Rethinking Self-Directed Education

Have you ever wondered is any form of SDE is possible in a conventional public school? Join us as we talk to Sarita Flores about how she set up a culture of trust, autonomy, and partnership in her elementary classroom while finding the quick ways to check the curriculum boxes that teachers are required to check. We chat about the difficulties of being radical in a place often filled with rule followers, the power of allies, and the very real and concrete ways Sarita has brought the spirit and values of SDE and children’s liberation into her classroom. I didn’t think it was possible…. And now I’m not so sure. Come find out for yourself!

In this episode Annie and Bria are chatting  about early childhood education and its connection (or lack of connection) to SDE movements. Early childhood education has its own challenges, goals, and weirdness that’s related to but separate from “school age” schools and explore all those intersections and differences. We also talk about the overlapping ways we are all trying (or ways folks can try) to fight against a system that wants standardized compulsory schooling for all.

We do miss Daveed. He will be back. we promise.

“Show Notes”

Convention on the Rights of the Child: “Compulsory Education”

Annie believes everything she reads. (Joking! She really doesn’t. She just…happened to this time).

We are talking about public funding, conventional school disruption, and coalition building. We are going to dig in on ways we can (or can not) work within the school system and public funding models to bring more SDE options, and equity in SDE options, to the movement. We will also talk about what is disruptive to the systems, and what is more harm reduction, and how far we can go in conventional school classrooms and systems. It’s a lot!

We have a cohesive thematic approach this season!

What’s our next phase for this movement, how can we fund SDE with public funding (can we even? Should we even?), and how and should we work on coalition and movement building with folks working in public school systems? 

What’s missing from the term Self-Directed Education? What could an alternative term be? Who holds the lines on the values in movements and communities, and why? Will Bria _finally_ accept that Vawisai is the way? And are all terms and movements destined to be co-opted?

Join us as we talk about terms, language, distinctions, dogma, and co-option,. We also throw in some comparisons between SDE movements and police abolition movements, because how could we not!

We talk to Raj about how he came to SDE (such an interesting story!) and his experience in building an SDE community centering BIPOC folks and collective liberation. We talk about SDE center struggles, corner store candy runs, tweens & tweens, social justice and anti-racism in SDE centers, and what it means to be a community that is really supporting one another in all the struggles centers go through.

You can support Liberated Kids’ mission to be financially accessible for all kids by becoming a monthly sustainer here: https://www.liberatedkids.org/support (https://www.liberatedkids.org/support)

Daveed and Bria introduce themselves, because they haven’t quite done that, chat about how they met and started working together, and share the (not short) stories of their paths into SDE and youth liberation work. Spoiler alert: Our paths were very different! We also talk briefly how some people latch on to the ideas of SDE, and others do not.

Join us as we chat with Crystal Byrd Farmer about her experience working with neurodivergent young people in SDE. We also chat about her book The Token, annnnd she reveals what her next book(s) will be about! You don’t want to miss this one.

Buy The Token here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-token-common-sense-ideas-for-increasing-diversity-in-your-organization-crystal-byrd-farmer/14178436?ean=9780865719514

Crystal’s ALC: https://gastoniafreedom.org

Join us as we chat with Brooklyn Wetzel about who and what holds the autonomy of the young people in an SDE space, how it gets messy, and the different aspects of SDE models and facilitators that find various ways to support young people’s autonomy and power, or ways to not support it.

Ben and Genevieve are crowdfunding and starting their project to create a documentary miniseries. As unschoolers and young people themselves, this documentary will ask questions from a lens of connection with youth, who they plan to center in their documentary.
We are so excited to hear more about their project in this short special release podcast episode. If you want to know more about what they are doing and why, give it a listen.
Please also check out their crowdfunding campaign if you haven’t already. They need to reach their goal by April 2nd and they are getting close! If they don’t make their goal they won’t get the funding, so support them if you’re able.
Learning and Liberation
Crowdfunding page: https://seedandspark.com/fund/learning-and-liberation#story
Instagram account: https://instagram.com/learningandlib?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Website: https://learningandlib.com

We talk with Anthony Galloway about “requiring” social Justice work in an SDE center, what that actually looks like in practice, how to start to integrate this work into your own SDE center, and being willing to mess up.