Matt Hern on Alternative Education
Over the course of the past decade, there has been a marked increase in skepticism toward current models 
for public and private schools, and a renewed interest in alternative models for education. Why? The simple answer is that many of our educational institutions fail to offer kids the skills they need to be healthy, self-directed life-learners. They stifle creativity, and encourage conformity of thought. They utilize draconian disciplinary measures and a one-size-fits-all approach to learning. Government control of, and corporate intrusion into, education has been a further disaster for communities concerned with the welfare of their youngsters.
It’s no wonder that popular engagement in homeschooling, unschooling, deschooling, and alternative schools is gaining momentum. The project of “deschooling” our youth (and ourselves) requires thinking about new self-directed learning strategies for children, helping kids to build critical thinking for active engagement and democratic self-governance while alleviating the negative psychological effects of traditional schooling methods.
That’s why AK Press published Matt Hern’s Everywhere All the Time: A New Deschooling Reader. It’s a collection of essays and excerpts designed to educate, inform, and explore a variety of different models for alternative education. The book includes classic and contemporary writing by Ivan Illich, Emma Goldman, Leo Tolstoy, John Taylor Gatto, Grace Llewellyn, and many more.
Matt recently delivered a keynote address for the Alternative Education Resource Organization, a non-profit organization founded in 1989 to advance learner-centered approaches to education. Below you can check out a ten-minute snippet of his talk (and can get the rest at AERO’s website).