“What Are They Doing Now?” Survey: Adults After Alt Ed
This is an unusual post, but I’m excited to share it – and hoping to hear from lots of you! My family had some great discussions around a couple of posts from September of last year – posts that addressed…
Living in the Now, And Looking for Balance
In the last post, I asked “why now?” regarding the growth of homeschooling in my lifetime. I sited Sugata Mitra and Sir Ken Robinson’s ideas about the outdated industrial-era model of our current education system. I also discussed Douglas Rushkoff’s…
Education’s Present-Shock
One question that I’ve been trying to examine is: Why is the homeschooling movement growing now? What are the defining social conditions that shifted, beginning with a few inklings in the 1970s and picking up momentum in the 1990s, when…
Changing the Route Can Change the Destination
It’s a busy time of year for everyone – I don’t expect you have much time to cozy up to your computer screen (or tablet, or phone) and read blog posts. But that’s not the real reason I’ve been slow…
Those Who Can
I have been exploring what motivates different people to pursue work as teachers. This interview and my last post represent two interesting paths and experiences of peers of mine — a young generation of teachers. This interview is with an old friend…
The Kind Of Teacher That Makes Me An Optimist
Apologies for the recent quiet on the blog! It has been a hectic month of work, to say the least. But I have been working on a couple fun interviews with teachers I know. This first one is a conversation…
Conceiving Of Change And Invisible Alternatives
Something happened to me since the first post in April. I’ve been… activated. I was born into a family that was living an alternative. That was just happening, it was pre-decided. And I grew up the way that I did — without school….
Is The Picture Of A Good Parent Changing?
Last winter, when this blog was a seed of an idea, I just thought we would be writing about homeschooling. A thing I grew up with and can comment on in a very personal way. But 6 months after we…
“In Order to Give Their Children A Right to Study Painting, Poetry, Music…”
My mom shared a video with me yesterday about The Independent Project. It’s a wonderful sounding program that was piloted at the public high school of Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington, MA. This student-driven school-within-a-school was comprised of eight…
Gen Why: How Millennials Will Parent
I had heard things about the Millennial generation for a while before I realized I was part of it. I listen to a lot of NPR, and I feel like there’s always a radio guest fretting about the Millennials’ loss of…