Liberated Learners Fall 2008 by North Star: Self-Directed Learning for Teens

This issue of Liberated Learners directly addresses these questions in moving, inspirational ways. Alaina Fox, 17, is moving on from North Star this fall to pursue her dreams of working with horses and eventually enrolling in the Equine Studies program at UMass. Vlad Blanton, 20, is now thriving at Reed College in Oregon. Staff member John Sprague reminds us that his sons have gone on to successful college continued on page 2 4

Fall 2008

Welcome to Year Thirteen of North Star! We are settled in our new home, and we are enjoying our largely new group of members. The scene at North Star is active, friendly, and hopeful. At our first parent meeting this fall, parents expressed one repeating question: “How does this actually work out?” Each parent shared moving stories of having their child be happier than he or she has been in years, but the concern persists: “How does being happy translate into getting into college? What will my child have, or need to have, to get on to the next stage of life?”

Alaina represents what is both simple and complicated at North Star. On the simple side, Alaina is a pleasure to know and work with. She is friendly, pleasant, sincere, and appreciative. She is reliable and polite, and she does work and demonstrates academic progress in her tutorials. On the complicated side, Alaina’s smile and genuine warmth covered profound feelings of anxiety and stress, as she shares in this essay. These feelings made it difficult for Alaina to be inside our building, and many of our members and staff hardly knew who she was. Fortunately, North Star staff member Susannah Sheffer connected with Alaina, and provided the nuanced and multi-layered support that Alaina needed to make homeschooling work for her. In this case, we were the right match, and Alaina’s life is dramatically improved. Still, I consider Alaina’s case to be worthy of reflection: it was simple to say that a person suffering in school needs an alternative such as homeschooling, but it was complicated to provide the actual support she and

Alaina

and professional careers (Tibet to Brown University and an innovative computer programming company; Miro to Manhattan School of Music and life as a jazz pianist.) Still, one wonders, how exactly does this happen? Students don’t get accepted to college because they are happy! Certainly, being happy is not the same as having the skills needed to write papers, take tests, and meet deadlines. And being happy does not ensure finding a job or profession in our difficult economy. Parents of young teens want to know how leaving school leads to success, because this contrasts with every cultural message they have received up to this point. I have both a philosophical and a practical answer to these concerns, one that I hope will be amplified by the essays that follow. Philosophically, we can all agree that being “happy” is not sufficient. Blissful ignorance or avoidance is no way to live a meaningful life. “Being continued on page 34 2

her mother needed for this approach to be realistic and meaningful. Her essay is a testament to the insights and experience of Susannah as much as it is to homeschooling, and I am grateful to Alaina for her willingness to share her story. —K.D. vvv

As a child I thoroughly enjoyed school. I had more friends than I could have ever hoped for. I got along with my teachers and classmates, and, strangest of all, I loved doing homework. Things continued smoothly until around the 5th grade. I wasn't keeping up with the rest of the class when it came to math, and the fact that my teachers made me move on to different kinds of math before I'd fully grasped the first one made things so much harder than they had to be. I was too stressed for someone so young, and academically speaking things just went downhill from there. Soon, I was starting middle school at Amherst Regional Middle School. Although I came home crying the first day (since I had no friends in any of my classes), middle school grew on me. I made new friends. I joined the chorus after dropping violin. I liked the majority of my classes, especially German. However, after the first quarter, things began to slip downwards once again. I felt so uninspired, and was so used to getting grades on the lower end of the spectrum, that I simply stopped trying. I rarely studied for anything. My teachers didn't show any interest in me doing well, either. It was like trying to achieve in a world where no one truly cared if you passed or failed. The worst part came at the end of the year. Don't ever say the word “Exhibitions” to a student who's ever been to ARMS. Exhibitions were endof-the year presentations which took months of prep and research, ending with a 10-15-minute poster presentation which was delivered to students, parents, and teachers. To put it simply, they were hell, and put a ridiculous amount of stress on students. However, I did end up discovering something positive about myself that I'm glad I did. My presentation focused on animal testing (I was against it, of course) and another girl’s was on vegetarianism. It was after that that I became a vegetarian and an animal rights activist, which I'm quite proud of. But besides that, exhibitions were a waste of precious time and energy.

