Sarah Tavernetti with North Star alum Ben Rosser in Brooklyn, NY. Research!
Happy New Year!
While we are in celebrating a new year, I would like to share my joy and optimism for the wide range of educational experiments involving self-directed learning occurring in our culture. There are so many people interested in improving the lives of children in their communities that it is truly impossible to keep up with everything that is happening. From free schools to agile learning centers to sophisticated homeschooling coops to Liberated Learners centers, families and friends are working together to create options for others in their communities. I am enthused especially for all of the programs directed at providing options for people with limited resources or who need some support to opt out of traditional school. I consider it all a bit of anarchy, and I’m fairly certain that every program is providing something helpful. What an era we are living in! My highlights include:
- Through Liberated Learners, we are holding webinars for dozens of people every month wanting to learn about our model of creating a community center to make homeschooling possible for all interested families.
- This fall I have enjoyed the opportunity to be a guest mentor for the Alternative Education Resource Organization’s School-Starter course, involving more than a dozen people actively developing their visions and thinking through their preferred methods. AERO’s history of supporting people to move forward on their plans is long and impressive.
- I frequently meet and hear about homeschooling coops that have rented permanent spaces and have depth and breadth to their offerings which make the approach more accessible and sustainable for families everywhere.
- My colleagues in the Agile Learning Center movement have new groups sprouting all over the country and the world.
For those of you who need some good news to start 2020, and would like to have a more coherent vision of this rapidly growing world, I recommend three resources from 2019:
- Kelly Seacrest’s documentary film, Wild Learning: common values of unconventional education. She visited a number of schools, centers, and programs that prioritize self-directed learning and community-building. I especially appreciated her interviews with staff and young people about the importance of creating welcoming communities.
- Sarah Tavernetti and Yamila DeLeon’s account of their fall adventure visiting a number of schools and centers as they plan their own project, Bloom Academy in Las Vegas. Their blog is full of anecdotes and photos of their adventures.
- Kerry McDonald’s book, Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Kids Outside the Conventional Classroom. Kerry chronicles a wide range of people involved in the modern self-directed learning movement, and her book is a fine place to start one’s research on the options that are exploding right now.
- One film I haven’t seen yet is a new documentary, Unschooled, about Peter Bergson and the program Natural Creativity in North Philadelphia. I’m looking forward to seeing it soon.