School's Over

Over the last four decades, Jerry Mintz has quietly established himself as the backbone of the alternative education movement. While working with students within the traditional system and after school programs, starting schools in the United States and abroad, and founding the influential Alternative Education Resource Organization, Mintz has gained invaluable insight into the form and function and importance of putting power in the hands of children.

After spending years highlighting the voices of other prominent figures, in School's Over: How to Have Freedom and Democracy in Education readers finally hear directly from Mintz, who outlines the components of successful democratic schools and how these schools change the lives of those involved. He shares memories from his journeys around the globe--from working with the Iroquois tribe to establish schools that would protect their language and culture, to opening up communication between Eastern and Western alternatives while witnessing the fall of the Soviet Union--and conversations with many well-known leaders, such as John Holt and Jonathan Kozol. Mintz has long been the connective tissue in this movement, tirelessly working in support of new schools, new ideas, and learner-centered education.

"Jerry Mintz has unparalleled experience of democratic education in all sorts of settings around the world. Under his direction, AERO has become the principal resource for parents, students, and educators everywhere who are looking for or practicing alternative forms of education. School's Over is part reportage, part memoir, and part manifesto for thinking differently about our children and acting differently in their education." -Sir Ken Robinson