So then came 8th grade, and it was then that my stress truly began to set in. More pressure was put onto grades. I was teased occasionally by students for numerous things; stupid things. Friends I'd known since kindergarten left me, deciding that they were too cool to be seen hanging around me. Before I knew it, 9th grade was like middle school all over again, except that when the stress returned, it came back five times as strong and brought with it a swell of depression. Stress affects my body; quite severely, actually. By the beginning of 10th grade I was missing so much school that I felt overwhelmed just being in class. They were discussing things I'd never heard of because of all of the absences. I fell so far behind that it was impossible to catch up, even if I wanted to. And then there was the medical testing. Oh, the testing! To put it simply, stress affects my stomach. I developed severe acid reflux and began taking Nexium for it. My doctor did so many tests and couldn't find anything except for the fact that I was “kind of” lactose intolerant and that I did have acid reflux, which we had previously found out when I was in the 4th grade. However, even with this treatment, things didn't improve. It was around the beginning of 10th grade that I began seeing a therapist. She was truly sincere in wanting to help me, and not so that I got an A on a paper or passed Ancient History; she really wanted to help me to improve my life. After fighting endless stress for over a year, I started looking up the possibility of homeschooling. At first I considered online school, studying for classes over the internet and being mailed a diploma if one passed. Although dull, it seemed like a solution at the time. Leave school but continue to work towards a high school diploma. It didn't fly with my mom, however, but I wasn't about to give up yet. I will probably never forget my old therapist for the gift she gave me: a North Star brochure. She said it was old and she wasn't sure if they were still around, but I should give them a call. To see what would come up, I googled North Star Teens and found the site. I was ecstatic! I can clearly remember the sensation of feeling as if I'd stumbled upon some mysterious beacon of light. Somehow, I convinced my mom to give North Star

continued on page 44

Liberated Learners Fall 2008

happy” is a shortcut phrase to something much more profound: a readiness and a desire to take risks, make commitments, and develop skills. “Being happy” signifies a capacity to engage the world, to meet new people, to join new organizations. It indicates having ambition and vision for oneself. I was just discussing Maslow’s pyramid with a teen at North Star: one needs certain basic needs met before one can move on to self-esteem and perhaps self-actualization. Whether or not you accept Maslow’s theory, it does make sense that teens, and adults as well, need to feel some safety and some sense of control over their lives before they can take serious risks and make serious commitments. Homeschooling is the first step toward selfcontrol that most of our members need to readjust their own expectations about their lives. With supportive parents and a useful program such as North Star, our members can begin to express ambitions they didn’t know they had or that they had put on hold

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a call. I stayed on the line while my mom talked with Ken. She was so reluctant, but she set up a meeting nevertheless. Before I left school completely, my mom wanted to check in with my guidance counselor to see what she thought, and she didn't like the idea. “You wouldn't do well in a homeschooling environment,” she said to me. “You need structure to succeed.” She also told me I needed testing to see if I had ADD or ADHD. I was flabbergasted. Here I was, only two months into the school year, and this woman thought my poor grades, sky-high stress level, and depression were being caused by Attention Deficit Disorder. I felt as though my view of this school and its teachers had truly been affirmed. It was as if they didn't want to help me towards the solution. They were trying to comfort me with some testing and then sugar coat it with a “You need school structure to succeed.” The tests made me feel as though I was 5 years old. They made me create shapes with blocks, and look at pictures to find what was missing. Somehow they decided I had depression and ADD. They then held a meeting in which two

of them would attend, my mom, and three of my teachers to help discuss a plan to “get me back on track.” Only one of my teachers ended up attending, and she didn't have enough time to stay more than (literally) 10 minutes of the scheduled hour. My English teacher was supposed to attend. He didn't; he saw me in the hallway and turned the other way. Needless to say he didn't want to be there any more than I did. It was a pointless meeting that ended up in me leaving school on medical leave and having a tutor from the school help me in three classes. However, I stopped that after only two months or so, when I began homeschooling full time. It wouldn't be until the fall of what would be my 11th grade year in school that things would finally fall into place. Until then I struggled to find a balance between free time and studying and to discover what was important to me because of what I wanted, and what had become “important” to me because of what other people thought I wanted. Someone who helped me get through that period of time was Susannah Sheffer, who I’ve been meeting with once a week for an hour at

awaiting a presumed high school graduation. I believe that many of our parents accept this philosophical statement, which is why they have pulled their children from school and joined North Star. But there is still confusion about what happens next: “How and when will my child get a vision and start taking risks and prove to colleges or employers that he or she is capable?” My practical answer is a bit circular and anticlimactic: “By doing it. Homeschoolers move on by moving on. It just happens.” This may not feel specific or reassuring, but it’s true. Read Alaina’s piece, and try to identify the key moment in her transition: getting her first job at a horse stable? Her second job? Signing up for a college course? Getting her GED? Remember she is just 17, and these experiences will add up to an impressive presentation when she applies to the University of Massachusetts. Vlad’s current essay doesn’t detail his trail from North Star to community college and work to acceptances at continued on page 54 4

