by Ken Danford | Jan 16, 2022 | Uncategorized
Who guessed this pandemic would lead to us watching Boston’s wastewater reports on a daily basis? Well, I’ll take good news wherever I can find it, even in a pile of public poop. This week, there is dramatically less Covid-19 in the fecal matter of Boston’s general...
by Ken Danford | Jan 1, 2022 | self-directed learning
It turns out that Omicron has me down, along with millions of others. (The family Christmas dinner was a spreader event.) Thanks to my vaccines and booster, and the support of our Montague friends delivering various tinctures and teas, I hope to be back up before...
by Ken Danford | Dec 20, 2021 | self-directed learning
Sometimes I meet teens who are miserable in the middle of their senior years. I am always cautious about how to talk with them. On the one hand, I’m confident of our approach and the pros and cons of opting out, even at such a late moment in a high school...
by Ken Danford | Dec 17, 2021 | Uncategorized
Sex Education is serious and funny, romantic and platonic, focused on sexual behavior and also interested in all sorts of social and emotional issues of the teens and their school. It’s quite a roller-coaster, and I found myself rooting for many of them to connect...
by Ken Danford | Nov 17, 2021 | self-directed learning
Steven Slaughter has recently returned to the Chicago area after teaching in Nairobi, Kenya for several years. He is interested in catching up on alterative models, and participated in the Another Way group this past year. Now he is traveling to various schools and...
by Ken Danford | Nov 1, 2021 | self-directed learning
We are sending out our Fall newsletter this week. Some of you will receive a hard copy in your mailbox (old style!), and here is a link to the digital version for all of you. The feature story is written by current North Star member Tove Schweitzer. Her story is...
by Ken Danford | Oct 20, 2021 | self-directed learning
By now, everyone reading this blog knows that Grace’s book changed my life. When Grace decided to open The Hive, a center modeled after North Star, and join our Liberated Learners network, I felt a unique moment of fulfillment. Our team at North Star had inspired our...
by Ken Danford | Oct 1, 2021 | self-directed learning
Joshua Hornick and I created North Star (then called Pathfinder) back in 1996, but we were not the first people to think these thoughts. Back in 1977, pioneer thinker Ted Wachtel wrote a blueprint for a different approach to learning called Beyond the Schoolhouse. It...
by Ken Danford | Sep 20, 2021 | self-directed learning
We’ve had two weeks of in-person activity at North Star! Teens are inside the building for the first time since March 2020: going to classes, sitting on couches, cooking in the kitchen! I am seeing my colleagues face-to-face on a daily basis. We are re-establishing...
