the child’s right to live and learn spontaneously.
SchoolScape conducts a one-year Elementary course based on Montessori and democratic principles. Short programmes are also offered for educators to enhance the quality of their engagement with children.
She started her teaching career at the The School K.F.I, the Krishnamurti Foundation India institution in Madras, now Chennai.
Later, as the first principal of Abacus School in Chennai, she enabled Montessori practices from preschool to high school, to be seen from a contemporary perspective in India.
While working with UNICEF, she helped to develop a Quality Package to be implemented in government schools across ten states.
She has organised many national and international conferences and is the initiating force for the movement of democratic education in India, under the banner of IDEC and InDEC. The 12th IDEC in Bhubaneswar in 2004 and the 25th IDEC along with the 3rd APDEC and the 1st InDEC in 2018 in Bangalore, were organised by her in India.
She has participated and presented papers at national and international seminars.
She has published articles and papers; her work has been mentioned in books and reports on best practices to be taken forward.
Besides this, she has varied interests in the fields of craft, philosophy, indigenous knowledge and wildlife.
SchoolScape conducts a one-year Elementary course based on Montessori and democratic principles. Short programmes are also offered for educators to enhance the quality of their engagement with children.
She started her teaching career at the The School K.F.I, the Krishnamurti Foundation India institution in Madras, now Chennai.
Later, as the first principal of Abacus School in Chennai, she enabled Montessori practices from preschool to high school, to be seen from a contemporary perspective in India.
While working with UNICEF, she helped to develop a Quality Package to be implemented in government schools across ten states.
She has organised many national and international conferences and is the initiating force for the movement of democratic education in India, under the banner of IDEC and InDEC. The 12th IDEC in Bhubaneswar in 2004 and the 25th IDEC along with the 3rd APDEC and the 1st InDEC in 2018 in Bangalore, were organised by her in India.
She has participated and presented papers at national and international seminars.
She has published articles and papers; her work has been mentioned in books and reports on best practices to be taken forward.
Besides this, she has varied interests in the fields of craft, philosophy, indigenous knowledge and wildlife.
8:30 - 9:30 am Open Planning Session
Main Room - Open Planning
On the School System & Testing
My name is Liam Berell and I am a 17 year old student at St. John's College which is situated in Johannesburg, South Africa.
I am a hard working student with decent grades however I disagree with the current school system for a number of reasons and I believe that there are far better ways for students to be taught which are more interesting and exciting.
I am a hard working student with decent grades however I disagree with the current school system for a number of reasons and I believe that there are far better ways for students to be taught which are more interesting and exciting.
Keynote Speaker
Yaacov Hecht (married and father of 4 sons) founded in 1987 the Democratic School in Hadera, Israel - the first school in the world to be called a democratic school.
In 1993 he initiated IDEC - International Democratic Education Conference which convenes every year in a different continent. IDEC has facilitated the establishment of hundreds of innovative democratic schools around the globe, 30 of them in Israel.
In 1996, Yaacov Hecht founded IDE - the Institute for Democratic Education and within it a groundbreaking academic faculty for teachers training in the Kibuzim college, the biggest academic institute for teachers in Israel.
His book "Democratic Education - A Beginning of a Story", which has been translated into English, Portuguese, Bulgarian and Korean, is a worldwide source of inspiration for groundbreaking educators and entrepreneurs.
In 2010 he founded Education Cities – the Art of Collaborations that weaves and maintains municipal collaborations that aim to turn the city into “one big school”. It also promotes collaborations and networking in the classroom, in the school, in the city, in the state, and in the world. WIRED magazine has chosen Education Cities' MOOC learning model (How2MOOC) to one of the leading trends in 2015. In January 2017 Education Cities was chosen to one of the 10 leading innovations in the world, by HundrED the Finish initiative for globally promoting educational innovation.
Yaacov has served as an advisor to 6 Ministers of Education in Israel, as an expert in interfacing between the state and alternative education. He regards the preparing and directing of the educational system towards the future, as his main mission today.
In 1993 he initiated IDEC - International Democratic Education Conference which convenes every year in a different continent. IDEC has facilitated the establishment of hundreds of innovative democratic schools around the globe, 30 of them in Israel.
In 1996, Yaacov Hecht founded IDE - the Institute for Democratic Education and within it a groundbreaking academic faculty for teachers training in the Kibuzim college, the biggest academic institute for teachers in Israel.
His book "Democratic Education - A Beginning of a Story", which has been translated into English, Portuguese, Bulgarian and Korean, is a worldwide source of inspiration for groundbreaking educators and entrepreneurs.
In 2010 he founded Education Cities – the Art of Collaborations that weaves and maintains municipal collaborations that aim to turn the city into “one big school”. It also promotes collaborations and networking in the classroom, in the school, in the city, in the state, and in the world. WIRED magazine has chosen Education Cities' MOOC learning model (How2MOOC) to one of the leading trends in 2015. In January 2017 Education Cities was chosen to one of the 10 leading innovations in the world, by HundrED the Finish initiative for globally promoting educational innovation.
Yaacov has served as an advisor to 6 Ministers of Education in Israel, as an expert in interfacing between the state and alternative education. He regards the preparing and directing of the educational system towards the future, as his main mission today.
Build Resilience Through Strength-Based Learning
Have the events of the past year brought you feelings of stress and uncertainty? We have all experienced traumas, both big and little, in our lives. Discover the importance of co-regulation to build resilience and lean into your strengths. Join two experienced strength-based practitioners to help you understand the effect of trauma, the importance of co-regulation, and the identification of strengths to support learners and families in reaching their learning goals.
Kathy Magnusson, M. Ed. believes learning is an adventure. She has over 25 years of working with youth in a variety of formal and informal settings. Kathy taught as a public school science teacher and developed a leadership program for girls ages 10 and up. Kathy has earned a Master of Education degree from the University of Minnesota.
As the owner of Wildewood Learning, Kathy develops tailor-made professional development opportunities for educators and youth professionals that will support them in developing the skills for resilience. Kathy is an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) Interface trainer, she provides training to professionals in trauma-informed and resilience-based practices. Kathy believes educators and youth professionals need to develop their own social and emotional learning skills to create meaningful relationships with students, creating a ripple effect that changes the process of learning for all.
Monica Cochran, M.Ed has worked with children, parents, and other adults in a wide variety of educational, hospital, and business settings for over 40 years. She has been active in alternative education since 1978, home-educated two of her own children, and has worked with other home-educating and distance learning families since 1997. She has vast experience in helping learners of all ages and abilities enjoy learning. She especially enjoys helping learners who have both unique talents and unique challenges develop their strengths and create learning experiences that work for them. Currently, Monica works with learners and their families around the world through her private practice, Learning Without Borders.
Monica earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh in a multi-disciplinary program in child development, social work, and early childhood education and a Master’s Degree from Eastern Michigan University in special education with certifications in learning disabilities and emotional impairment. She also earned a Primary Montessori Certification from the American Montessori Society and is an Advanced DIR practitioner. Since 1997, following her youngest son’s auto accident, she has also been active in supporting survivors of brain injuries and learners with other health and developmental issues, as they redesign their lives.
Kathy Magnusson, M. Ed. believes learning is an adventure. She has over 25 years of working with youth in a variety of formal and informal settings. Kathy taught as a public school science teacher and developed a leadership program for girls ages 10 and up. Kathy has earned a Master of Education degree from the University of Minnesota.