Rao’s, a café in Amherst, since right around the time that I left school. I’ve been sharing thoughts and all kinds of different writing with her. If I hadn’t started those meetings with Susannah, I’m wondering if I could’ve made it through this far. Things truly began to improve once I got my GED in December of 2007. It was like a rain cloud of stress disintegrated. The following month I began working at Muddy Brook Farm in South Amherst. I had started up horseback riding lessons in November ‘07 at Stoneleigh Burnham (Greenfield) before that, which had sparked my passion for riding horses. There is something about riding a horse that sets you free from any amount of negative feeling; thus, I loved it. I now passionately work and ride at two barns: the UMass barn in Hadley, and at Muddy Brook Farm. I had my first experience of giving pony rides to children just recently and loved it. Anyone who rides horses can tell you that it's not just a simple hobby. Once you fall ill with “the horse bug” you're infected for life. In the fall I am going to try a writing class in hopes of readying myself for the academic life of college, for it's now a dream of mine to attend the UMass Equine Studies program for 4 years to become a licensed trainer and possibly instructor. I also hope to become an Equine Behaviorist, to understand why horses do what they do and how to apply that to training them. It's taken a while, but things are finally falling into place. My mom got married on May 17th, and we all moved to South Deerfield this past summer. I'm about to get my license. I have an awesome job and I'm looking forward to so many things. I can't even imagine where I'd be today if I hadn't left school. Although my presence at North Star has been limited throughout the year, it's helped me more than I think I even realize. This fall I'd be a senior still trapped in high school, still suffering from immense stress and anxiety, which was brought on little by little over the years from school. It just happened that 10th grade was the year when I just couldn't take it anymore. Although I'm not cured from all anxiety and stress, I'm able to manage it now. My life is finally making more sense than it ever has, which means the world to me. To anyone who's even mildly considering this alternative lifestyle we call

homeschooling, I can't stress how much you should look into it. North Star is there for you however you need it – and not even necessarily by spending time in the North Star building. When I started meeting with Susannah (at first we agreed to meet and talk about books), I preferred to meet in Amherst rather than at North Star because I didn’t feel comfortable meeting at North Star. Even though North Star isn’t at all like school, for me at that time, just being in a group of teenagers all together in one place felt too much like school and made me too anxious. Later I started meeting with Ken, at North Star, once a week for math tutoring, which turned into me writing out North Star’s checks and learning to keep track of them all on the computer, which I truly enjoyed. But besides that, I was rarely there at all. I was mostly writing and studying on my own and loving every moment of free time I had. So when I say, “North Star is there for you however you need it,” I mean that they are willing to help and guide you in any direction you want to go. That’s why I love North Star. They’re not telling you that you have to learn A, B, and C. When you find something that you want to learn more about, they’ll help you do that in any and every way that they can. North Star has opened doors for me that I never would have known to exist if I had stayed in public school. This journey has truly changed my life for the better.t

Homeschoolers have known and demonstrated that one can learn without going to school and that one can go to college or thrive in the workplace without a high school diploma. North Star is not “discovering” this truth; we are making it possible for ordinary continued on page 64 5

It’s been seven years since Vlad arrived at North Star with his parents as a discouraged eighth grader. If ever there was a youth feeling constrained by schooling, it was Vlad. He spent three years at North Star recovering, exploring, and making friends. He moved on as a confident 17-year-old to work, college, and even returned to North Star as a volunteer. After a short false start at full-time college at Bates, he is now, at age 20, in his second year at Reed College in Oregon. He has described his trail of activities in previous essays for Liberated Learners, and it is a tale that demolishes the fear that teens who don’t go to school won’t have exposure to a range of topics and experiences. Here, he reflects on how his growing up as a homeschooler contributes to his success at an elite liberal arts college. —K.D.

