I enjoy being the messenger of hope to these teens and families. I am able to tell them emphatically that they are not unusual, that there is nothing particularly wrong with them for feeling frustrated with school, and that they have nothing to lose by leaving school. I urge them to re-frame the possibility of not completing school from continued on page 2 4
Winter 2008
In the past few months I seem to have met a large number of 15-17 year-old teens fairly far along in high school. They may only have a year and a half or two to survive in order to complete high school, but this time hangs on them like a prison sentence. Some of these teens are in elite private schools where the pressure around college and success is mounting, others are in public schools where they are finding themselves falling through the cracks in the system. By the time I meet these teens, they are in often in conflict with themselves, their parents, and their schools about whether they can or will manage the expectations of school.
In his writing, Shelby describes himself as “picky� about how and with whom he spends his time. Therefore, I am relieved and delighted that North Star is a place he values and enjoys. He has arrived with a strong sense of himself and his interests: Shelby likes to make things, use tools, and have concrete results from his work. He is academically capable, but he really loves whittling, engine repair, and computer programming. He has supportive parents familiar with homeschooling, and when Shelby finally declared that he had been to enough schools and wanted to be in control of his time, they readily agreed. I particularly enjoyed watching Shelby perform in our December theater performance, and I appreciate having his sense of purpose in my classes and in our program. His transition to homeschooling has been smooth, and I look forward to seeing what choices Shelby makes next.—K.D.
Shelby
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“dropping out” to “homeschooling”, and I am able to explain how and why this decision won’t hurt their future opportunities in any way. In fact, I like to say, the sooner they leave the frustration behind and the sooner they begin this new exploration, the healthier they will be. In many cases, I am the first person to assert this point of view to the teens and their parents. Long-term readers of this newsletter know that the success of our alumni provides me with a deep well of stories and confidence to sustain this position. These older teens often possess the maturity and vision to grasp the lifeline we offer, and we get to see the stress and despair lighten on the spot. These teens often only use North Star for six months or a year. I delight in these transitions. Two of these teens new to North Star this year are Shelby Howland and Oceana Merrick. Both had attended private and public schools in
continued on page 34 2
I used to really enjoy going to school at Hilltown Cooperative Charter School, all the way through about 7th grade. That’s about when things started to change. I started to get really annoyed with school. The teachers were really getting to me with the way they taught. They seemed bossy to me, and I thought one of them was racist. I just really wanted a change of scenery. I started looking into changing schools but as I had been at the same school since kindergarten, I figured that I should just stick it out. After all, this was where my friends were. So I stuck it out through 8th grade, and I would not say it was entirely bad. I had some good times, and I made it out alive. After that I was still pretty much set on the idea of school. I applied to private schools but after getting into the application process I decided to go to public school for 9th grade. It was not all bad, but then again I'm really good at ignoring that which I dislike, for the most part. I was into computer gaming, so I connected with the gamers, but I didn’t make any long-lasting friends. The next year I got accepted into a private school my mom showed me, The Putney School. This was a school that considers itself pretty liberal, and in many ways it was kind of radical. For the most part the staff was great, but I didn’t connect with the other students. I felt that this was still not the place for me.
My friend Adam had just started going to North Star. I had known about North Star for awhile because my older brother had gone to it several years ago, back when it was called Pathfinder. I did not want to go back to Putney for 11th grade, and I refused to go back to public school. I wanted something new. And there it was: homeschooling. One of the big reasons that I had been avoiding homeschooling was because I was afraid I would not have enough people around, and that I would not get the academics that I felt I needed. Well, I decided that I did not really need to learn all of the academics that schools were asking of me, and I felt that I would do much better just learning what I wanted to learn. Last summer, I decided to not go to school this year, and since then I have not once wanted to go back to school. My life now is better then I could have ever hoped for. I have enough time for work, enough time to learn about wood carving and general carpentry, and I also have an excellent social scene. One of the reasons that I was a little tentative about joining North Star was that I wondered about the social scene. I am a very picky person socially, and I was afraid I might once again find the party people that I had met at all these other high schools. But to my surprise, at North Star there is a high population of people like me. There are teens interested in learning and
Liberated Learners Winter 2008
their school careers, and both completed tenth grade in school last year. I encourage all of the readers of Liberated Learners to reflect on these stories and join us in sharing this alternative and our message of empowerment and hope with older teens who are desperate for a positive way to avoid spending another year or two completing a high school career that has little personal meaning.