As the owner of Wildewood Learning, Kathy develops tailor-made professional development opportunities for educators and youth professionals that will support them in developing the skills for resilience. Kathy is an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) Interface trainer, she provides training to professionals in trauma-informed and resilience-based practices. Kathy believes educators and youth professionals need to develop their own social and emotional learning skills to create meaningful relationships with students, creating a ripple effect that changes the process of learning for all.
Monica Cochran, M.Ed has worked with children, parents, and other adults in a wide variety of educational, hospital, and business settings for over 40 years. She has been active in alternative education since 1978, home-educated two of her own children, and has worked with other home-educating and distance learning families since 1997. She has vast experience in helping learners of all ages and abilities enjoy learning. She especially enjoys helping learners who have both unique talents and unique challenges develop their strengths and create learning experiences that work for them. Currently, Monica works with learners and their families around the world through her private practice, Learning Without Borders.
Monica earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh in a multi-disciplinary program in child development, social work, and early childhood education and a Master’s Degree from Eastern Michigan University in special education with certifications in learning disabilities and emotional impairment. She also earned a Primary Montessori Certification from the American Montessori Society and is an Advanced DIR practitioner. Since 1997, following her youngest son’s auto accident, she has also been active in supporting survivors of brain injuries and learners with other health and developmental issues, as they redesign their lives.
Homeschooling and Unschooling in 2021: A Summary of the Research
The future of education is here! In this workshop, we will discuss current academic research focusing on homeschooling and unschooling, including the increase in the number of homeschoolers and unschoolers due to COVID 19.
We will also celebrate and discuss the publication of The Homeschooling Starter Guide, published by Rockridge Press (publication date June 15, 2021), created especially for new home learners! 10 free copies will be given away to workshop participants.
Gina Riley, Ph.D. is an educational psychologist, Clinical Professor, and Program Leader of the Adolescent Special Education Program at CUNY – Hunter College. Dr. Riley has over fifteen years experience working with teens diagnosed with learning disabilities and emotional/behavioral disorders. She is also a seasoned academic, with years of teaching, research, and supervisory experience within the fields of special education, psychology, school psychology, and mental health counseling. In addition, Dr. Riley has extensive experience in online education and distance learning at the college/university level. She is known internationally for her work in the fields of homeschooling, unschooling, and self-directed learning. She is the author of Unschooling: Exploring Learning Beyond the Classroom (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) as well as The Homeschooling Starter Guide (Rockridge Press, 2021).
We will also celebrate and discuss the publication of The Homeschooling Starter Guide, published by Rockridge Press (publication date June 15, 2021), created especially for new home learners! 10 free copies will be given away to workshop participants.
Gina Riley, Ph.D. is an educational psychologist, Clinical Professor, and Program Leader of the Adolescent Special Education Program at CUNY – Hunter College. Dr. Riley has over fifteen years experience working with teens diagnosed with learning disabilities and emotional/behavioral disorders. She is also a seasoned academic, with years of teaching, research, and supervisory experience within the fields of special education, psychology, school psychology, and mental health counseling. In addition, Dr. Riley has extensive experience in online education and distance learning at the college/university level. She is known internationally for her work in the fields of homeschooling, unschooling, and self-directed learning. She is the author of Unschooling: Exploring Learning Beyond the Classroom (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) as well as The Homeschooling Starter Guide (Rockridge Press, 2021).
A REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO READING
Do you have readers who struggle with words, make wild guesses and don't understand what they read? Would you like to learn a different approach that will quickly enable your discouraged reader to read with fluency and comprehension? You and your reader can relax and enjoy practicing with material that is interesting and well above grade level. Using THE MAKING SENSE APPROACH TO READING, featured in this interactive workshop, you will be able to give the gift of reading to people of all ages for the rest of your life!
Vera Goodman, a retired teacher living in Calgary, Alberta, is recognized as a leading authority on teaching how to become competent readers and writers. She has taken her cutting-edge strategies to audiences around the world. The sparkle and energy she brings to her work has endeared her to the thousands who have been impacted by her books and dynamic presentation.
Vera is the author of a bestseller SIMPLY READ! An Innovative Way to Read with Fluency and Comprehension. Her second book, SIMPLY WRITE! Enjoying Personal and Family Writing, shares inspiring stories and practical tips. SIMPLY TOO MUCH HOMEWORK! What can we do? completes the trilogy. Vera's unique insights into reading are shared in THE READING WINGS ONLINE COURSE that guarantees to quickly enable those who don't read well to read with confidence and comprehension.
Vera Goodman, a retired teacher living in Calgary, Alberta, is recognized as a leading authority on teaching how to become competent readers and writers. She has taken her cutting-edge strategies to audiences around the world. The sparkle and energy she brings to her work has endeared her to the thousands who have been impacted by her books and dynamic presentation.
Vera is the author of a bestseller SIMPLY READ! An Innovative Way to Read with Fluency and Comprehension. Her second book, SIMPLY WRITE! Enjoying Personal and Family Writing, shares inspiring stories and practical tips. SIMPLY TOO MUCH HOMEWORK! What can we do? completes the trilogy. Vera's unique insights into reading are shared in THE READING WINGS ONLINE COURSE that guarantees to quickly enable those who don't read well to read with confidence and comprehension.
Do We Have Consent to Use the Terms 'Slave' and 'Slavery' in the Context of School Experiences?
A Sociocracy-type circle hosted by Selva Lorenz and Je’anna Clements will tackle this controversial issue. It is important to honour and not trivialise the experiences of slaves in other times and spaces; also, young people's rights and sufferings must be taken more seriously than they are. How do we see the long term impacts of school on the people who grow up within it? Do we stay ’slaves’ all our lives unless we deschool? Selected participants will dialogue in order to reach an initial decision about the use of these powerful words, followed by audience interaction.
18 year old Selva Lorenz is passionate about creating change, and recently founded the Self-Directed Education Youth Advocates group. She has personal experience of three different public schools, a Montessori school, unschooling, online public school, and a democratic self-directed setting. The contrast of changing back and forth between systems has given her a very clear sense of the key problem with education as well as the solution.
51 year old Je'anna Clements has two decades of experience listening to young people, a decade and a half of studying the theory, philosophy and practice of Self-Directed Education, and almost a decade of facilitating in SDE settings as well as supporting other adults in their own deschooling and facilitation journeys. She firmly believes that The Shift Will Come and does all she can to build foundations to ensure that the Shift is as smooth and as thorough as possible.
18 year old Selva Lorenz is passionate about creating change, and recently founded the Self-Directed Education Youth Advocates group. She has personal experience of three different public schools, a Montessori school, unschooling, online public school, and a democratic self-directed setting. The contrast of changing back and forth between systems has given her a very clear sense of the key problem with education as well as the solution.
51 year old Je'anna Clements has two decades of experience listening to young people, a decade and a half of studying the theory, philosophy and practice of Self-Directed Education, and almost a decade of facilitating in SDE settings as well as supporting other adults in their own deschooling and facilitation journeys. She firmly believes that The Shift Will Come and does all she can to build foundations to ensure that the Shift is as smooth and as thorough as possible.
The Neuroscience of Heutagogy
Heutagogy is one of the next steps in the science of education. It refers to self-determined learning and addresses the norms - still in use, but obviously obsolete - in teaching and learning. We already live in a time when knowing how to learn and "connecting dots" become fundamental skills. As long as our society develops as interrelated hubs, the idea of considering "knowledge sharing" instead of "knowledge hoarding" (Bill Ford, 1997) becomes more and more actual. The workshop will describe the "jobbies" (job & hobby) of the future and offers some neuroscientific insights in the cognitive processes. involved in learning.