Vlad

vvv

At Reed College, I have found that the common universal experience for students is one of unending intellectual rigor, perpetual preparation for open conference classes, and a "life of the mind" as is often quoted in college guidebook literature. But, what isn't mentioned as often is that this type of environment creates a stress-culture that is extremely difficult to navigate. I have witnessed how many of my peers have suffered from being unable to balance school assignments and personal fulfillment. And I have felt it too; I have struggled to balance out just as much as everyone else, but one day I realized that my pals were asking me "how is that you seem to have everything together?" too often for it to be coincidental. In the middle of tough weeks, such as those when I had close to a thousand pages of reading and a couple of papers to be working on, I would sometimes be surprised by friends coming up to me and telling me about their personal difficulties and asking whether I had any insight on their feelings and inner processes. That is when I realized that I was doing it all with more consciousness and Liberated Learners Fall 2008

both Bates and Reed, but you should know that he did not ever get a GED or obtain any kind of high school diploma. John Sprague loves telling how his sons moved on from homeschooling to their young adult lives without any obstacles (just ask him!). The truth is, our culture is wide open to self-confident young people who demonstrate initiative, commitment, and risk-taking. Alaina and Vlad would not be better off with high school diplomas. John would not have more successful children if only they had traditional high school experiences. John, Susannah, Catherine, and I (and the rest of the North Star staff) would not be having a more useful impact on our members if only we were inside the system of schooling.

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teens and families to utilize this approach. Your support for our program is as essential as ever. I hope that these stories inform and inspire you to continue sharing our perspective with others.

News and Notes Associate Director Catherine Gobron has revamped our calendar of classes and activities, creating slots for more short-term workshops as well as our traditional ongoing classes. Short-term workshops have included: Van Maintenance (save the North Star van!), Mural Painting (beautify North Star walls!), and Gardening (landscape North Star’s front yard!) Other workshops have been on History, Music, and Theater. The time has been used for trips to a computer game designer, the Amherst College Planetarium, and the Prison Book Project, as well as for some hiking and biking. The ongoing courses include those from last continued on page 74

understanding of the process than anyone else around me. It was then when I started re-thinking about how my experience at Reed was different from others’ in my class because of the gifts I received from the unschooling experience. North Star has gifted me with a toolkit to draw upon which has proved to be priceless for staying healthy, afloat, and getting the most out of Reed with as little stress as possible. At North Star, I learned to trust in the validity of my own passions and interests, and I learned not be afraid to take the necessary steps to begin learning – whether it was about a new subject or whether it was about myself. When I first came to North Star, I remember feeling that I finally had the chance to drop my adopted lack of motivation and begin exploring new avenues of learning. But it took a while; nearly two years later I had finally unwound enough from traditional schooling to regain my enjoyment of the learning process. Next was the slightly daunting process of learning about myself, which was inevitable given the nature of the personalized unschooling experience North Star provided me. And it was the strengths resulting from these new methods of learning which I now consider my lifelong tools. These tools have given

me my base for "getting the most out of my college experience" and still be able to garner amazing lessons and experiences that come from simply experiencing and trusting in my own life path. It is not that everything has been running smoothly, but I am no longer afraid because I know that the learning process can be a tumultuous one. I have learned that I often need to remind myself about my goals, and double check whether or not I am being honest with myself – during daily interactions, in the classroom, when writing a paper, and when making sure to commit to my personal needs outside of the often hectic school environment. But, from North Star, I have essentially learned how to take care of myself based on the knowledge and strength I have gained from trusting in my brightness and uniqueness. I now know about what makes me happy and healthy, and how I learn best. And often it comes to learning to trust my inner intuition, and to follow my heart even when around me there is so much pain around the learning process, a process which I now know deep inside has the potential to be one of ultimate fulfillment.t

E Y, W H E R E D I D E V E R Y B O D Y G O ?

This fall, North Star saw an unusually high number of its members move on. What are they doing now?

