The Essential School Sucks, #15 of 50

Theme Two: Leaving Institutional Schooling and Finding Educational Alternatives

Diane Murphy taught in public schools for 30 years before she retired early to build BigFish, an innovative self-directed learning community in Dover, NH. I had the pleasure of speaking with Diane at the FreeCoast Festival and of hearing her presentation on BigFish. We sat down to discuss her past experience, current efforts and passion for self-directed learning and integrating teens into the real world.

Discussion:


Diane's path out of public school
properties of natural learning
physical costs of school
A new model for a self-directed learning center
Cooperation and competition can work together
Community networking for real-world education and training
How teens move from a school to a self-directed learning community
Outcomes for self-directed learners
Building online portfolios
How public school teachers are kept in line


A Follow-Up Show With Diane:

A Year of Adjustment – With Diane Murphy of BigFish [PODCAST #705]

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Originally Released September 18, 2017 As "[PODCAST #513] Building Self Directed Learning Communities (With Diane Murphy)"Support School Sucks: Higher Education For Self-Liberation

15. Building Self-Directed Learning Communities

School Sucks is a podcast, You Tube channel, and web community empowering parents and self-directed learners.
For 12 years we've promoted freedom in education, and we've called out covert indoctrination.
We discuss: 
+ educational alternatives like homeschooling and unschooling
+ career freedom without college
+ the principles of self-directed learning
+ the strategies of critical thinking/information literacy
+ the rewards of self-knowledge/personal development
This is NOT a show about school reform.
The schools will not improve.
Higher education will not improve.
The politics around these institutions will not improve.
Only we can improve.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Education

Training

Language Courses

Higher Education

K-12

Educational Technology

Self-Improvement

The Essential School Sucks, #24 of 50

Theme Three: What It Means To Be Educated

We move from self-directed learning to its outcome: critical thinking.

Today I'll discuss one of the MOST IMPORTANT aspects of it: our persistent uncritical thoughts and feelings.

(November, 2016) What is wrong with John Oliver? What's wrong with Donald Trump? What's wrong the anti-Trump anti-reality protestors? What was wrong with me the other day when I suddenly felt impelled to hatch a conspiracy theory about Trump's election being part of a "larger plan" with little evidence? What's wrong with an alarming number of the interactions in School Sucks Facebook group lately?

Political thinking is often quick thinking.

Thinking quickly is an evolution-driven feature that was once necessary for our survival. But in a vastly more complex world than the one our species grew up in, this mode of thought is often dangerous and destructive. Look around.

Sometimes some people, even libertarians, use mental shortcuts to arrive at faulty conclusions, and then engage in a process of rationalization for those conclusions.

In short, we'll explore observations of the left and pro-Trump right over the last year with the valuable lessons from Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking, Fast and Slow. The goal is utilize examples of thinking errors to avoid making them ourselves, often without even noticing.  

Get ALL episodes in this series: HERE

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School Sucks was one of the longest running liberty-minded podcasts on the web, and the only one completely devoted to the issue of education (versus public school and college). 

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Originally November 20th, 2016 As “[PODCAST #461] Speed and Politics (Part One) - Rules For Radicals"Support School Sucks: Higher Education For Self-Liberation

24. Thinking, Fast and Slow

The Essential School Sucks, #23 of 50

Theme Three: What It Means To Be Educated

Kerry McDonald is a home-educating mother of four, who holds an M.Ed. from Harvard University, where she studied education administration, planning, and social policy. She is a writer for Natural Mother Magazine, the Foundation for Economic Education, Forbes, and Intellectual Takeout. She is a founding member of AlternativesToSchool.com, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Self-Directed Education. Her blog podcast is LiberatED.

She joins me today to discuss


her professional/academic education background
how she learned about and embraced self-directed learning
her current online projects
how education works in her home (and beyond), for each of her 4 children
promoting self-directed education
Benefits of Self-Directed Learning
her article "Cultivating An Unenclosed Childhood" 


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Originally Released July 19th, 2017 As “[PODCAST #504] Unenclosed Children and Self-Directed Learning – With Kerry McDonald"Support School Sucks: Higher Education For Self-Liberation

23. Unenclosed Children

The Essential School Sucks, #22 of 50

Theme Three: What It Means To Be Educated

Scott Hambrick returns for a discussion on "how people learn and how  we help them do that," as he aspires to be a more effective home-educator,  Starting Strength coach, and leader at Online Great Books.