Adriana is a neuroscientist, founder of the Re-Design ngo, which runs CEREHARD (the acronym, in Romanian, for Re-Design ngo Resource Centre for Holistic Education), a British Curriculum School EOTAS type (Education Otherwise Than at Standard School). Her goal is to connect Neuroscience with Education, in order to spread the awareness concerning neuromyths, and their implication in the science of education. Mom of 2 unschooled kids - now 20 and 16 - she is one of the many witnesses to testify Holistic and Personalised Education is one of the best solution for the Education crisis.
Adriana is a neuroscientist, founder of the Re-Design ngo, which runs CEREHARD (the acronym, in Romanian, for Re-Design ngo Resource Centre for Holistic Education), a British Curriculum School EOTAS type (Education Otherwise Than at Standard School). Her goal is to connect Neuroscience with Education, in order to spread the awareness concerning neuromyths, and their implication in the science of education. Mom of 2 unschooled kids - now 20 and 16 - she is one of the many witnesses to testify Holistic and Personalised Education is one of the best solution for the Education crisis.
Design Thinking - Empowering Students to Reshape the Future
Praja Tickoo, a 15-year-old student, has spent four years studying Design Thinking. In the summer of 2019, as part of a program at Boston University, he participated in a collaborative effort to design a better brace for a multiple sclerosis patient. This experience revealed to him the power that young people have to reshape their world, while reinforcing his conviction that problems can only be solved by questioning assumptions and involving those directly affected.
Praja has taken over 15 courses in design thinking associated with institutions such as the IDEO, University of Pennsylvania and Brown University. Additionally, he is the founder of Impact The Future, an organization aimed at teaching the process of design thinking to middle and high school students. He continues to work through Impact the Future to empower students to break down their assumptions of society, develop their skills of critical thinking, problem solving and creativity, and work to have an impact on the world.
Praja has taken over 15 courses in design thinking associated with institutions such as the IDEO, University of Pennsylvania and Brown University. Additionally, he is the founder of Impact The Future, an organization aimed at teaching the process of design thinking to middle and high school students. He continues to work through Impact the Future to empower students to break down their assumptions of society, develop their skills of critical thinking, problem solving and creativity, and work to have an impact on the world.
25 years of exploring alternative education & My life as a professional artist at 11
Carrie Whalen - Kingston Ontario based artist/designer/instructor/entrepreneur/parent of 3 unschooled kids, mCarrie Whalen, has been immersed in the arts education community for the past 32 years. Originally trained in Fine Arts and Fashion Design, Carrie was the founder and director of both The C.D.C. Canadian
Design Co-op, a fashion design incubator for young design businesses. For the past 26 years Carrie has been running Y.A.K. Young Artists of Kingston. Y.A.K. offers seasonal fine arts, design and robotics day camps for children 4-14 years. Carrie is currently working more in Ceramics both exploring her own work and assisting her daughter with her ceramic career.
Tuilelaith-Fionnuala
In a beautiful old limestone church in Kingston Ontario, Tuile’s self-directed and unschooled life informs her drawing, painting and ceramics. She hand builds functional ceramic work that exudes joy, youthfulness, strong emotions, humour and playfulness. Her narrative work unabashedly tells stories born from her wild imagination.
Although only 11, Tuile has been a working artist for 3 years. This year she will have a
solo show at the Dust Evans Gallery in Ottawa, a collaborative show in Kansas City,
several group shows at esteemed galleries such as Charlie Cummings in Gainesville,
Florida and Clay Akar in Iowa City. The ‘piece de resistance’ will be to do her invitational
two month residency with solo exhibition at Lefebvre Et Fils in Paris France in 2022.
Design Co-op, a fashion design incubator for young design businesses. For the past 26 years Carrie has been running Y.A.K. Young Artists of Kingston. Y.A.K. offers seasonal fine arts, design and robotics day camps for children 4-14 years. Carrie is currently working more in Ceramics both exploring her own work and assisting her daughter with her ceramic career.
Tuilelaith-Fionnuala
In a beautiful old limestone church in Kingston Ontario, Tuile’s self-directed and unschooled life informs her drawing, painting and ceramics. She hand builds functional ceramic work that exudes joy, youthfulness, strong emotions, humour and playfulness. Her narrative work unabashedly tells stories born from her wild imagination.
Although only 11, Tuile has been a working artist for 3 years. This year she will have a
solo show at the Dust Evans Gallery in Ottawa, a collaborative show in Kansas City,
several group shows at esteemed galleries such as Charlie Cummings in Gainesville,
Florida and Clay Akar in Iowa City. The ‘piece de resistance’ will be to do her invitational
two month residency with solo exhibition at Lefebvre Et Fils in Paris France in 2022.
Inclusive Education by Design
Established in 2013, the Sankofa Global Project's programs have advanced equity in education, technology, and entrepreneurship. Through action research skills, data analysis, and ingenuity, the Sankofa Global Project has expanded its cradle to career programs for intelligent innovation through inclusive education by design.
Tracy L. Gray holds a dual Master of Science Degrees in Early Childhood and General Education. As an entrepreneur and education consultant, Tracy has devoted her career to building effective equitable S.T.E.A.M. initiatives. In her commitment to advance 21st century learning competency skills, Tracy has established international partnerships to expand student cultural and global awareness. Tracy's curiosity for research and her thirst for intellectual pursuits allow her to develop and present original contributions to the field of education, and gives her the freedom of tech development as an educator, researcher, and teacher-practitioner.
Tracy Gray attended the I Have a Dream Workshop on Inclusive Youth Entrepreneurship in partnership with My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) initiative and the White House Council on Women and Girls (CWG), hosted by The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Student Dream, a youth entrepreneurship nonprofit. At the workshop, the Obama Administration issued A Call to Action to Expand High-Quality STEM Education Opportunities for All Students. Ms. Gray answered the call by submitting Sankofa Global’s Education Program which was announced in the official release of the White House Fact Sheet as one of the commitments to expand STEM Learning for young learners nationwide.
Notable Accomplishments:
Sankofa Global Project Launch: March 2013
Food, Fitness, Tech Hack-a-Thon: May 2014
Education Conference Presenter (Yiwu China): July 2015
National Week of Making: June 17 - June 23, 2016
World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science: October 1 - October 2, 2016
White House SXSL Festival of Ideas, Art, and Action: October 3, 2016
Sankofa Global Project’s Tech Education Conference: April 2017
Education Cultural Exchange Program (Agege, Nigeria): August 2017
"It's A Family Affair” (IAFA): October 2018
American Educational Research Association (AERA) Presentation: April 2019
“Build Your Own Wakanda” Hack-a-Thon: July 2019
21st Century Education for All Fireside Chat Series: January - March 2020
Racial Equity & Justice Initiative (REJI): September 2020
GED+ Ed Tech Program: November 2020
Tracy L. Gray holds a dual Master of Science Degrees in Early Childhood and General Education. As an entrepreneur and education consultant, Tracy has devoted her career to building effective equitable S.T.E.A.M. initiatives. In her commitment to advance 21st century learning competency skills, Tracy has established international partnerships to expand student cultural and global awareness. Tracy's curiosity for research and her thirst for intellectual pursuits allow her to develop and present original contributions to the field of education, and gives her the freedom of tech development as an educator, researcher, and teacher-practitioner.
Tracy Gray attended the I Have a Dream Workshop on Inclusive Youth Entrepreneurship in partnership with My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) initiative and the White House Council on Women and Girls (CWG), hosted by The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Student Dream, a youth entrepreneurship nonprofit. At the workshop, the Obama Administration issued A Call to Action to Expand High-Quality STEM Education Opportunities for All Students. Ms. Gray answered the call by submitting Sankofa Global’s Education Program which was announced in the official release of the White House Fact Sheet as one of the commitments to expand STEM Learning for young learners nationwide.