Ariana is in the full-time professional track at Nimble Arts Circus School. Drew is enrolled in a residential tennis academy in Tennessee. Oshi and Hannah are working in Vermont picking apples and traveling. Rebecca is enrolled in three music courses at Holyoke Community College. Marissa is working full time and has moved in with friends in Hadley. Will is in Ecuador with Kroka Expeditions. Adam is farming full-time on his own land. Katie is formally studying herbology and also taking a course at Hampshire College. Emma is fully enrolled at Holyoke Community College, and is working at North Star! (and laying out this publication.) Sophie is taking an art class at Springfield Technical Community College and pursuing an art internship. Gabriel is now living in Colorado. Henri is taking three courses at Greenfield Community College (photography, art, English) and is working at 10,000 Villages in Northampton. Shelby is working at three jobs: timber framing, farming with Adam, and dishwashing. Kathe is taking three courses at Holyoke Community College, working for a company that bottles flower essences, and studying herbology through an apprenticeship. Javin is creating his own bread bakery business. Bagheera is taking courses at Greenfield Community College. Wadada is inventing graphic and non-graphic novels. Thomas, Zane, Kyle, Chris, Samantha, Patrick, and Vlad have chosen to enroll in high school.

In publicity news, North Star was featured on National Public Radio’s The Best of Our Knowledge in July. One link to the show is: http://www.wamc.org/pr og-tbook.html It is Show #929. The Ashoka Foundation, which recognizes and supports social entrepreneurs, read the preliminary application from North Star’s co-founders Joshua Hornick and Kenneth Danford and approved this proposal to the second round, an interview which was conducted in September. We are honored to be recognized by Ashoka, and we look forward to hearing more feedback later this year.

John is one of the tiny handful of people who have been with North Star from its very beginning. His son Tibet was in my 8th grade class when I was still teaching, and Tibet left school with me when North Star opened in 1996. John’s son Miro was a member for six years. John has volunteered and served on the Board of Directors. His parents are supporters of North Star; his nephew was also a member for three years. He is the opening speaker on the North Star promotional DVD. When North Star moved into its new home last year and we needed more paid staff, it was an easy decision to ask John to shift from his role of volunteer teacher to staff member. John not only loves North Star as a program, he lives it in his own life. He is a lifelong learner, constantly curious and wondering about all sorts of interesting ideas. He enjoys teens, and, clearly, many of our teens enjoy him. He is a central part of the North Star story, and here he shares his reflections on becoming a staff member. —K.D.

John

vvv

I have been involved with North Star since the day it opened twelve years ago – first as a parent, then as a volunteer teacher and board member, and now as staff. I am drawn to work at North Star because I want to offer to other teens the same kind of support and respect that I, together with North Star, was able to give my two sons over a seven-year period. I myself was educated in a very traditional way – going to a private country day school, then public junior high, then prep school (Exeter), and then Amherst College. Considering my background, and considering the current climate in education – which focuses on mandatory testing and encouraging young people to stay in school – it’s amazing to find myself enthusiastically involved in a diametrically opposed approach. Here we support kids to leave school and take charge of their own education. Here we give no tests, and are fine with teens spending their time just hanging out and talking. Here we treat teens with respect. It is truly eye-

opening to see how this approach can yield equivalent results -– in terms of getting into college, and having a successful work-life – to conventional approaches, and our teens are much happier and have the time to focus their own passions. I love seeing how the North Star approach can serve such a wide range of kids. We have driven, high achievers; we have kids with learning disabilities; we have intellectual geeks, and revolutionary freaks. All of them coexist in a beautifully tolerant atmosphere. All of them receive equal support to be themselves and discover the path that best meets their needs. A special joy for me over the past couple years has been my world religions class. Every week we take some aspect of the vast world of comparative religion – for example, readings from the Sufi poets of Islam – and use it as a springboard for wide ranging philosophical discussions of life’s biggest questions – the meaning of existence; is there a god; death and rebirth; how to being peace to our world. Teenagers have a bad rap. There is such energy and creativity in their thinking when you give them a chance to explore. The far-ranging conversations we have in world religions class are as interesting and thoughtful as any I had in college or graduate school. The same goes for the relationships that I have developed with teens at North Star. I love being a part of the North Star community: I feel like I am part of a trailblazing experiment in education, an experiment which has already transformed the lives of several hundred teens and their families, including my own.t Liberated Learners Fall 2008

year such as Writing Workshop, Social Issues, World Religions, Theater, Capoeira, Anthropology, and Evolutionary Biology. New courses include Money (sponsored by a generous donation from North Star’s bank, Northampton Cooperative Bank), Reincarnation Studies, and Mobiles.

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