It’s an EPIC Opening

3 children sitting on a branch in a tree with a 4th on a bench looking up

EPIC Life Learning Community, the newest Liberated Learners center, opened on Sept 3rd in Carrollton, TX (near Dallas).

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.

BigFish to Open in January 2018

In a collaborative effort, including former students and brand new members of BigFish Learning Community, we now have our first promo video!

The Secret Club

Up until recently I didn’t even know that learning could be fun because it was always a set curriculum that you HAD to do. Now that I’m at Embark I have realized that learning can be different.

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.

Inspired, Sobered

One of the pleasures of this past week has been organizing my notes from my first Liberated Learners conference, after a weekend spent reveling in hundreds of micro and macro “aha” moments.

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?

What Does it Mean to Be Educated?

By Ken Danford. Blake Boles has been writing and speaking about self-directed learning for over a decade, most recently for the Alliance for Self-Directed Education.  In his article What Does it Mean to Be Educated?,  he offers a somewhat historical perspective of where we are in the long-term arc of public education in the United States.  As Blake points out, schools …