Notable Accomplishments:
Sankofa Global Project Launch: March 2013
Food, Fitness, Tech Hack-a-Thon: May 2014
Education Conference Presenter (Yiwu China): July 2015
National Week of Making: June 17 - June 23, 2016
World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science: October 1 - October 2, 2016
White House SXSL Festival of Ideas, Art, and Action: October 3, 2016
Sankofa Global Project’s Tech Education Conference: April 2017
Education Cultural Exchange Program (Agege, Nigeria): August 2017
"It's A Family Affair” (IAFA): October 2018
American Educational Research Association (AERA) Presentation: April 2019
“Build Your Own Wakanda” Hack-a-Thon: July 2019
21st Century Education for All Fireside Chat Series: January - March 2020
Racial Equity & Justice Initiative (REJI): September 2020
GED+ Ed Tech Program: November 2020
Bridgemont: online secondary education done the Montessori way
The Bridgemont International School will launch this fall with the 2021-2022 academic year. Developed by a collaboration between the Center for Guided Montessori Studies and the Montessori Foundation, this Secondary program will provide an authentic Montessori experience for students throughout North America, and eventually the world. The Bridgemont program has been designed to innovatively meet the developmental needs of adolescents in an online learning environment.
This discussion will address how deliberate online education can build community, prepare students for post-secondary life, and bring students together as part of a truly international Montessori community.
Dr. Daniel Robinson “Robin” Howe began his Montessori career at the age of two at the Barrie School in Silver Spring, MD, which he attended through the eighth grade. Graduating from Dickinson College with two majors (Spanish and Religion), he went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Bioethics from University of South Florida. After successfully pursuing a career in the restaurant industry, Robin decided to return to his Montessori roots. He earned his Primary certification from Palm Harbor Montessori School (AMS) then attended St. Catherine’s University to earn his Lower and Upper Elementary Certification (AMS). He also attended NAMTA’s Orientation to Adolescent Studies (AMI). Robin holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Argosy University and works with The Montessori Foundation’s management team at New Gate (the Foundation’s lab school), serving as Associate Head of School and as a Senior Montessori Foundation School Consultant. In his spare time, Robin lives with two Elf cats and has set a personal goal to run marathons in all fifty states. Marc literally grew up on the grounds of a Montessori school, attended one through 6th grade, and has done consulting for Montessori schools and The Montessori Foundation. He partnered with leading Montessorians to develop the world’s first certified distance training program for Montessori teachers, The Center for Guided Montessori Studies.
Throughout his professional career, Marc has been at the forefront of business technology such as the Internet personalization, geo location, dynamic publishing, Voice XML, video streaming, information extraction and others. Marc Seldin’s diverse roles have included software development, project manager, product manager, and chief technical officer. His experience with web software development dates back to 1995, when as a consultant and later employee of Patuxent Publishing, he launched one of the first Internet newspapers. During his career he has worked both as an independent contractor and as an employee for The Baltimore Sun, ShareMedia, Tribune Company, and Raytheon BBN Technologies.
A unique blend of business experience and deep technical skills, Marc describes himself as a people person and prides himself on working with customers to fully understand – and meet – their needs. Timothy “Tim” Seldin is the President of the Montessori Foundation and Chair of the International Montessori Council. He is a co-founder of the Center for Guided Montessori Studies and Co-Director of its Montessori School Leadership Certification Program.
His more than forty years of experience in Montessori education includes twenty-two years as Headmaster of the Barrie School in Silver Spring, Maryland, which was his own alma mater from age two through high school graduation. Tim was the co-founder and Director of the Institute for Advanced Montessori Studies, the Center for Guided Montessori Studies, and currently also serves as the Executive Director of the New Gate School in Sarasota, Florida, the Montessori Foundation’s Lab School. He earned a B.A. in History and Philosophy from Georgetown University, an M.Ed. in Educational Administration and Supervision from The American University, and his Montessori certification from the American Montessori Society. Tim Seldin is the author of several books on Montessori Education, including How to Raise An Amazing Child, The Montessori Way with Dr. Paul Epstein, Montessori For Every Family with Lorna McGrath, Montessori 101, Building a World-class Montessori School, Finding the Perfect Match – Recruit and Retain Your Ideal Enrollment, Master Teachers – Model Programs, Starting a New Montessori School, Celebrations of Life, and The World in the Palm of Her Hand.
This discussion will address how deliberate online education can build community, prepare students for post-secondary life, and bring students together as part of a truly international Montessori community.
Dr. Daniel Robinson “Robin” Howe began his Montessori career at the age of two at the Barrie School in Silver Spring, MD, which he attended through the eighth grade. Graduating from Dickinson College with two majors (Spanish and Religion), he went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Bioethics from University of South Florida. After successfully pursuing a career in the restaurant industry, Robin decided to return to his Montessori roots. He earned his Primary certification from Palm Harbor Montessori School (AMS) then attended St. Catherine’s University to earn his Lower and Upper Elementary Certification (AMS). He also attended NAMTA’s Orientation to Adolescent Studies (AMI). Robin holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Argosy University and works with The Montessori Foundation’s management team at New Gate (the Foundation’s lab school), serving as Associate Head of School and as a Senior Montessori Foundation School Consultant. In his spare time, Robin lives with two Elf cats and has set a personal goal to run marathons in all fifty states. Marc literally grew up on the grounds of a Montessori school, attended one through 6th grade, and has done consulting for Montessori schools and The Montessori Foundation. He partnered with leading Montessorians to develop the world’s first certified distance training program for Montessori teachers, The Center for Guided Montessori Studies.
Throughout his professional career, Marc has been at the forefront of business technology such as the Internet personalization, geo location, dynamic publishing, Voice XML, video streaming, information extraction and others. Marc Seldin’s diverse roles have included software development, project manager, product manager, and chief technical officer. His experience with web software development dates back to 1995, when as a consultant and later employee of Patuxent Publishing, he launched one of the first Internet newspapers. During his career he has worked both as an independent contractor and as an employee for The Baltimore Sun, ShareMedia, Tribune Company, and Raytheon BBN Technologies.
A unique blend of business experience and deep technical skills, Marc describes himself as a people person and prides himself on working with customers to fully understand – and meet – their needs. Timothy “Tim” Seldin is the President of the Montessori Foundation and Chair of the International Montessori Council. He is a co-founder of the Center for Guided Montessori Studies and Co-Director of its Montessori School Leadership Certification Program.
His more than forty years of experience in Montessori education includes twenty-two years as Headmaster of the Barrie School in Silver Spring, Maryland, which was his own alma mater from age two through high school graduation. Tim was the co-founder and Director of the Institute for Advanced Montessori Studies, the Center for Guided Montessori Studies, and currently also serves as the Executive Director of the New Gate School in Sarasota, Florida, the Montessori Foundation’s Lab School. He earned a B.A. in History and Philosophy from Georgetown University, an M.Ed. in Educational Administration and Supervision from The American University, and his Montessori certification from the American Montessori Society. Tim Seldin is the author of several books on Montessori Education, including How to Raise An Amazing Child, The Montessori Way with Dr. Paul Epstein, Montessori For Every Family with Lorna McGrath, Montessori 101, Building a World-class Montessori School, Finding the Perfect Match – Recruit and Retain Your Ideal Enrollment, Master Teachers – Model Programs, Starting a New Montessori School, Celebrations of Life, and The World in the Palm of Her Hand.
