new free range education web site:
column answers alt ed questions
The Alternative Educators' Network
has opened a new web site for parents interested in
learning more about alternative education issues:
www.FREducation.org.
FREducation.org features an exclusive advice column
called Ask FREd, where
parents can ask questions related to alternative education
issues and homeschooling, and receive advice and ideas
from parents who want to help Hoosiers think outside
the box of institutional state schooling.
FREducation is Free Range Education,
or learning outside the box of institutional state
schooling.
New e-list
for parents interested in charter and virtual charter
schools
Branching out from homeschooling,
we're managing a new discussion list for the public
education marketplace's alternative to 100% government
managed, compulsory schooling... Virtual Charter Schools.
IndianaCharterSchoolers
now has its own, easy to remember, domain address.
www.IndianaCS.net.
IndianaCharterSchoolers is where parents can go
to network with other parents with children in public
charter schools. Keep up on the news and information
that the district State Schools just don't seem
to tell you about. This includes legal issues brought
on by the Indiana State Teachers' Association (ISTA)
aimed at hampering the effectiveness of charters
or shutting them down altogether. Subscribing is
free. Why not find other parents who actually LIKE
the education their children are receiving from
their chartered public school?
The IndianaCharterSchoolers e-list
is managed by the same people who manage the IndianaHomeschoolers
e-list for homeschoolers throughout Indiana. We
are facilitating the heated discussions that will
eventually help bring about the changes necessary
to get virtual learning environments open to every
parent who would like to take advantage of them.
The Alternative Educators'
Network promotes thinking differently about learning.
Subscribe
directly to IndianaCharterSchoolers here.
network news
The Network is planning
on growing and expanding its mission over the next
few months, and we can't wait to fill you in on
the plans. But first, we think it's important to
inject a little history:
The Alternative Educators'
Network has been around since before the turn of
the century. Founded by a homeschooling father (of
one at the time -- it's now four) and full time
dad. Ben Bennett founded AEN by starting and managing
the discussion e-list called AltEdDiscourse,
for the purpose of discussing the more political
aspects of state schooling, as well as the many
reasons homeschooling seems to work better than
state schools.
Since then, he has
branched out and assisted in forming the statewide
networking organization, The
Indiana Home Educators' Network. His company,
Bennett and Company helped to manage and coordinate
IHEN's various e-lists as well as design their web
site. IHEN's IndianaHomeschoolers
e-list is now the largest free subscription e-list
in the state, with close to 1,300 subscribers by
mid 2007. Indiana Home Educators' Network's web
site, IHEN.org,
is the most visited Indiana based web site for parents
interested in homeschooling.
That was the short
version. :-) The Alternative Educators' Network
is hoping to build on the networking experience,
to help other alternative educators, organizations
and institutions build successful communities and
associations. In the near future, we'll be announcing
our plans.
In the meantime,
if you are interested in learning more, please drop
us an e-mail. We'd love to know if our history,
can be a part of your future.
what's the
buzz?
Most of what we do
is communicate and inform each other via e-mail
lists, or e-lists. More and more, people are relying
on the Internet, and networking communities for
their immediate and most reliable source of news
and information. It seems we trust a community of
people we don't know, but seem to know what they're
talking about, over a news anchor face, telling
us what the mainstream
media thinks we should know.
Here is a fairly
current listing of what is being talked about on
the various Alternative Educators' Network e-list
communities.
our purpose
Providing information
on the wide range of alternatives to institutional
state schooling. Helping parents get their children
back.
joining AEN
You can't join the
Alternative Educators' Network. But you can support
AEN by passing the word about us, or supporting
our web sites with advertising. Write
to AltEdNet for more information.