A Dumping Ground?

Joel HammonUncategorized

All of the members and staff in our weekly all group meeting

The idea that if kids aren’t in a traditional school something must be wrong with them is pervasive. This is demonstrably not true, but it is a powerful idea in our country.

Gym Class and Motivation

Scott GallagherUncategorized

homemade cardboard boat racing through river rapids

As an English teacher in public school for 17 years, I always felt frustrated by, and a little jealous of, the Phys Ed. teachers. Phys. Ed. class seemed to be a kind of outlier in school, and the teachers were able to operate in a value system totally different from the rest of school. I wished the value system of … Read More

Relationships are the Heart of It

Joel HammonUncategorized

The painting teacher offers feedback to a student working on an oil painting.

Positive, healthy, and caring relationships are at the heart of raising and educating our children. Of course. Relationships can be complicated, but the truth of this idea is not. Humans are social animals and the quality of those social relationships has to play a large part in all aspects of our lives. I read an article in the New York … Read More

Good Stress, Bad Stress

Joel HammonUncategorized

A girl reacting with surprise and angst

Our members often describe PLC as a low-stress environment compared to their previous schools. Many of the common stressors in school are simply not present at PLC: competition for grades, mounds of homework, inflexible rules and regulations. We consciously try to reduce that kind of stress as much as possible. But one of the common concerns people have about self-directed … Read More

But My Child is Not Self-Directed

Scott GallagherUncategorized

A part of a Voronoi diagram (red) and Delaunay triangulation (black) of a finite point set (the black points), on a yellow background

At The Learning Cooperatives, we talk to a lot of parents who have kids struggling in school, but who also have anxiety about the self-directed model we use. One of the reasons parents give for deciding against sending their kids to us is this: “My daughter isn’t self-directed at all.  She needs structure to get her to do anything. She … Read More

Common Sense Standard (CSS) #3

Katy BurkeUncategorized

Group of PLCers having fun together in the music room

(See the first post in this series – Common Sense Learning.) Education should be shaped around the students, not the other way around. When I taught in a public high school, my colleagues and I were often given opportunities to write curriculum for our respective departments for a fee. Not only did it seem like the curricula were continually being written … Read More

Common Sense Standard (CSS) #2

Katy BurkeUncategorized

Image still from Ferris Buellers Day off, in front of Picasso exhibit

(See the first post in this series – Common Sense Learning.) Children want more autonomy as they grow…and that’s a good thing. One of the greatest struggles I felt as a public high school teacher was working with kids who didn’t want to do what I was asking them to do.  Often times, I couldn’t justify why my task list for … Read More

Self-Directed Education is a Really Good Idea: A TEDx Talk

Joel HammonUncategorized

Joel Hammon on stage at TEDxCarngieLake

There is a lot of talk about how traditional education is not always a good fit for every young person. What’s not talked about as much, but is absolutely true from my experience in the system, is that traditional education is not a good fit for many of the adults working there as well. Here’s the video of the TEDx … Read More

It’s Not a Mystery

Joel HammonUncategorized

teenager saying thank you to volunteers

Let me start with a simple fact: a lot of teenagers don’t like school. (Shocking, I know.) There are a lot of reasons for this, but one of the big ones is that many teens don’t feel like they have much say in their day-to-day lives — the work they do, who they interact with, their schedule. This lack of control … Read More