Black and Brown Boys: A Requiem or a Phoenix
A Mini - Talk for Parents and Allies of Black and Brown Boys. Q: What to do with Black/Brown Boys (BBBs)? A: Radically arm parents. It's time for parents of BBBs and their allies to get incredibly strategic. No longer can parents look to schools or other institutions to protect their children from the 'normal' and predictably poor academic and social outcomes in BBBs. The solution will involve parents who intentionally choose a "leapfrog strategy" that is unapologetically 'weird.' Come to this session to flip-the-script... and see how the strategies discussed apply to BBBs and ALL children.
Matt believes that “normal” is broken in traditionally structured
schools and aims to make “weird” the new normal.
Over 25 years, Matt has run an $18m hospital department,
distributed $500m in philanthropy, led an education reform
nonprofit, served on nine educational boards from pre-K to
university, and coached thousands of parents on education system
navigation.
In 2020, Matt launched “The Education Game,” a platform that
inspires parents to embrace a Future-Ready learning model that
shamelessly deemphasizes grades and academic compliance
while radically emphasizing learning, problem-solving, and
student-engagement.
He is the father of three amazing teens who were educated in
traditional, hybrid, micro, and self-directed learning models and his
book titled: “Elon’s Kids vs Yours: A Disruptive Learning Plan
for Non-Billionaire Parents” will be released in December 2021.
Matt believes that “normal” is broken in traditionally structured
schools and aims to make “weird” the new normal.
Over 25 years, Matt has run an $18m hospital department,
distributed $500m in philanthropy, led an education reform
nonprofit, served on nine educational boards from pre-K to
university, and coached thousands of parents on education system
navigation.
In 2020, Matt launched “The Education Game,” a platform that
inspires parents to embrace a Future-Ready learning model that
shamelessly deemphasizes grades and academic compliance
while radically emphasizing learning, problem-solving, and
student-engagement.
He is the father of three amazing teens who were educated in
traditional, hybrid, micro, and self-directed learning models and his
book titled: “Elon’s Kids vs Yours: A Disruptive Learning Plan
for Non-Billionaire Parents” will be released in December 2021.
8:30 - 9:30 am Open Planning Session
Main Room - Open Planning
Top 5 Takeaways from the Modern Education Movement
Last summer my world turned upside down. I was newly separated and looking for better education alternatives for my 3 teens. It was... frustratingly HARD to find ANYTHING.
But once I did, I decided I HAD to make it EASIER for other families to find solutions. The Modern Education Movement podcast was born. My son Graham and I shine a light on education solutions for the modern age... So parents wanting better education alternatives can make confident, informed choices.
We bring in knowledge experts on topics you care about - financial literacy, mindset, working with differently wired kids and more.We have a lot of fun talking with families whose kids are thriving! We become friends, and you get to hear their inspiring stories about their own learning path. In this talk, I'll share my top 5 takeaways from the first 50 episodes, and highlight innovative solutions you may not have heard of.
Later I'll run a brainstorm pop-up session on the topic "How to address the growing demand for edu alternatives"
Gerry has 3 amazing teenagers all on their own unique educational path. These days he's into CrossFit, travel and Bitcoin. He helps education entrepreneurs make more $$$ through effective email marketing. He lives in Ontario, Canada.
But once I did, I decided I HAD to make it EASIER for other families to find solutions. The Modern Education Movement podcast was born. My son Graham and I shine a light on education solutions for the modern age... So parents wanting better education alternatives can make confident, informed choices.
We bring in knowledge experts on topics you care about - financial literacy, mindset, working with differently wired kids and more.We have a lot of fun talking with families whose kids are thriving! We become friends, and you get to hear their inspiring stories about their own learning path. In this talk, I'll share my top 5 takeaways from the first 50 episodes, and highlight innovative solutions you may not have heard of.
Later I'll run a brainstorm pop-up session on the topic "How to address the growing demand for edu alternatives"
Gerry has 3 amazing teenagers all on their own unique educational path. These days he's into CrossFit, travel and Bitcoin. He helps education entrepreneurs make more $$$ through effective email marketing. He lives in Ontario, Canada.
Remodeling Education, Remodeling the Future
A 15-year-old innovator looking to spark change in education, Jake ignites change through meaningful conversation, Relevant research, and and youth advocacy. He currently hosts the “NextUpEd” podcast, and oversees marketing and social media at Global Academic Consultants.
Everyone is a gamer…but what is a game?
Games as Sailboats to Real Education. - Games are not only robust spaces for learning and problem-solving, but games and game-design can provide excellent frameworks for harnessing and cultivating self-directed education. However, the curious problem with much of the discourse surrounding “games for learning” and “gamification” is that they are still viewed as mere content-delivery mechanisms from the “schooling” perspective. If we instead shift our mindset to understanding games as a literacy -- as tools for thinking, discovery, reflection, and expression -- we can better understand how games can guide self-directed learners towards a real education: not telling learners what to think, but how to think.
Adeeb Syed is a deeply interdisciplinary Educational Technology Consultant through Human First Learning and his expertise is in constructivist approaches to learning through and with games. He is a strong advocate of doing Philosophy with Children and believes that learning how to engage in reflective-critical thinking should be the ultimate goal of education. He holds a B.A. from Rutgers University, where he studied Philosophy and English Literature and a M.Ed from the Harvard Graduate School of Education…but to be honest, he really doesn’t care much for credentials.
Adeeb Syed is a deeply interdisciplinary Educational Technology Consultant through Human First Learning and his expertise is in constructivist approaches to learning through and with games. He is a strong advocate of doing Philosophy with Children and believes that learning how to engage in reflective-critical thinking should be the ultimate goal of education. He holds a B.A. from Rutgers University, where he studied Philosophy and English Literature and a M.Ed from the Harvard Graduate School of Education…but to be honest, he really doesn’t care much for credentials.
Education Otherwise Than At School - celebrating diversity
The International Council Education Otherwise Than At School (ICEOTAS) promotes excellence in diversity. Excellence because all children deserve the best, so they can be the best. Diversity because beyond any shadow of doubt, no one size or style fits all. But each child deserves the best possible chance to succeed – whatever they need, for them.
This workshop will introduce the three strands of the Council – training, consultancy and quality assurance. Most emphasis and time will be given to the thorny topic of how to draw up standards ensure safety and allow celebration, but do not promote (overtly or unconsciously) uniformity.
Mark is a teacher of many years experience. He is President, International Council Education Otherwise Than At School (ICEOTAS), Founder and Chairman of the FilBrit Training Centres in Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah, Abu Dhabi, Eastern Europe and West Africa and Founder and Managing Director, of Penta International, the educational consultancy company working in the UK and overseas. He works as a trainer, school inspector and consultant, all over the world.
This workshop will introduce the three strands of the Council – training, consultancy and quality assurance. Most emphasis and time will be given to the thorny topic of how to draw up standards ensure safety and allow celebration, but do not promote (overtly or unconsciously) uniformity.
Mark is a teacher of many years experience. He is President, International Council Education Otherwise Than At School (ICEOTAS), Founder and Chairman of the FilBrit Training Centres in Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah, Abu Dhabi, Eastern Europe and West Africa and Founder and Managing Director, of Penta International, the educational consultancy company working in the UK and overseas. He works as a trainer, school inspector and consultant, all over the world.
Learning without professors in higher education
An accredited experimental university without professors has been planned in Taiwan. This will be the first school to implement heutagogy or self-determined learning in higher education by harvesting the power of MOOC. Come and learn more about it.
