Go Deeper

The Joy of Learning is Katy's weekly Substack on Self-Directed Education. Each issue unpacks what's really happening to kids in school, why Self-Directed Education works, and what it looks like in practice. It is free to read.

Dr. Naomi Fisher, clinical psychologist and author of Changing Our Minds, recommends The Joy of Learning to her own readers. Pat Farenga, who worked alongside John Holt for years and continues his legacy today, is a subscriber. Twenty-four percent of readers also subscribe to Peter Gray's Substack.

If those names mean something to you, you are probably already our people.

Two articles have traveled especially far. "When Following Instructions Feels Like Death: How School's Hidden Curriculum Creates Pathological Demand Avoidance" has over 11,000 views. "Schools Don't Just Fail to Stop Bullying. They Teach It." has nearly 6,000 views. If either of those titles stopped you in your tracks, keep reading. 

Articles are organized into five categories:

Thinking about pulling your kids out of school? For families at the beginning. The fears are real... and so is the path through them. This category walks you through how to overcome those fears, leave school behind, and give your kids the education they deserve.

Teachers Deserve Better An honest look at what's happening to teachers inside conventional school, written by a former teacher who has worked in classrooms on five continents. If you're burning out, this is for you.

The Hidden Curriculum School actively teaches obedience, hierarchy, wage dependency, alienation, and consumerism. This collection of articles traces the hidden curriculum to its roots and explains why it is not an accident.

You and Your Kids Aren't Broken, You Were Just Schooled Educational trauma is real. The anxiety, the shame, the sense that you or your child is somehow not enough are all the predictable products of a coercive system, not personal failings. These articles help you recognize what happened and how to move through it.

Real Learning is Nothing Like School What children actually do when they are trusted and free, and what their brains can do when the coercion stops. These articles are about the beauty of natural learning: what it looks like, why it works, and why it is so different from anything school has ever offered.

Read The Joy of Learning →

Our YouTube channel is organized into playlists. Each one is a collection of videos on a specific aspect of Self-Directed Education. If you have questions about what we do and why, there is probably a playlist for it.

Interviews with Our Founder, Katy Purviance Katy left Harvard, taught in five countries, and concluded that school is school all over the world. These interviews tell the story of how she came to found the Spokane Learning Co-op, and what she believes about children, learning, and freedom.

What's Wrong With Conventional School? We use the term "conventional school" deliberately. The most traditional kind of education is learning through living, within an age-mixed, self-governing community. The sit-down-and-be-quiet model has only existed since 1852. These videos trace its history, explain the problem, and imagine something better.

What is Self-Directed Education and How Does It Work? The basics. What Self-Directed Education means, how children learn without a curriculum, and what it actually looks like in practice.

Schools Similar to the Spokane Learning Co-op Sudbury, Summerhill, and other non-coercive, self-directed learning environments around the world. These videos show what those schools look like from the inside.

Play = Learning The most misunderstood idea in education. Play is not what children do instead of learning. Play is how children learn. These videos make the case.

Learning Math and Reading in a Self-Directed Environment The question every parent asks. These videos answer it directly and honestly.

How We Govern Ourselves: Sociocracy The Co-op runs on sociocracy: kids and adults make decisions together, seeking consent rather than majority rule. These videos explain how it works and why we believe it's the most equitable model for a learning community.

The Importance of Age Mixing in Education One of the most distinctive things about the Co-op is our mixed-age community. These videos explain why age mixing matters and what it makes possible.

Adventure Playgrounds Real tools, real materials, and real freedom to build, dismantle, and create. The outdoor equivalent of everything we believe about learning.

A Vision of Our Learning Community What it actually feels like to be part of a self-directed learning community: the relationships, the culture, the daily life.

Inspiration: Living Laboratories A look at our site and the physical environment we've built for children's learning and exploration.

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