EDUCATION

Mike has been involved in Alternative Education since the 1940's, when he attended The Manumit School (A Summerhillian school) in Bucks County,  Pennsylvania.  He  was also a student  at the first IGC class (Intellectually  Gifted Children) at PS 33 in NYC.

 Mike has been active in Alternative Education Projects since the mid 60's, starting in Los Angeles.  

Mike was the Director of the Survival School part of the Shasta Free School in Marin County, CA in the late 60's and early 70's.

He helped start the Alternative Learning Center in Tallahassee Florida in the early 70's.

Mike also helped start the Alternative Learning Center in Coos Bay Oregon in 1982.                                          

In 1982 Mike wrote the amendment to Senate Bill SB211.  This legislation mandated that Oregon High Schools must provide a relevant education  for Talented and Gifted Students and if the school districts were unable to provide these subjects in their schools, then the students could seek them elsewhere and their school districts would have to fund the programs. (High School Students could attended College level classes if not offered in the High School, and the school districts would have to fund the cost of these classes).

Working Together at Shasta Free School. 

Mike is on the lower right of the Pyramid in this brochure from The Shasta School.

Article about Shasta School's Survival Class, Mike helped the students buy a used  Army "DUKW" and then converted it into an RV, in it, he and his students traveled more than 30,000 miles over the US and Canada and Mexico.

Article from 'The Village Voice' in NYC.

Article from  French-speaking newspaper in Quebec, Canada, about the "DUKW" and the students.

Article from Halifax, Nova Scotia, about the 83 foot schooner  that was bought by Mike Raven and students in the Magdalane Islands in the Gulf of  St. Lawrence, Canada. They made repairs to it and sailed as far as Jacksonville Florida.  

Mike lived in Tallahassee Florida for 2 years while his  fiancée  was finishing up her teaching degree at Florida State University.  Mike met Ben Green  and Jerry Grow  who had been awarded a $60,000 grant to study alternative education.  Mike convinced them to use that money to start The Alternative Learning Center in Tallahassee.  By the time the $60,000 had run out, the ALC was up and running and accredited.  Because of it's unique program and it's connection to FSU, and the schools ability to offer dual curriculum (College Credit and High School Credit concurrently), the student body began to expand from regular school rejects to include the talented and gifted students looking for a greater challenge.  This caused the regular High School's some concern about the loss of their best and brightest students, and a movement was instituted by the regular  high school principles to close the ALC to cover a budget shortfall.  Fortunately, when the ALC learned about this plan to close the school, an election for school board members was impending.  The ALC "Government Class" mounted a campaign to remove 2 school board members and the superintendent who were up for re-election.  The government class succeeded and a re-evaluation of the original biased report was ordered, the resulting re-evaluation concluded that the ALC was a valuable and viable educational program and it's funding should be increased.

The ALC was the first school in Florida to institute a mandatory race relations program as part of it's regular curriculum.  

The Alternative Learning Center was visited by Jonathan Kozel, author of 'Death at an early age'  who called the ALC "the most innovative alternative educational project"  he had seen. 

The ALC's funding was increased and it still exists as now a part of the State of Florida's Teacher Mentoring Program. 

After Mike's Fiancée completed her degree at FSU in Tallahassee, they moved to Charleston, near Coos Bay, Oregon.  Mike was an active member of OTAG (Oregon Talented And Gifted) and was involved with writing  Education Legislation.  Mike worked with the late Phil Thomas in the creation of the Alternative Learning Center in North Bend Oregon.  He also ran for a position on the  local School Board.  

 Mike was an active member of the Oregon Democratic Party.  As a delegate to the state Democratic convention in 1980, he introduced and succeeded in placing a plank in the state party platform to "Outlaw the advertising of recreational drugs (Alcohol, Tobacco etc.) ".  Mike was also elected as a delagate for Ted Kennedy to the Democratic National Convention. 

While in Oregon,  Mike worked as a shipbuilder,  ran a recycling center in a sheltered workshop for  Developmentally Disabled Adults, and opened a stained glass studio.

Mike wrote an amendment attached to SB 211 in 1982 and signed by  Gov. Victor Aityah (see photo below) to guarantee that schools MUST provide a RELEVANT Academic Education to these (TAG) students and if they could not, the students had a right to seek this education anywhere, and their School Funding would follow them.  This guaranteed that High School students could attend classes not offered at the High School level at Colleges or University's and the local school would pay for it.

Article from the "Coos Bay World".

For the Last 20 years Mike has been an  advocate for Alternative Education in the So. California region. Mike currently lives in Canyon Country California.  For the last several years he has been involved with the local Mint Canyon Elementary School (the only Elementary Blue Ribbon Distinguished School in Los Angeles County).  Mike was an active member of the PTA and led a campaign to install a traffic signal in front of the school to enable students to cross safely.  Mike's daughter, Molly, recently graduated at the head of her 6th grade class. (There were 60 students in the graduating class and 4 of these students were identified as Talented and Gifted-a very special class)  Mike's daughter Molly's reading level  tested at a 12.9 grade level.

Mike and Molly Raven at her 6th grade graduation, June 2004.

A Distinguished Student at a Distinguished School.