Below are a collection of alternative, home and unschooling resources that cover a wide range of questions and issues. A summary of years of exploration.
After home and unschooling my two sons thirty years ago, serving as the fiscal sponsor for Rethinking Education, the longest running Home and UnSchooling conference in the United States, writing, speaking and personally interviewing leaders in the field, I found myself years later the father of bright, energetic daughter. She attended a completely outdoor Walldorf inspired Forest Preschool until she out grew her welcome. We, and few other parents, were faced with the: “to school or not to school” challenge. All the core questions arose like ghosts of some distant past.
Fortunately, I had worked with Jerry Mintz, the founder of The Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO) andChris Mercogliano, a teacher and director of theAlbany Free School for thirty-five years. Chris andJerry host a fifteen week, ‘Start an Educational Alternative,’ course that explores; educational vision, building a suitable educational model, mastering the governance techniques, fundraising, legal set up and student and staff recruitment. The documents below were generated during that program which led to a small group of committed parents to create a small Home School Pod, and cover many of the philosophic and practical challenges we faced.
The Vision Summary Plus is a great overview of the landscape, values, hopes, challenges and goals of our Noncoercive, Child-Centered, Democratic, Play Based learning center. Begin there.
Michael Mendizza
Education Values, Goals, Priorities
Revisiting Organizing Philosophy and Core Values
Alternative Education with Tom Cowan
Program notes on the Tom Cowan interview
Digitally Distracted’ Kids Aren’t Reading Anymore
Grassroots National Homeschooling Movement
Most Important Academic Goals for Elementary School
Rethinking What It Means to Be A Parent
Someone Taught Them with John Taylor Gatto
The Foundations of Unschooling
Learning and education with Joseph Chilton Pearce
Play is Learning with Joseph Chilton Pearce
How the state of authentic play transforms the parent child relationship with Angela Braden.