We just went through a wild year. And that is putting it lightly. A pandemic, everything that goes with the pandemic, civil unrest, a riling election, climate disasters, you name it. Weren’t there also aliens at some point? And here we are now, in 2021, still going through it. We’ve all been going through it in our own individual ways … Read More
Time Well Spent
I have to be honest. There was a period when my kids were younger that I just didn’t feel like playing with them, ever. I was going through big ordeals in my life and the thought of making slime or playing Barbies didn’t appeal to me in the slightest. In fact, it felt downright torturous, and every time I promised … Read More
The Conveyor Belt to Success
Around this time of year twenty-three years ago, I was a senior in high school fretting about applying to college. The whole process was intimidating, but what plagued me the most was that I didn’t know what I wanted to study. I didn’t know that because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, and I didn’t … Read More
Going Down the Rabbit Hole of Learning
When I describe the Learning Cooperatives as a self-directed education center, it’s not uncommon for people to need more of an explanation. Truthfully though, it’s as simple as it sounds. We are a center that encourages self-direction in education. But what does that look like? I’ve been attending some of the Black Lives Matter protests, where we are asked to … Read More
Credit, Credibility, and Sausage
If a person doesn’t go to school, how will future employers know that he or she is capable of the work at hand?
A Dumping Ground?
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.
Not Your Typical Article on Childhood Play
We value play for the experiential learning…learning about the external world and how to interact with others. This is true and noteworthy, but I wonder about the value of play as a form of self expression and self-discovery.
What Do You Do When You Don’t Know What to Do with Your Life? Start Doing Stuff.
If you are one of those people who knew as a teen what they wanted to do for the rest of their life, you are a rarity. But for most of us, we had to try things out.
The Myth of Teenage Rebellion
One hundred years ago, teenagers didn’t exist. There wasn’t a dearth of thirteen- to nineteen-year-olds of course, but, generally, they were called “children” or “adults.” Today, “adolescence” is its own animal.
Getting Through “The Dip”
In a perfect world, young people would choose self-directed education, figure out what they want to do with their lives, use their time well, make progress…and all the rest. But real life is more messy than that.