Tim Chen, also known as the godfather of homeschooling, is a famous advocate for education choice in Taiwan. Tim and his Polish wife Dorota have been homeschooling their multilingual and multicultural kids since 2002.
Tim has been promoting the awareness of education choice by giving interviews to podcasts, newspapers, magazines, TV and radio programs. Under his auspice, Taiwan Legislative Yuan, the parliament, passed an Enforcement Statute for Non-School Mode of Experimental Education at the Senior High School Level or Below and signed in to the law by the President in November 2014 and subsequently revised in January 2018 to protect the rights of homeschooling parents and students. In addition, the parliament also passed Enforcement Act for School-based Experimental Education and Act Governing the Commissioning of the Operation of Public Schools at Senior High School Level or Below to the Private Sector for Experimental Education to further expand the possibility of experimental education in Taiwan.
Tim found Taipei Media School (TMS) in 2016 and served as its director until 2019. TMS is a non-school experimental education initiative jointly established by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government, and the Taipei Culture Foundation to foster skills and nurture talent in music, show production, visual arts, and administration. He is now establishing up an experimental university in Taiwan based on the educational philosophy of Heutagogy or self-determined learning.
Tim’s expertise in education is widely recognized. He is the member of the Taiwan National Curriculum Review Committee Plenary Session representing non-governmental organizations related to education. He also serves on several experimental education review committees for both central and local governments. He also serves on the Executive Board of the Global Home Education Conference since 2013. He is a frequent conference speaker on home education, alternative education and open education worldwide.
Tim and Dorota co-authored the best selling homeschool book in Chinese titled My Home is an International School – Raising Global Kids by Taiwanese Dad and Polish Mom. He is a regular guest host for National Education Radio and he hosts his own weekly live stream on education issues in his YouTube channel and Facebook fan page.
Tim Chen, also known as the godfather of homeschooling, is a famous advocate for education choice in Taiwan. Tim and his Polish wife Dorota have been homeschooling their multilingual and multicultural kids since 2002.
Tim has been promoting the awareness of education choice by giving interviews to podcasts, newspapers, magazines, TV and radio programs. Under his auspice, Taiwan Legislative Yuan, the parliament, passed an Enforcement Statute for Non-School Mode of Experimental Education at the Senior High School Level or Below and signed in to the law by the President in November 2014 and subsequently revised in January 2018 to protect the rights of homeschooling parents and students. In addition, the parliament also passed Enforcement Act for School-based Experimental Education and Act Governing the Commissioning of the Operation of Public Schools at Senior High School Level or Below to the Private Sector for Experimental Education to further expand the possibility of experimental education in Taiwan.
Tim found Taipei Media School (TMS) in 2016 and served as its director until 2019. TMS is a non-school experimental education initiative jointly established by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government, and the Taipei Culture Foundation to foster skills and nurture talent in music, show production, visual arts, and administration. He is now establishing up an experimental university in Taiwan based on the educational philosophy of Heutagogy or self-determined learning.
Tim’s expertise in education is widely recognized. He is the member of the Taiwan National Curriculum Review Committee Plenary Session representing non-governmental organizations related to education. He also serves on several experimental education review committees for both central and local governments. He also serves on the Executive Board of the Global Home Education Conference since 2013. He is a frequent conference speaker on home education, alternative education and open education worldwide.
Tim and Dorota co-authored the best selling homeschool book in Chinese titled My Home is an International School – Raising Global Kids by Taiwanese Dad and Polish Mom. He is a regular guest host for National Education Radio and he hosts his own weekly live stream on education issues in his YouTube channel and Facebook fan page.
Parenting for SDE
Many parents don’t see a problem with Conventional Schools being highly adult-directed spaces because Conventional Parenting takes it for granted that it is in the best interest of children to be directed by adults (the more the better), and all that is open for debate is the appropriateness of various rewards and punishments to control children.
In this workshop, we will explore the hypothesis that certain “alternative” parenting approaches are more likely to find SDE attractive and its implications for SDE advocates.
Sifaan Zavahir and Dileepa Manawadu are co-founders of Kinder Republic, Sri Lanka's first "school" for SDE. Their journey was strongly influenced by their practice of Compassionate Parenting, which they blog about as @ParentingWithMetta
In this workshop, we will explore the hypothesis that certain “alternative” parenting approaches are more likely to find SDE attractive and its implications for SDE advocates.
Sifaan Zavahir and Dileepa Manawadu are co-founders of Kinder Republic, Sri Lanka's first "school" for SDE. Their journey was strongly influenced by their practice of Compassionate Parenting, which they blog about as @ParentingWithMetta
The Cycle of Competence in Education
How do we move from being unaware that there is even something to learn, to learning and mastering a topic or skill? What influences whether learning moves forward driven by curiosity or shuts down in shame? Is it really possible that the cycle of competence can run in the opposite direction in Self-Directed Education when driven by Intrinsic Structure? This SDE theory session is a sequel to Je'anna's previous keynote for AERO on Structure in Education.
Je'anna L Clements (Psych Hons) is a mother of two self-educating young people aged 10 and 15. She supports parents, teachers and facilitators around the globe in learning to optimise Self-Directed Education. She is the author of What If School Creates DYSlexia? and the forthcoming Helping The Butterfly Hatch book series, which has grown out of her online facilitation courses. Her writing has previously been published by Tipping Points magazine (ASDE), Journal for Children, Youth and Environment (Univ Colorado) Save The Children (Sweden) and more. She is a core founder of Riverstone Village, the first Sudbury-inspired SDE learning community in South Africa.
Je'anna L Clements (Psych Hons) is a mother of two self-educating young people aged 10 and 15. She supports parents, teachers and facilitators around the globe in learning to optimise Self-Directed Education. She is the author of What If School Creates DYSlexia? and the forthcoming Helping The Butterfly Hatch book series, which has grown out of her online facilitation courses. Her writing has previously been published by Tipping Points magazine (ASDE), Journal for Children, Youth and Environment (Univ Colorado) Save The Children (Sweden) and more. She is a core founder of Riverstone Village, the first Sudbury-inspired SDE learning community in South Africa.
Background and Vision for The Holistic Education Review (HER)
The Holistic Education Review is the merging of two streams of academic publications on holistic education -- The Holistic Educator Newsletter (HEN) and The Holistic Education Review/Encounter -- and it is also the birth of a new publication.
History and Background
The Holistic Educator Newsletter began in 1991 as part of the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development’s (ASCD) Wholistic Education Network. Jack Miller was an editor from 1996 until 2011, when Susan Schiller and Gary Babiuk assumed the editorial roles. Throughout the history of HEN, the newsletter has been published twice a year, Spring and Fall.
In the summer of 2020, Susan and Gary asked Paul Freedman if he would assume the role of editor when they retired at the end of the year. Paul invited Laurel Tien and Renee Owen to join him as the new volunteer editorial team. Susan and Gary provided the mailing list of 250 scholars and practitioners currently receiving HEN.
As a team, we identified the need for a peer-reviewed journal on holistic education, especially since the journal, Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, edited by Ron Miller, had been discontinued (since 2014?). Ron was also editor for a previous holistic journal called Holistic Education Review, founded in 1988.
While the need for a peer review journal exists, we don’t want to lose the free-form, community-based nature of the Holistic Educator Newsletter, so we decided to fulfill both needs in one hybrid publication. We chose the name Holistic Education Review (with Ron Miller’s blessings) as a symbol of merging of the two streams.
