Bay State Shares “Sam’s Story”

Two boys sitting on the stage, collaborating

The stories of young people at Liberated Learners centers who came from a conventional school environment where they struggled to fit in are always deeply moving.

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.

A Cycle of Unlocking Opportunities

Two loaves of bread, donut-shaped, decorated in purple, yellow and green icing and sprinkles

Seth Godin writes at times about education as a system, that it’s more about “stealing dreams” than offering opportunities to learn and master new skills.

Teacher Liberation

Crop of the cover of the book, The Teacher Liberation Handbook, showing birds exploding from a row of desk chairs

Check out my recent TEDx talk, Teacher Liberation. The primary focus was reaching educators who love working with young people, but are frustrated by the traditional education systems.

Does This Count…

… is a question I hear frequently – the last time being  1 pm Friday afternoon, from a Deep Root Center teen at the end of our mentoring session.

Who We Serve and How

Four students sitting on the floor in a capoeira lesson

How is it possible to take a diversity of students from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, skills, and abilities, and support their transformation from disengaged, disenchanted, and/or disruptive to inspired directors of their own lives and educations?

Move over, Rigor

Years ago, a good friend of mine said something that just stuck with me.  “I could care less about rigor”—surprising words from an honors-level high school teacher. “What I care about is vigor.”