News and Notes
Since Thanksgiving, North Star has experienced a rush of inquiries and new members that is still continuing. Our membership is growing past fifty teens. Our new home is making a huge difference both in attracting new members and in allowing the program to thrive. We have space to spread out and be active. We now have a welcoming common room, a beautiful large room
continued on page 44
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interested in self-progression. Now that I am at North Star I have a pretty good schedule. In fact, more of my week is planned out then when I was at the public or the charter schools. A lot of what I do has almost nothing to do with North Star. It's the lifestyle that has allowed for me to do what I do. On the weekends I hang out with my friend and we work on woodworking and blacksmithing. For woodworking we use all hand tools: axes, knives, chisels, and saws. It is some of the most fun that I have ever had. My favorite tool by far is the axe, seconded by the chisel, though I pretty much only like the chisel because I'm better at it then my friend. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursday afternoons I go to North Star for assorted classes. The one I do most regularly is capoeira, a Brazilian martial art. I also regularly did drama, though with a schedule change I am now unable to make it for the second half of the year. In drama class we worked on doing one acts which were a lot of fun. Other classes I attend include film class, logic, world religions, and current events. The classes only meet once a week, except for capoeira, which meets twice. This makes progression in each subject a bit slow, though it’s about as fast as a normal class in school because everyone is so into it. The second half of my week is filled by work. I work at an information technology company called Blue-Fox, a business that my dad
helped to start. Blue-Fox is in Shelburne Falls, where I live. Here I work on general programming, scripting, and other miscellaneous techie type jobs. These jobs include working on a DNS server and webhosting. The work also involves some programming in a database language called 4D. Next year I plan on taking classes at Greenfield Community College as well as continuing to take classes at North Star. My work schedule will continue to be two days per week. In the longer-term future I plan on working with wood and homesteading, along with potentially becoming an engineer for motor vehicles. For now, my schedule will continue for as long as I like it. It’s a great life and I could not really have asked for anything much better.t
for active classes and special events, a sunny quiet library, a spiffy classroom, a messy art room, and a thriving music space. The use of space continues to evolve, but it is now hard to imagine we existed for eleven years in places with about one-quarter of the square footage. How did we do it? The program is as full as ever, with literally dozens of staff members offering workshops. Topics include Evolutionary Biology, Sustainable Living, Comic Art Construction, Capoeira, Economics, and Music Recording, to name just a few. Catherine is planning a small group trip to Puerto Rico in March, where the group will work on a community action project on the island of Vieques. Our theater group performed a festival of one-acts in December, and now is preparing a full production for May. Outside of these classes, our staff members are meeting with teens in one-onone tutorials with great frequency and effectiveness. Take a random walk through continued on page 54 4
If there was ever a youth who did not belong in a traditional school, it is Oceana. She has a spirit of exploration and an automatic resistance to any person or organization that wants to limit her movement. She now roams the Valley between two homes, North Star, Hampshire College, Youth Action Coalition, and a job. She has mastered the bus system, and she is always on the move. This freedom demands a challenging level of trust from her parents, and Oceana has risen to the occasion this year. She does come by North Star nearly every day, and she adds to the energy and creativity of the atmosphere. She is living a vastly different life than she did in school, and I see how much healthier Oceana is for having this opportunity. I expect that she will emerge from this process with a stronger ability to focus and commit her energy to her chosen projects.—K.D.
