Fredric Posner, PhD

Dr. Fredric Posner began working for the public schools as a bus driver and custodian. He went on to become a special education teacher, consultant, and alternative school teacher and administrator. Receiving his Ph.D. in 1989, he established his expertise in the fields of self-directed learning and the modern rites-of-passage curriculum.

During his time at Jefferson County Open School in Colorado, one of the longest standing public alternative schools in the world, he took students all over the globe, including the West Bank, Gaza and, when the Wall came down, to Berlin. Dr. Posner also taught a wide range of classes that reflect his eclectic personal passions, ranging from Willy Mays, James Joyce, and Muddy Waters to ethnic cooking and marathon running.

He is a proud “graduate” of the Open School (retired in 2001) who has maintained his penchant for lifelong learning by doing service work in Haiti, consulting for alternative schools around the world, and writing Lives of Passion, School of Hope, a book about the alumni of the Open School. Like so many of his fellow Open School alumni, Dr. Posner claims that the school saved his life.