LiberatED Podcast

Felicia Wright is a US Army veteran and former teacher in the Nevada public schools who decided to pull her daughter out of kindergarten for homeschooling and eventually launched a microschool called The Learning Outpost in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Learning Outpost now serves 22 kids, including two of Felicia's children, and employs two teachers, in addition to Felicia.

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In the South Bronx, the teachers at the Wildflower New York Charter School are creating a nurturing space for children's intellectual and emotional development. Located in the Morrisania neighborhood, the charter school is a collection of three separate Montessori microschools that priorize child-led learning, including for the more than 30% of their students with identified special needs.

The Wildflower New York Charter School is part of the national Wildflower Montessori's network of microschools that is focused on activating and supporting teacher-entrepreneurs to serve their local neighborhoods within an intentionally small, mixed-age, personalized setting.

Our guests today are Aura Cely and Mario Benabe two of the teacher-entrepreneurs who helped to open the Wildflower New York Charter School in the fall of 2020.

New York Post article on innovative NYC charter schools

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Mercedes Grant had a tough childhood and became a public school teacher to help students like her. After teaching in four states, she finally decided that she had to leave the system to create new, learner-focused education options. She is now the founder of Path of Life Learning, a new microschool in Virginia that just opened for fall registration and is already near capacity at over 20 learners. In the future, Mercedes hopes more at-risk youth gain access to schooling alternatives that recognize and appreciate their individual gifts.

Learn more about KaiPod Catalyst.

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Amber Okolo-Ebube is a mom of 5 and longtime homeschooling parent in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas who runs Leading Little Arrows, a weekly homeschooling enrichment program focused on nature, art, and STEM subjects. She launched last spring and her program has become so popular that she recently leased a building across the street from the University of Texas at Arlington campus. With 33 students ages 3-17, and several adult facilitators, she is already near capacity, and will be expanding to run a microschool this fall.

Approximately three-quarters of Okolo-Ebube's students are neurodiverse, with several, including one of her own children, on the autism spectrum. Leading Little Arrows provides the individualized learning environment and freedom of movement that enable both neurodiverse and neurotypical children to thrive.

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Kenneth Danford is one of the true pioneers in alternative education. In 1996, Ken launched North Star, a self-directed learning center for teen homeschoolers in western Massachusetts which was one of the first such spaces to exist. Prior to launching North Star, Ken was a middle school social studies teacher in public schools and wanted to create a new, non-coercive learning option for young people. Fast forward to 2013, Ken and his colleague Joel Hammon created Liberated Learners, a global network of self-directed learning centers modeled after North Star that continues to help aspiring education entrepreneurs launch self-directed learning centers in their own communities. In 2019, Ken published the book Learning is Natural, School is Optional.: The North Star approach to offering teens a head start on life, which I highly recommend.

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Alycia Wright taught middle school in the Virginia public schools for over a decade before becoming a homeschooling mom to her four children. She is the founder of Cultural Roots Homeschool Cooperative, a non-profit with the mission of creating a liberated educational space for children of color in Richmond, Virginia that currently serves over 125 learners. I recently had the chance to meet Alycia in person when I was visiting the Richmond area and am so glad to share her story here.

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Barefoot University is truly one of the most exciting organizations you'll hear about this year. It is a rapidly expanding network of outdoor education programs that brings families together for weekly nature meetups and theme-based learning activities. Barefoot University was founded in 2019 by our guests today, Madeleine Braden and Amber Brown, who were looking for more ways to connect their kids with nature and bring other like-minded families along. It started with just a handful of families in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas, and has now grown to serve more than 3,000 students nationwide.

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Chrystal and Joshua Bernard are pastors of their local church as well as the cofounders of Braveheart Christian Academy, a microschool in Arlington, Texas and part of the vibrant cluster of microschools and innovative learning models in the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Chrystal is a former high school mathematics teacher in the Texas public schools. She left to run her own CPA firm, which she still manages on the side while overseeing Braveheart Academy that she and Joshua launched in the fall 2021.

Education Entrepreneurs in Texas Are Expanding Options for Families (Forbes.com)

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There is a vibrant and growing hub of education entrepreneurship and alternative learning models in New York City, and our guests today are a part of that. Jacob Greebel and Melissa Sornik, both licensed social workers and experienced therapists, founded Acton Academy Seacliff in 2020 in Seacliff, New York on Long Island, but decided to move their Acton Academy into the heart of Manhattan. In their private practice, they see mounting school-related youth anxiety and believe that alternative education models, and the Acton model in particular, can be a beneficial antidote.

Jacob and Melissa are planning to open the doors on Synergy: An Acton Academy in New York City this fall.

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Dr. Natalie Summerville taught for over 20 years in the Virginia public schools before first launching The Grand Magnolia School, a microschool in Richmond, Virginia that her grandchildren and others attend.

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