Oceana
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I started North Star last September. I was sixteen, and would have been a junior in high school. Right
away, I felt much happier than I ever had been at school. For the the first time, I am able to take classes that are focused on what I am actually interested in. At North Star my classes have included capoeira, writing, yoga, meditation, and world religions. My favorite classes are yoga and meditation. My favorite part of North Star is having the opportunity to do whatever creative projects I feel like doing. I come in for some time most days that North Star is open to be with friends. Last semester, I enrolled in a psychology class at Hampshire College called Exploring the Unconscious Mind. Along with my classes, I also worked part time cooking at a local Asian restaurant, and was volunteering with a local art group called Get Up Get Down that focuses on reaching out to the community through different forms of art. Last year we painted a mural on the side of Food for Thought Books in Amherst, and this year we are painting a mural at Hampshire College. Now it’s the beginning of the second semester, and I have been studying to take my GED, and I feel like I’m almost ready to take the test. I have a new job working with a sound engineer. I’m learning how to set up sound systems for shows and how to run mixing boards. I am
Many of you have sent in annual contributions to support North Star, and we are especially grateful as we underestimated the heating costs for this building! Thank you for your support and generosity, and you may know that your gifts are helping to keep us warm. The Town of Hadley has been a supportive landlord, and through the town’s initiative, we may be in line to receive a cornburning furnace through a state grant. In the meantime, we have held a windowquilt making family workday to help improve the insulation a small amount! We love having visitors and showing off our new home and our busy program. Please drop in if you have not done so already!
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An Illustration By Oceana u
about to start a new class at Hampshire College on life and figure drawing, and I also recently started a guitar class at North Star. I am feeling pretty busy. I enjoy having the freedom to create my own life. I like having lots of places to go and using the bus to be on my own. It’s much better for me than being stuck in one building. Before North Star, I went to many different kinds of schools. Private elementary school, public elementary school, homeschooling independently, alternative middle school, and public high school. I hated them all. I don’t like having to do things like essay writing, especially when I’m told I must do it (even writing this essay was hard for me). I like being able to decide what I’m studying for myself. I like art and music. When I was in school, I felt constrained, like I was in prison. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to leave. When I was little I rebelled in small ways, like not drawing the kind of picture the teacher wanted. I would hide in the bathrooms with my best friend, or we’d go off in to the fields nearby when it was time to go in from recess. In high
Liberated Learners Winter 2008
the building and one sees a busy set of meetings, classes, informal art and music activities, and socializing. North Star is a busy scene, and perhaps the most striking aspect is the overall sense of happiness among the people here.
school I started getting into bigger trouble. My friends and I would skip school at least one period almost every day. I wrote my own excuse notes. We wouldn’t always go and do bad things. Sometimes we’d just go and do something like have a picnic in the park on a sunny day. We really just wanted to be outside, free to go in the woods or wherever we wanted. In school, I’d get in trouble every day for listening to music and drawing. The teachers would take my sketchbook away from me when I walked in their classrooms. Eventually, I started getting into more trouble. I felt stifled by the environment of school which felt more like jail to me than somewhere where I could learn and be creative. I finished up the school year, but decided that I didn’t want to go back after that. I called up North Star and came in to meet with Ken even before I told my parents I wanted to come here. I wanted to build up my case. When I told them, they were open but hesitant. They could see that I needed a more creative environment than high school, but they were worried that the freedom would be too much for me to handle. The truth is, North Star ended up being the perfect environment for me. I can study what I want, I can go where I want, and I don’t want to mess it up for myself. My parents have been pretty good with it, and they can see that I am happier. For next year, I am hoping to join a volunteer program such as Americorps. I really want to go somewhere else and live independently. I’ll be turning 17 in September, which makes this a challenge, but I think it will all work out.t
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clip and mail to North Star 135 Russell Street Hadley MA 01035
⊳ North Star members at 00the Mystery Dinner 00Theater held in January.
135 Russell Street (Route 9) Hadley MA 01035 413. 582.0193 or 582.0262 www.northstarteens.org