In This Together: Thoughts on Blake Boles’ AERO Keynote

Blake Boles delivering the 2019 AERO keynote address

Blake Boles gave an important keynote address at this year’s AERO conference. The main point that resonated with me was the idea to look at the SDE community from the perspective of families stuck in traditional schools and not be caught up in squabbling between SDE models.

Ken’s New Blog

15-year-old reading Ken Danfords book, "Learning is Natural, School is Optional"

Ken’s on a roll with some great posts on his newly launched blog. My favorite is a satirical thought experiment, a la Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal.

Learning is Natural, School is Optional

Five happy North Star Teens, from cover of Learning is Natural, School is Optional

That’s the North Star slogan, adopted for Liberated Learners centers, and now the title of Ken Danford’s new book: Learning is Natural, School is Optional: The North Star approach to offering teens a head start on life.

Abot Tala—To the Stars

The hustle and bustle of kids on Abot Talas opening day

The newest Liberated Learners center, Abot Tala, opened in Manila, The Philippines, on April 1. It was only a dream last summer — 9 months later, reality.

The Self-Driven Child: Making it possible

Teen drawing on a hand-made pattern

The goal of Liberated Learners centers is to support teens to leave traditional school and to start living the lives that they want for themselves now. The approach begins with having kids take more direct control over their lives.

Common Sense Learning

“Common Core-aligned” has become the quality control test by which we measure a legitimate education. Perhaps, “Common Sense-aligned” is a better marker of a solid education.

Going Global: Liberated Learners in The Philippines

Ken Danford with 3 teens during visit to The Philippines

Abot Tala is seeking to become the first Liberated Learners center outside of North America. I have just returned from spending ten days with their team, meeting everyone involved with the project and learning about Manila and The Philippines.