by Ken Danford | Oct 1, 2020 | self-directed learning
The Glass Is Half-Full When I’m asked how North Star is coming along this fall, I struggle with starting with whether “the glass is half-full” or the “the glass is half-empty.” We have a lot of redeeming and inspiring moments each week, and I think we are making the...
by Ken Danford | Sep 16, 2020 | self-directed learning
(Here’s a “Happy Alumni Story.” I will have an update on North Star’s first month of the new academic year in the next installment, but it’s a bit too soon to summarize right now.) What happens to a boy who skips school and goes fishing all day? Not just one time as a...
by Ken Danford | Sep 1, 2020 | Uncategorized
I was just minding my own business doing some summer reading when the following passage jumped off the page at me, leaving me stunned contemplating the way history repeats itself with twists and complications. Guess what historical moment of potential long-term school...
by Ken Danford | Aug 1, 2020 | self-directed learning
At the end of my book Learning is Natural, School is Optional: the North Star approach to offering teens a head start on life, I shared my dream that current schools transform into the equivalent of community centers or community colleges, based on voluntary...
by Ken Danford | Jul 17, 2020 | self-directed learning
“Ken Danford left being a public school teacher decades ago because he realized that the model does not work for everyone. He never went back. But he’s never stopped teaching. Now, with public schools being pressured to reopen during a global pandemic, parents...
by Ken Danford | Jul 1, 2020 | Uncategorized
The rise of Black Lives Matter and the protests against police brutality this spring have led me to reconnect with a high school program I helped to start back in 1983, The Shaker Heights High School Student Group on Race Relations (SGORR.) This reconnection was also...
by Ken Danford | Jun 8, 2020 | self-directed learning
A few months ago, I took up my friend Blake Boles’ recommendation to read the 2019 book, Homeschooling: The History and Philosophy of a Controversial Practice, in which Shawn Peters and James Dwyer offer a detailed history of the modern homeschooling movement and then...
by Ken Danford | May 26, 2020 | self-directed learning
When I started teaching at Andrew Jackson Middle School in Suitland, MD in 1991, I had visions of Jaime Escalante, featured in the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver, as my inspiration at that time. He had taught his Latino students in Los Angeles to excel on the Advanced...
by Ken Danford | May 11, 2020 | Uncategorized
As a kid, my family, friends, and teachers called me Kenny. I was a bit nerdy, and something of a perfectionist. So when we had to take the annual California Achievement Test, I tried my best to get every answer right. I was annoyed when I didn’t understand the...