Production Editor: Laurel Tien: Inspired by the self-directed learning journey of my children--now young adults!--I embarked on my own parallel path through the SelfDesign Graduate Institute's MA program. I have continued to deepen my understandings of post-traditional education as a PhD Candidate in the Transformative Studies program at California Institute of Integral Studies, where my dissertation is focused on privileging emergence and relational learning as generative collective wisdom. My teaching and research over the past ten years has focused on experiential, holistic, integral and transformational approaches to education. I am honoured to be able to support holistic education through the Transformative Learning Foundation and as Director of the Transformative Learning Communities concentration in the Individualized MA program at Antioch University. In these roles I get to see the power of holding space for holistic, emergent knowing with individuals and intentional learning communities. Academic Website: https://laureltien.academia.edu/
History and Background
The Holistic Educator Newsletter began in 1991 as part of the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development’s (ASCD) Wholistic Education Network. Jack Miller was an editor from 1996 until 2011, when Susan Schiller and Gary Babiuk assumed the editorial roles. Throughout the history of HEN, the newsletter has been published twice a year, Spring and Fall.
In the summer of 2020, Susan and Gary asked Paul Freedman if he would assume the role of editor when they retired at the end of the year. Paul invited Laurel Tien and Renee Owen to join him as the new volunteer editorial team. Susan and Gary provided the mailing list of 250 scholars and practitioners currently receiving HEN.
As a team, we identified the need for a peer-reviewed journal on holistic education, especially since the journal, Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, edited by Ron Miller, had been discontinued (since 2014?). Ron was also editor for a previous holistic journal called Holistic Education Review, founded in 1988.
While the need for a peer review journal exists, we don’t want to lose the free-form, community-based nature of the Holistic Educator Newsletter, so we decided to fulfill both needs in one hybrid publication. We chose the name Holistic Education Review (with Ron Miller’s blessings) as a symbol of merging of the two streams.
Production Editor: Laurel Tien: Inspired by the self-directed learning journey of my children--now young adults!--I embarked on my own parallel path through the SelfDesign Graduate Institute's MA program. I have continued to deepen my understandings of post-traditional education as a PhD Candidate in the Transformative Studies program at California Institute of Integral Studies, where my dissertation is focused on privileging emergence and relational learning as generative collective wisdom. My teaching and research over the past ten years has focused on experiential, holistic, integral and transformational approaches to education. I am honoured to be able to support holistic education through the Transformative Learning Foundation and as Director of the Transformative Learning Communities concentration in the Individualized MA program at Antioch University. In these roles I get to see the power of holding space for holistic, emergent knowing with individuals and intentional learning communities. Academic Website: https://laureltien.academia.edu/
Visual Listening in the Classroom
Learn how to masterfully capture the awareness and understanding of words through simple visuals
With attention spans dwindling, it's more important than ever to find new and easy ways to keep engagement high in your classroom.
Visual Listening is an easy technique to incorporate, keeping your students retaining lessons with a deeper personal understanding of what they hear and their relationship to the content. Together let's support creative thinking to bridge concepts and words to build confidence and empower students to trust themselves in their individual learning process!
In this workshop, you will:
+ Discover Lenses of Listening and how this affects how students perceive the content you share
+ Discover the power of Visual Words as an effective creative tool to clarify concepts and enhance individual and collective understanding quickly and effectively that you can share with your students
+ All open minds are welcome!
+ We will use techniques of design, mindfulness, and listening.
+ No artistic background is needed. Don't worry if you 'can't' draw, I'll teach you how to create in a new empowering way.
+ We'll focus on the power of words through handwriting, breaking it down to one letter at a time.
+ Please note this workshop is an introduction to Visual Listening. Visual Listening is a method of multiple techniques to enhance creativity, listening, and retention to keep learning fun through visual note-taking.
You will need:
+ Sharpie markers ( thin and thick )
+ Large 5x7 blank notecards or post its
Nikki Kurt is a Soul Archaeologist and Seer who connects people, energy, and words through her intuitive practice of healing as Art. She shares her collected wisdom through Graphic Storytelling – her practice of the art of Visual Word to capture the energy of the moment. Using simple visuals and typography, she distills complex thoughts, ideas, and relationships to their essence in real time. Nikki uses her background in Communications Design and Illustration from Pratt Institute, alongside her many years of experience working in the Design and Innovation fields as the foundation for this creative practice. She has drawn and spoken in front of groups of thousands, has led intimate 1:1 healing sessions using Visual Word, and has trained hundreds of people all over the world in her Mindful Note-Taking method.
As an avid seeker of truth, she is always looking for new opportunities to expand consciousness through storytelling to empower others to reconnect with their human potential of listening, trusting, and creation. Nikki is home free and is an adventurer of the world. You can find Nikki always with a Marker on hand, ready to capture the past, present and future moments, serving the greatest clarity of all.
Website
www.nikkikurt.com/workshops
With attention spans dwindling, it's more important than ever to find new and easy ways to keep engagement high in your classroom.
Visual Listening is an easy technique to incorporate, keeping your students retaining lessons with a deeper personal understanding of what they hear and their relationship to the content. Together let's support creative thinking to bridge concepts and words to build confidence and empower students to trust themselves in their individual learning process!
In this workshop, you will:
+ Discover Lenses of Listening and how this affects how students perceive the content you share
+ Discover the power of Visual Words as an effective creative tool to clarify concepts and enhance individual and collective understanding quickly and effectively that you can share with your students
+ All open minds are welcome!
+ We will use techniques of design, mindfulness, and listening.
+ No artistic background is needed. Don't worry if you 'can't' draw, I'll teach you how to create in a new empowering way.
+ We'll focus on the power of words through handwriting, breaking it down to one letter at a time.
+ Please note this workshop is an introduction to Visual Listening. Visual Listening is a method of multiple techniques to enhance creativity, listening, and retention to keep learning fun through visual note-taking.
You will need:
+ Sharpie markers ( thin and thick )
+ Large 5x7 blank notecards or post its
Nikki Kurt is a Soul Archaeologist and Seer who connects people, energy, and words through her intuitive practice of healing as Art. She shares her collected wisdom through Graphic Storytelling – her practice of the art of Visual Word to capture the energy of the moment. Using simple visuals and typography, she distills complex thoughts, ideas, and relationships to their essence in real time. Nikki uses her background in Communications Design and Illustration from Pratt Institute, alongside her many years of experience working in the Design and Innovation fields as the foundation for this creative practice. She has drawn and spoken in front of groups of thousands, has led intimate 1:1 healing sessions using Visual Word, and has trained hundreds of people all over the world in her Mindful Note-Taking method.
As an avid seeker of truth, she is always looking for new opportunities to expand consciousness through storytelling to empower others to reconnect with their human potential of listening, trusting, and creation. Nikki is home free and is an adventurer of the world. You can find Nikki always with a Marker on hand, ready to capture the past, present and future moments, serving the greatest clarity of all.
Website
www.nikkikurt.com/workshops
Creating Authentic Community Online
How can children come together in a meaningful way online? How can they create authentic friendships? How can creative learning happen?
We took our in-person learning community of 35 home-educated children online during the first lockdown. It worked so well that we now run an online learning community for home-ed children alongside our in-person community.
In this session we will share insights into how we've created a real community for children, full of laughter, joy, togetherness and lots of learning, when many of them haven't yet met in real life.
Anil Sarna and Zoe Holden founded Hebden Bridge Learning Community in 2016 out of a shared love for learning, teaching, children, nature, yoga and meditation.