We begin our discussion with an exploration of the common learning theories practiced in public school and higher education, along with a cost/benefit analysis of each: behaviorism, cognitivism, and (social) constructivism. We also touch on connectivism and mindset theory.

In future conversation(s) we'll cover additional behaviors and practices that can greatly enhance both the learning and thing processes, including The 20-Hour Rule, the Six Thinking Hats, the Trivium Method, attributes of self-directed learning and strategies for critical thinking in everyday life.

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School Sucks was one of the longest running liberty-minded podcasts on the web, and the only one completely devoted to the issue of education (versus public school and college). 

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Originally Released July 9th, 2019 As “[PODCAST #619] Filling the Trough - With Scott Hambrick"Support School Sucks: Higher Education For Self-Liberation

22. Filling the Trough

The Essential School Sucks, #21 of 50

Theme Three: What It Means To Be Educated

Today's show is intended as a resource for listeners looking to share the ideas of alternative education and self directed learning with their friends and family, or with anyone wants to learn more about these subjects.

Blake Boles builds exciting alternatives to traditional school for self-directed young people. He runs the company Unschool Adventures and is the author of The Art of Self-Directed Learning, Better Than College, and College Without High School.

Blake and I discuss the path to more self directed learning


How to define the current school problem
Why Schooling is not the same as education
John Taylor Gatto's definition of real education
The attributes of an educated person
Self-Determination Theory and self directed learning
Promising developments in educational alternatives
How more people can gain access to alternative education
How parents improve their children's educational experience even if they can't take them out of public school


"An education is the capacity to author your own life instead of merely accepting the one handed to you." - Blake

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Originally Released March 25th, 2018 As “[PODCAST] #551: What It Means To Be Educated – Blake Boles"Support School Sucks: Higher Education For Self-Liberation

21. What It Means To Be Educated

The Essential School Sucks, #20 of 50

Theme Two: Leaving Institutional Schooling and Finding Educational Alternatives

In the previous episode you heard my first podcast with Zak from 2016. Today we'll fast-forward five years for updates on life and career advice in times of increasing uncertainty and instability.

Favorite School Sucks neighbor Zak Slayback returns to offer some key 2021 updates to his past advice for young people at the beginning of their careers. Our previous conversation on this topic, called How High School Students Can Get Ahead In Their Careers [PODCAST #583], covered:


Why young people need to start personal websites while in high school, and how this website can work as a portfolio, showcase of personality, a canvas and as insurance
How to contact an existing expert in the area you want to go into, getting a better idea of how to get started
Methods of signaling and building a portfolio
growing your network of people who are a few steps ahead of you


We'll make some adjustment to previous advice, and discuss what advice still stands and why. We'll also look at the big picture of politics, society, tech, and the hellstorm that's certainly on its way. Sorry.

Additions include:


seriously ask yourself why you need to be on social media
how deep are your options? how fragile is your situation?
what consulting opportunities exist for you?


Zak Slayback is an entrepreneur who writes, speaks and takes action on issues of education, innovation, and philosophy. He is an Ivy League dropout and a founding team member of Praxis - an organization that creates apprenticeships for college-age people that lead directly to full-time jobs.

Learn more about Zak at ZakSlayback.com.

Zak is also one of the presenters in The Ideas Into Action Summit

The downloadable version of The Ideas Into Action Summit is now available.

Use the coupon code independence to can get it for 30% off now until July 5th

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Please Support School Sucks

School Sucks was one of the longest running liberty-minded podcasts on the web, and the only one completely devoted to the issue of education (versus public school and college). 

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Originally Released January 16th, 2021 “Plan B” With Zak Slayback [PODCAST #696]Support School Sucks: Higher Education For Self-Liberation

15. Building Self-Directed Learning Communities

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