brett veinotte

brett veinotte 2

[manchester, nh]

intro’d to Brett via Richard via John.. when i was perusing the tragedy and hope site.. in particular – Brett hosting a evin Cole convo.

from school sucks project site:

Brett Veinotte has worked in education for the last 12 years, in a variety of capacities. Most recently, he was the vice president of a tutoring and educational consulting company in New Hampshire. Brett began working as a counselor and outdoor educator at a boarding school in Vermont in 2000, and was eventually promoted to lead teacher of a specialized campus. He then taught at a private day school in Manchester, Vermont from 2004 to 2006, where he designed new curricula for all classes he taught, including American History, World History, Media Ethics, Film History and a variety of mathematics courses. He completed masters level coursework in educational leadership, and the secondary education certification program at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. After leaving classroom teaching in 2006, Brett began to work exclusively as a private tutor in the greater Boston area. Much of this work was related to standardized test prep but also included providing essay writing support to college applicants, leading training sessions for prospective teachers planning to take state certification exams and serving as a liaison between parents and public schools to address student needs and parent concerns.

Brett started/hosts school sucks project:

School Sucks Project is a podcast, You Tube channel, and on-line community dedicated to redefining education. We promote home-education, critical thinking, peaceful parenting, personal growth and nonviolent communication strategies.

What education is: a lifelong process of seeking and integrating new knowledge, an intrinsically motivated journey that serves the needs of the individual learner
What education isn’t: compulsory, institutionalized schooling

My name is Brett Veinotte, and in my 12 years of teaching, school sucks has been perhaps the most common phrase I’ve heard students use to describe their feelings about “public education” or more appropriately, compulsory schooling. Yet this seemingly bitter and reductive slogan is actually quite clever.

School sucks is perhaps the most accurate and astute synopsis of the system I’ve ever heard. The 15,000-hour process of compulsory schooling has a dramatic effect on the mind of a child. When we first enter these institutions at age six, many of our best personal attributes are already in place. We are curious, innovative, unique, creative and hopeful in ways that we will rarely be able to replicate throughout the rest of our lives. But over time, school sucks those essential attributes out of too many of us…and replaces them with predictability, obedience and apathy.

Unfortunately, for over a century this process has been referred to as “education.” It isn’t. Our aim is to reclaim that word, to take it back from those who wish to use institutionalized schools (at all levels) to mold impressionable minds into desirable and predictable finished products. Education is a journey by the individual, for the individual.