AERO Alternative Education Alumni Database

Begun and developed by Herb Snitzer and a number of others. A place where all the rules were decided in meetings in which every member of the community had one vote (except the following rules: no drugs, no alcohol, and maybe no stealing vehicles). Consequences for breaking the rules were decided in these meetings; discussion sometimes was swift, sometimes lasted for hours. Sometimes decisions were unanimous, sometimes by a slim majority. The worst meetings addressed stealing or fighting. A bell tower stood by the front steps leading to the main building (the original farm house) from the highway. The person calling the meeting rang the bell whenever they felt the need to. The bell also signalled the beginning of a meal.
Some of the neighboring townspeople enjoyed having the school nearby and contributed to it by teaching or working in other capacities, sending their children as students, or welcoming us to their businesses and community activities. Some of the people were less kind, and spread tall tales about us. Some students attempted to mingle with the townspeople by participating in the crafts co-op, attending John Birch Society meetings, inviting girls to visit, buying food and odds and ends at the businesses, and inviting them to the grand final musical production, "A Fiddler on the Roof".
Teachers (commonly referred to as "staff") offered a schedule of classes to students (commonly referred to as "people") at the beginning of each school term. The schedule was modified to accomodate as many people who could be accomodated. Popular classes included math, science, social studies, english, and the arts, though those terms were rarely used. Class titles were often more like "rockets", "hydroponics", "older girls seminar", "yoga", "folk dance", "acting workshop" or "sex and sexuality". Staff also taught many classes to one or a few students by request.
Any class attendance was optional until the last few years when people in their final 2 years before graduation were required to make a plan for their upcoming school term. Each student developed their own plan with a staff. It became a contract to be fulfilled by the end of the term.
The largest of several geodesic domes on the property, developed by Herb's friend Buckminster Fuller, was the library. It included open classroom space among the bookshelves, and the Math loft. Other popular places of learning were the Science Dome, the Music Dome, the barn that housed the pottery studio, art room, theater, Little Kids area and the weaving studio, and the vast grounds surrounding the school which was located in The Adirondack Mountains. The Northway sliced across the property a few years after the school began, cutting off access to much of the acreage. This problem was never resolved even after a plan was put in place to build a foot bridge; the foot bridge was never built.
Staff sporadically and spontaneously put up a sign-up sheet when one wanted to take people on a trip. This usually happened weekly. The school owned a full-sized van which was modified over the years to resemble a school bus in accordance with state law.
Meals were offered at specific hours. The kitchen was closed at all other times, except when people broke in :) A few students earned pocket change by buying foods in bulk and selling the food between meals. The staff had their own dining room and usually allowed a limited number of students to join them if requested. Staff often voluntarily ate with the students in the main dining room. Sometimes the staff held confidential development workshops in their dining room.
Adjacent to the main dining room was a large open room where many impromptu activities occured like meetings, backrub jamborees, sing-alongs by the fire in the fireplace, old movies on reels of film borrowed from the library, many variations on the game of tag, mail distribution, putting on ice skates to use on the front lawn, dances, reading aloud and such. No TV was allowed except for watching the Watergate hearings.
The front lawn was also used for more variations on the game of tag, and volleyball games.
A few students came for the day and lived at home; most boarded and came from at least several hours away. Enrollment reached a peak of approximately 75 people, grades K-12. A few years later, funding was cut to the point where the board of directors could not see a way to keep the school open. Herb Snitzer gave the final commencement speech to the graduating class of 1976.