Our Founders on Otherways and the Early Days of AERG

Lauris Jephcott

Fancy ‘Other Ways’ reaching its 100th issue! Congratulations to all the ‘generations’ of parents and educators who have thought it important over the years to look at alternatives.

Whilst my memory plays some tricks after more than 20 years, I remember most clearly the desire I had to make life happy and interesting for my first child, Owen, which started the quest for alternatives in education.

As a former teacher, and someone who did all the right things at state primary & secondary schools, I had assumed that my son would go to the local state school when he was five or so, and enjoy it. I even went along with him for the first week. Now, most mothers of young children share their children’s interests. I had an active five year-old brain, and when I went to school, I was bored! Despite good intentions and a friendly teacher, Owen (and I) decided that school was not for us at that time. I started looking round for alternatives to the conventional school format, and that’s what led to ‘Other Ways’. There were one or two very small ‘alternative’ schools in Melbourne at the time, and I think I wrote a short article about them which was published in The Learning Exchange, a community newspaper based in Malvern. It was shortly after this that people such as Heather Cousland, Clare Cole & Christine Gazjago made contact, and we began our alternative education journeys together. …