Anil has previously been a Spanish and Italian teacher, yoga and meditation instructor and shiatsu therapist. He has been involved in international educational projects for more than 20 years and has launched and directed two languages schools in Spain and in the UK. He speaks five languages and is the father of two grown-up children.
Zoe has previously been Principal of a College that teaches alternative therapy. She has worked internationally as an alternative therapist, ran women groups, speaks 3 languages and is the mother of a beautiful young boy.
We took our in-person learning community of 35 home-educated children online during the first lockdown. It worked so well that we now run an online learning community for home-ed children alongside our in-person community.
In this session we will share insights into how we've created a real community for children, full of laughter, joy, togetherness and lots of learning, when many of them haven't yet met in real life.
Anil Sarna and Zoe Holden founded Hebden Bridge Learning Community in 2016 out of a shared love for learning, teaching, children, nature, yoga and meditation.
Anil has previously been a Spanish and Italian teacher, yoga and meditation instructor and shiatsu therapist. He has been involved in international educational projects for more than 20 years and has launched and directed two languages schools in Spain and in the UK. He speaks five languages and is the father of two grown-up children.
Zoe has previously been Principal of a College that teaches alternative therapy. She has worked internationally as an alternative therapist, ran women groups, speaks 3 languages and is the mother of a beautiful young boy.
Starting an Educational Alternative
Join Jerry Mintz the Executive Director of AERO to learn tips to start your own educational alternative. Jerry will be sharing his knowledg from helping to start hundreds of educational alternatives across the globe and the latest ideas from the AERO schools starter course.
Jerry Mintz has been a leading voice in the alternative school movement since establishing AERO in 1989. In addition to his seventeen years as a public and independent alternative school principal and teacher, he has also helped found more than one hundred public and private alternative schools and organizations. He has lectured and consulted in more than twenty-five countries around the world.
In 1989, he founded the Alternative Education Resource Organization and since then has served as it’s Director. Jerry was also a founding member of the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) in 2013.
In addition to several appearances on national radio and TV shows, Jerry’s essays, commentaries, and reviews have appeared in numerous newspapers, journals, and magazines including The New York Times, Newsday, Paths of Learning, Green Money Journal, Communities, Saturday Review, Holistic Education Review as well as the anthology Creating Learning Communities (Foundation for Educational Renewal, 2000).
Jerry was Editor-in-Chief for the Handbook of Alternative Education (Macmillan, 1994), and the Almanac of Education Choices (Macmillan/Simon & Schuster, 1995). He is the author of School’s Over: How to Have Freedom and Democracy in Education (AERO, 2017) and is editor of Turning Points: 35 Visionaries in Education Tell Their Own Story (AERO, 2010).He is the editor of the AERO weekly free e newsletter with 15,000 subscribers.
Jerry Mintz has spoken at Alternative Education Resource Organization Conferences from its inception in 2004 through 2019 in locations such as Troy, NY, Albany, NY, Portland, OR, and Long Island University. He has spoken at the International Democratic Education Conference in locations including Hadera, Israel, Vienna, Austria, Devon, England, Summerhill School, England, Vinnitsa, Ukraine, Tokyo, Japan, Christchurch, New Zealand, Sydney, Australia, Berlin, Germany, Bhubanashwar, India, Vancouver, Canada, Nuestra Escuela, Puerto Rico, Boulder, Colorado, Gwangmyeong, Korea, Mikkeli, Finland, and Kiev, Ukraine. He has done TEDx talks in Brooklyn and Norway. He has also spoken at the Reevo Conference in Bogota, Colombia, the ED Crunch Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Eureka Conferences in Narva, Estonia, Simferipol, Ukraine, and Moscow, Russia, The Green Festival in New York, International Association of Learning Alternatives Conferences in Deluth, MN, Portland, OR, St. Augustine, FL, Atlanta, GA, Des Moines, IA, Denver, CO, Amsterdam, NY. He has spoken a homeschooling conferences such as in Albany, NY, Montreal, Quebec, Dallas, TX. He has spoken at the Montessori Foundation Conference in Sarasota, FL. He spoke at numerous National Coalition of Alternative Community School conferences such as in Salem, OR, Chicago, IL, Santa Fe, NM, Ann Arbor, MI, Bloomington, IN, San Diego, CA, Summertown, TN, Glenmoore, PA. He has done consultations in nearly every state and over 22 countries, most recently in Eger, Hungary, Chalford, England and Kiev, Ukraine.
Articles by Jerry Mintz
Democratic School Governance
Sustainable Education
Ten Signs You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child
https://www.educationrevolution.org/store/jerrymintz/
Jerry Mintz has been a leading voice in the alternative school movement since establishing AERO in 1989. In addition to his seventeen years as a public and independent alternative school principal and teacher, he has also helped found more than one hundred public and private alternative schools and organizations. He has lectured and consulted in more than twenty-five countries around the world.
In 1989, he founded the Alternative Education Resource Organization and since then has served as it’s Director. Jerry was also a founding member of the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) in 2013.
In addition to several appearances on national radio and TV shows, Jerry’s essays, commentaries, and reviews have appeared in numerous newspapers, journals, and magazines including The New York Times, Newsday, Paths of Learning, Green Money Journal, Communities, Saturday Review, Holistic Education Review as well as the anthology Creating Learning Communities (Foundation for Educational Renewal, 2000).
Jerry was Editor-in-Chief for the Handbook of Alternative Education (Macmillan, 1994), and the Almanac of Education Choices (Macmillan/Simon & Schuster, 1995). He is the author of School’s Over: How to Have Freedom and Democracy in Education (AERO, 2017) and is editor of Turning Points: 35 Visionaries in Education Tell Their Own Story (AERO, 2010).He is the editor of the AERO weekly free e newsletter with 15,000 subscribers.
Jerry Mintz has spoken at Alternative Education Resource Organization Conferences from its inception in 2004 through 2019 in locations such as Troy, NY, Albany, NY, Portland, OR, and Long Island University. He has spoken at the International Democratic Education Conference in locations including Hadera, Israel, Vienna, Austria, Devon, England, Summerhill School, England, Vinnitsa, Ukraine, Tokyo, Japan, Christchurch, New Zealand, Sydney, Australia, Berlin, Germany, Bhubanashwar, India, Vancouver, Canada, Nuestra Escuela, Puerto Rico, Boulder, Colorado, Gwangmyeong, Korea, Mikkeli, Finland, and Kiev, Ukraine. He has done TEDx talks in Brooklyn and Norway. He has also spoken at the Reevo Conference in Bogota, Colombia, the ED Crunch Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Eureka Conferences in Narva, Estonia, Simferipol, Ukraine, and Moscow, Russia, The Green Festival in New York, International Association of Learning Alternatives Conferences in Deluth, MN, Portland, OR, St. Augustine, FL, Atlanta, GA, Des Moines, IA, Denver, CO, Amsterdam, NY. He has spoken a homeschooling conferences such as in Albany, NY, Montreal, Quebec, Dallas, TX. He has spoken at the Montessori Foundation Conference in Sarasota, FL. He spoke at numerous National Coalition of Alternative Community School conferences such as in Salem, OR, Chicago, IL, Santa Fe, NM, Ann Arbor, MI, Bloomington, IN, San Diego, CA, Summertown, TN, Glenmoore, PA. He has done consultations in nearly every state and over 22 countries, most recently in Eger, Hungary, Chalford, England and Kiev, Ukraine.
Articles by Jerry Mintz
Democratic School Governance
Sustainable Education
Ten Signs You Need to Find a Different Kind of Education for Your Child
https://www.educationrevolution.org/store/jerrymintz/