Here is the text of the presentation I made at the AEROx online conference Feb. 22.  This presentation was aimed at people interested in alternative models for schools and programs, including many people considering whether to start something new in their communities.  While I (and others) sometimes get partisan about the our differences, in this talk I focused on the timely idea that “what unites us is more than what divides us.”  I suggest that we should each do the version of alternative education that suits our individual personalities and visions, and that it is equally important that we acknowledge the urgency of the situation.  Many teens wake up every day feeling trapped, and they will be grateful for whatever option we make possible.

A Sense of Urgency

Somewhere in Idaho, there is a 14-year-old named Cory.  He needs us.  Any of us.  Or all of us.

Last October, I received a note from Cory out of the blue.  He described how he had begun to hate school, started searching for alternatives, and discovered my TED talk. He wrote:

I thought to myself after watching “have my prayers been answered?” Indeed, this seems like a gift from above. A school where you could choose what you wanted to learn. It sounds too good to be true. It’s not though. I sent the video to all of my friends, and immediately started doing research. It seemed almost perfect. Almost. Massachusetts. That is where this school is. Northwest America. That is where I am. I slumped back in my chair, feeling once again defeated by reality.

We began a lengthy correspondence, in which I continually encouraged him to have his parents call me. They have not.  They finally told him that if he completed the first semester at school, he could do online accredited homeschooling for this second semester.   I supported him to make the best of it.  He agreed, with resignation.  This week I received an update:

It seems we’ve done exactly what I was trying to avoid. School, but at home. Now, even my room is poisoned with its presence. While part of me knew before that this might be the wrong choice, I knew I had to try first. I had people trying to help me, my parents were trying. Online School was brought up as an option, and I reluctantly acquiesced. I feared it might be an error, but I had to know before I turned it down, and I think my parents were afraid of Unschooling. 

Sure, I’m not working stressed 24/7! The point is that I am not working 24/7 on what I love! 

Everyone else, I tried your idea. Kenneth, now I want to try yours. I want to just try unschooling, just to see if it’s a fit.

I know everyone else is all afraid and disapproving, but how can we know for sure until we try? Unschooling is a possibility, and it has also worked for some people, maybe it will work for me. 

I want to, this time, actually spend my days dedicating myself to becoming as good as I can be at art, Japanese language, writing, and gain more and more knowledge about other subjects I’m interested in. 

Again, I have yet to speak with his parents, but they seem to have reasonably traditional concerns.  Their first wish was for him to buck up, overcome his hardships, and make it through school. They want him to “learn what he needs,” and get a high school diploma.

They are not interested in offering him the freedom to learn whatever he wants, to take a pass on math or essay writing. To not get grades or credits or AP classes.  To not get a familiar high school diploma.

Any one of us within AERO could support Cory and his parents.  If we were in Idaho, we would all tell him to start with his Japanese and art.  We would all tell him to stop doing traditional academics that don’t feel important or meaningful.  We would all tell his parents that Cory will be able to go to college sooner, better, happier without completing a regular high school.  We would all say that he will develop greater maturity and self-awareness by getting out of school and dumping his traditional online homeschooling curriculum.

We all know what to say, and we would all make strong presentations.

Cory and his parents, out somewhere in Idaho, aren’t interested in the differences of whether our programs are actually unaccredited private schools or homeschooling centers.  They won’t care if they require or just offer five days per week of attendance. They won’t care if Cory has a morning meeting and afternoon reflections. They won’t care if Cory and themselves are entitled to vote on school policies.

These issues are not their priorities.  They are not starting their search with these criteria.

Certainly these issues matter to me, and to each of us, as we consider our ideal working conditions.  When we are going to the trouble, the risk, the commitment to start something new, we are certainly going to want to make it something that conforms to our own personal ideals.  That’s what I have done with North Star and Liberated Learners, it is what the Sudbury founders have done, and it is what the Democratic Free School and Agile Learning Center people are choosing to do.

But let us not get distracted.  In Idaho, and in most places in the world, people are desperate for an option to being trapped in a school system they don’t like.  Some of these miserable young people are already enrolled in private schools or charter schools and find them just as confining and controlling as any standard public school.  Some like Cory have already experimented with a school-oriented homeschooling curriculum.  They are now discovering that they need an alternative to traditional curriculum-based schooling.

All of us in AERO are for these people.  None of our programs sound or look familiar to them.

And, together, we are really all there is.  For teens who don’t want to be controlled by a school curriculum, we, the AERO network, are the pot at the end of the rainbow.  Sure, we have different approaches.  But, who else believes that all teens don’t need to take Algebra?  Or that they don’t need to be writing college essays? Or that schools shouldn’t be judged mostly by which colleges their graduates attend?  Who else believes that children can be trusted to follow their interests?  That “respect” is a subset of “freedom”, as in “My version of respecting others means that I accept no thank you as an answer from young people.”

When I meet disillusioned teachers who want to start their own schools, I encourage them to visit all of the options, to read a large range of the books, and to search for the approach and the community that resonates the most for them.  That’s what I did.  I did not participate in the 1995 charter school application of a local team including North Star co-founder Joshua Hornick, nor did I share Joshua’s enthrallment with the Sudbury model.  Those ideas didn’t match my personality or that moment in my life.  John Holt, Grace Llewellyn and unschooling are what electrified me.

That’s what I want for each of you, for each of us, for each new consultee that I encounter.  That sense of utter excitement.  Of finding our way. Of realizing that others have gone before us.  I honestly don’t care all that much if the choice is to join the Liberated Learners network or if the choice is to create a private school.  Also, as I recognize that many of you are interested in K-8 options for children under age 14 years old, I see the divisions as less and less important.  Very blurry lines separate a Liberated Learners center for young children that is open five days per week from a private school that finagles attendance as it wishes.

At last summer’s AERO Conference in Portland, Blake Boles offered a keynote presentation that included a concise summary of what we all have mostly in common in contrast to mainstream schools.  He listed “Unconventional” schools and programs as characterized by the following:

UNCONVENTIONAL

No mandatory curriculum, standardized testing, grades, or homework
Full age-mixing
Real decision-making power for young people
High freedom of physical movement
High autonomy for adults
High personal privacy
Open campus
Flexible arrival and departure hours

He made an opposite list for “Conventional” schools.

CONVENTIONAL

Mandatory curriculum
Mandatory standardized testing
Mandatory homework
Age-grouping
Grades
Traditional power hierarchy
Little freedom of physical movement
Little autonomy for teachers/facilitators
Little privacy for students
Closed campus
Specific arrival and departure hours

Today, as you listen to the various presentations of this AEROx online conference, let’s all remember the goal:  somewhere in Idaho, Cory is suffering.  He needs help now.  In your community, children are waking up wishing they didn’t have to go to school. The problem is urgent, and together, we offer optimism, hope, and practical solutions.  I hope that today brings you fresh inspiration and excitement to find your own way to spread our movement.

Thank you.