ASDE News

The Results Are In

Thanks to your generous donations and help spreading the word about our gift-matching fundraiser, we raised $9,003 in two weeks! That amount will be matched by our anonymous benefactor, bringing the amount raised to a grand total of $18,006!

We are already putting those funds to work as we prepare to launch several new initiatives. Stay tuned...

Reflections from the AERO Conference

Last month several ASDE board and organizing team members attended annual conference of the Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO). Highlights included the opportunity to gather and collaborate in person, hosting a workshop on how to talk to skeptics about SDE, and keynote speeches by two of our board members, Akilah Richards and Peter Gray. Those who attended left refreshed, energized, and even more excited to spread the word of our movement!

We have received some incredibly positive feedback about ASDE’s presence at AERO. For example:

“The conference left me with new optimism that people were really starting to collaborate. Attendees seemed more interested than ever in uniting to bring about change. Previously I had felt inspired by the conference and the people I met at it, but until this year it always seemed like we were just doing our own things. Peter Gray and the Alliance for Self-Directed Education were a strong presence at the conference for a number of days and provided the kind of leadership we need to unite. AERO is selling recordings and videos of conference presentations, and I particularly recommend the one by Akilah Richards.”

The great discussions at our workshop have moved online to our member forums, so all ASDE members can participate. (See first link below...)

Active conversations in the Member Forums:

• How Do You Explain SDE to Skeptics? — “What is your ‘elevator speech’ about SDE? When people ask you why you aren’t sending your kids to school or giving them homeschooling assignments and tests, what do you say? What are the most common criticisms you hear of your SDE practice, and how do you respond to those criticisms?”
• Making Change — “Hardly anywhere in Politics is it talked about how miserable and obsolete our modern education system is... What can we do to make our community louder so it gets some attention by the government and the media?”
• SDE for Liberation! — “I gained a more comprehensive analysis of systems of oppression and began to find it unbearable to try to relate to people with strong social missions, but shallow analyses of oppression...”

	An Incomplete and Peronal History of the Modern Schools Alexander Khost
	The Key to Learning: Process VS Product in SDE By Je'anna L. Clements