Global NetworkWorking to create self-directed education centers.

OUR VISIONA self-directed education center in every community

Liberated Learners centers are based on the groundbreaking work of North Star: Self-Directed Learning for Teens which has been in existence since 1996.

Simply put, our centers support young people to live and learn without school.

Our primary goal is to support people of any age feeling trapped in school to use homeschooling as a mechanism to stop attending school. The center provides the ongoing support and community necessary for any interested young person to use this approach. Centers operate within the framework of self-directed education. North Star's innovative approach serves primarily teenagers, but across the network, there are centers with children of all ages.

Each center has a professional staff , often supported by a dedicated corps of volunteers, who offer a range of classes, tutoring, and individual mentoring/advising. All of the centers maintain a physical location and offer a full-time program four to five days per week. There are many distinct variations among the centers in the network, depending on local conditions.

Liberated Learners centers embrace the following principles:

Centers adopt a mission of helping children and teens leave school, using homeschooling law to improve their lives and learning, and of helping existing homeschoolers sustain or improve their use of this approach.
All center activities and attendance are strictly optional.
Centers are not accredited “schools” (nor should they use “school” in their names) and do not offer grades, credits, or diplomas, or require testing of their members.
Centers maintain a physical space, open on a regular schedule, where members, staff, and volunteers participate in various group and individual endeavors, such as classes, workshops, advising, tutorials, and meetings with families.

Did You Know?

At Liberated Learners centers:

Most teen members go on to college, of all kinds: highly selectives, state flagships, small liberal arts, technical and art institutes, and local community colleges. All are viable next steps.
Many youth members are not required to take state tests—check your state or provincial homeschooling requirements.
Young people receive individual tutoring in a wide variety of subjects.
Few of the families would have left school without the support of staff members.
Families report less stress, increased communication, and improved relationships.
A traditional high school diploma is not necessary for success in any area of life. All doors are open to non-traditional learners, and our members prove it.

Join us for a free introductory webinar

TheBoard of Trustees

Joel Hammon

President

One of the founding members of The Learning Cooperatives, Joel has over 11 years of teaching experience in both public and private schools. Joel holds a degree in secondary education from Miami University in Oxford, OH, with minors in history and political science. He is also a founding member of Liberated Learners. You can find out more about Joel’s work for the larger movement by watching his TEDx talk or getting a copy of his book The Teacher Liberation Handbook at his website, joelhammon.com.

Kenneth Danford

Treasurer

Co-founder and executive director of North Star, Kenneth has been working intensively with teenagers and their families since 1991. Previously a middle school social studies teacher, first in Prince George’s County, MD, then in Amherst, MA, Kenneth left the Amherst school system to found North Star. He brought with him extensive education and training, including a B.A. from Amherst College in Psychology and an M.A.T. in Social Studies from Brown University. You can find out more about the founding and history of North Star, and Ken's reflections on the future of the movement in his TEDx talk and his book Learning is Natural, School is Optional, available at his website, kennethdanford.com.

Alexi Burgess

Trustee

Alexi is a staff facilitator at Alcove Learning Center. He spent the first half of his adult life doing philosophy. He was an undergrad at Harvard University and earned his PhD from Princeton University. As a professor, Alexi taught at Stanford University for nearly a decade, and held visiting appointments at schools like NYU, Pomona College, and UCLA. He's been volunteer tutor of the month at 826LA, a counselor at the Ross Young Scholars Program in mathematics, and led courses at Urban Homeschoolers.

Maria Corse

Trustee

Maria (pronouns: she/her) is a seasoned facilitator, mentor, and self-directed educational consultant with over twenty years of experience in alternative educational settings. Determined to provide a safe, non-coercive, self-directed learning option in Northern New York where young people can freely choose their own unique paths, Maria founded Deep Root Center in January 2014. Maria is also the lead staff person at DRC-Canton and is at DRC-East on occasional Wednesdays to support the DRC- East staff.

Born and raised in Northern New York, Maria left for twelve years. In that time, she earned a Fashion Design degree from Cazenovia College, worked as a nanny and then in retail (managing a cookware store) in the greater Boston area, moved to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and married her husband, Mike, (also from the NoCo) in Denver. They returned home in 1995 to raise their two children. She went back to college when her kids were young and earned a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology from SUNY Potsdam in 2003. She also received her certification in mental health first aid in August of 2020.

Kristina House

Trustee

Kristina is staff facilitator, founder, and executive director at Passages Centre for Self-Directed Learning. A thread that runs through everything Kristina takes on is: Empowerment. She has homeschooled/unschooled her children for the past 12 years in the Toronto area and has been an active member of the Toronto Homeschool Community. She worked as an American Sign Language–English Interpreter for over 15 years, supported women and families as a Birth Doula for 10 years, and Midwifery school was a short 2-year stint in her life. Empowering people to step into themselves is inspiring to witness. Kristina believes in the power of youth taking charge of their life and learning and supports them in this endeavor through her work at Passages.

George Popham

trustee

George is founder, executive director and mentor at Bay State Learning Center. George has been in education for over 20 years. He holds a master's degree in Liberal Arts from St. John's College in Santa Fe, NM, and a master's in Religious Studies from Boston University. George has taught at community colleges, Boston University's MET college, and a variety of high schools and middle schools across a wide socioeconomic spectrum. His interests include literature, philosophy, and world religions, and when not in the classroom, he enjoys hiking, birding, meditation, and yoga.

Heather Sia

trustee

Heather is a staff member at Princeton Learning Cooperative, a long-time homeschooling parent and deeply involved with the homeschooling community. She is a co-founder of a popular homeschooling co-op, helps run a homeschool archery league, tutors high school writing, and mentors adults with autism. She has also served on the board of two other co-ops and has acted as an advisor for other homeschoolers wishing to start their own co-op. Heather studied English Literature at Rutgers University and believes that education is an individual journey with no timeline. Heather loves reading, writing, true crime podcasts, and spending time with her family.

The Story ofLiberated Learners

Liberated Learners is the extension of a single innovative program that helps teenagers use self-directed learning into a network of closely related projects across the country and around the world. North Star: Self-Directed Learning for Teens began supporting teens to live without school in 1996, and its inspirational track record has led many to inquire about the model and some to start their own versions of this model. Princeton Learning Cooperative, the first center to use the North Star model, opened in 2010.

North Star held its first small effort to share its model in a weekend workshop in 2007. Then, in 2011, North Star hosted its first Summer Replication Conference, involving seven programs. In 2012, the second Summer Replication Conference attracted eleven working groups. Throughout these years, North Star received numerous inquiries from people interested in learning more about the model.

The growth of this interest inspired the creation of Liberated Learners, a non-profit organization separate from North Star to direct the work of spreading the model. Liberated Learners handles the consulting and support necessary to assist others in starting their own programs towards our goal of seeing a self-directed learning program in every community.

Liberated Learners hosted the 2013 and 2014 Summer Replication Conferences, each involving more than thirty people from programs all over the United States and Canada. A map of all of the people and programs interested in this model is located below.

We offer free webinars , twice a month, to share the main ideas and introductory financial model to people interested in learning more, and we offer individual consulting to support people to start new programs. Our goal is to see North Star type programs in every community so that all young people and families may genuinely feel that school is optional.

Hear the whole story of North Star.

Co-Founder Ken Danford speaks at TEDx Amherst College in November, 2013. Ken describes his experience in teaching middle school, his choice to create North Star, and stories of success and appreciation from alumni. Inspirational!

The GoalWorldwide network. Local impact.

Purple stars = Member Centers

Yellow pins = Planning

Orange dots = Connections