We solve this with self-directed education.
We recognize that each child has an innate genius and their own unique path; we reject the standardization of children. We believe in consent; we do not believe in coercion.
We believe that play is learning and learning is play. We do not hinder natural learning. We do not segregate by age. We do not give homework. We create classes together. We do not give letter grades. We offer standardized tests for those families who are interested, but we do not require them.
The research shows that learning happens naturally and incidentally when children are free to follow their own interests, at their own pace, for as long as they wish.
We know that this will enable them to grow up with their curiosity intact so that they may begin adulthood capable of being who they were born to be.
We solve this by providing children opportunities for natural learning in a natural setting.
We know that children do not actually learn from sitting at a desk under artificial lighting doing de-contextualized abstracted problems on a worksheet.
Instead, they learn the same way children have learned since Time Immemorial, from observation and from doing real things that are interesting and meaningful.
We solve this by giving children time and space for real socialization.
We recognize that for healthy development, children need ample opportunities with other children, both older and younger, to converse, discuss, debate, and negotiate.
We know that real socialization leads to children growing up articulate, able to make themselves understood, able to get along with people who are not like themselves, and able to affect real change in healthy ways.
We solve this by learning in community.
We learn how to have healthy relationships. We recognize that most of us did not grow up learning in-depth relational skills centered around peace and collaboration. To that end, we intentionally and regularly participate in courses, workshops, circles, internships, community outreach, and field trips designed to help us dismantle internalized bias.
We seek continuous improvement of ourselves for the sake of our own ability to get along well with each other, as well as for the sake of modeling healthy relationships for the children.
We solve this by working actively towards collective liberation, and against oppression.
We believe in collective liberation, and that the path towards that is through being actively against oppression. Our rights, liberation, and freedom are intertwined with one another, and we cannot be free while another is oppressed. We steer towards this by working to dismantle obstacles like adultism, sexism, racism, classism, and ableism, while holding space for young people’s embodiment of liberation through play and curiosity as much as possible in the here and now. Community is both a practice and a path in this work.
Many adults may find it difficult to imagine what learning could look like without the usual trappings of school. A big part of our work includes helping adults to deschool themselves, that is, to undo the years of conditioning that made them accept the ideas of being controlled, under constant surveillance and judgment, micromanaged, rendered helpless to affect change, shamed in front of one’s peers, having no control over how one spends their time, not being able to take care of their bodily needs as needed, and having one’s natural ways of learning interrupted and overridden. As such, many adults grew up believing that it is normal to treat children this way. This is adultism.
Adultism is a bias or prejudice against children or youth. It has been defined as “the power adults have over children”, “prejudice and accompanying systematic discrimination against young people”, and “bias towards adults... and the social addiction to adults, including their ideas, activities, and attitudes.” -- Wikipedia
It's not your fault. It's likely the same thing was done to you.
We recognize adultism as a prevalent form of oppression, and we actively work to dismantle it. Our rights, liberation, and freedom are intertwined with one another, and we cannot be free while another is oppressed.