SPRING 2011
LIBERATEDLEARNERS
The North Star board and staff celebrated our founders, Josh Hornick and Ken Danford, at our 7th annual Celebration of Self-Directed Learning Brunch, and thanked them for 15 years of faithful, diligent, and exciting work!
15 years and it never gets old By Ken Danford, Executive Director
On the very last day of regular classes this year, I had the experience of seeing North Star through the eyes of a visiting 13-year-old girl. To me, the visit became a microcosm of the great year we have had. Before their visit, the girl’s father had told me over the phone that she had stopped going to seventh grade this year due to bullying. At 2:00 pm on our last Friday of the year, she walked in the front door and was warmly acknowledged by a group of maybe six girls happily on their way outside. We looked in the common room and saw another dozen teens and staff involved in a mixture of conversation, play, reading, and working. We wandered into the piano room and smelled the evidence of the cooking class that had just made lunch there. A few people still had music going and hula hoops circling. We headed upstairs and saw a tutorial on the landing, another tutorial in the library, and a teen quietly reading. The
classroom was empty, but the circle of chairs hinted that something interesting might have happened recently. (I think our visitor was confused by the absence of desks!) In our art room, eight teens were discussing something with Josh Wachtel, who has been running a yearlong class called Rebellions, Heresies, and Dreams. In the small conference room, another half-dozen teens were actively engaged in a Spoken Word workshop led by a new volunteer, Jeff. By the time we sat in my office, the girl’s eyes were saucers. She listened attentively for perhaps half an hour as I did my best to explain our program to her and her father. As we finished, I learned that a teen-organized Photography Show was about to begin in our basement, complete with mounted photos, lights, and snacks. The visitors and I clambered down the steps and found at least thirty people, including some parents, gathered to admire the selected photos. Some were
blowing bubbles and dancing. Indeed it was a genuine show, thanks to organizers Eli, Abbey, Jesse, and Mau. Our young visitor must have thought she was either in Candyland or the Twilight Zone. So many happy, busy, interesting people! She was ready to tell her father to leave her right then for the remainder of the afternoon. As I write, she’s planning to visit next week for our end-of-the-year teen presentations. I told our staff, “It was one of those ‘you can see her life changing by the second’ sort of visits.” For me, this story epitomizes how much North Star has grown. Our larger size, our range of teens and staff, our overall energy mean that even on a sunny afternoon, on our final regular day, there was so much going on inside our building. I know we’ve never had such a final day before. Many, many people contributed to that setting, and I certainly enjoyed leading the tour and seeing its impact on one visiting family.
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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? ALUMNI CHECK IN
Where are you now? E-mail Sarah at sarah@northstarteens.org - like, seriously.
Tim Dolan
Marcella Jayne
member from 1997 - 2000
member from 1999 - 2003
Amman, Jordan
Holyoke, MA
After completing a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.A. in Ethnomusicology from Indiana University, I’ve decided to abandon the academic track in favor of other adventures. I’ll be in Jordan for the next few months continuing my study of Arabic, and then will spend the southern summer doing support work for the U.S. scientific mission at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
After North Star and Greenfield Community College, I transferred to Mt. Holyoke College as a Frances Perkins scholar, where I am currently a Politics major and a Gender Wilderness Class Studies minor. I work part time with the Prison Birth Project as a group facilitator in the Chicopee women’s jail and I am interning at a law firm in Springfield, working on the “no one leaves/nadie se mude” campaign to fight foreclosures. I am applying to law school for the fall of 2013. I live in public housing in Holyoke, MA with my two wonderful and crazy daughters and my supportive significant other.
NEWS & NOTES REPLICATION WORKSHOP! For the first time since we’ve moved to our new space and solidified our organization, North Star is holding a replication workshop on July 8th-9th. We have already met people coming from Montreal, Ottawa, Portland ME, Princeton, Foxboro, the Bronx, and Miami. We have also received interest from a few others whom we haven’t yet met in person. The prospect of coaching others to start their own versions of this model fills us with excitement and satisfaction. The specific individuals involved fill me with optimism. This year we have crossed a plateau of stability, presence, and inspiration to others. We look forward to having our members, alumni, staff, and board support this new line of work. THE INDEPENDENT PROJECT In May, Ken visited Monument Mountain High School in Great Barrington, MA to meet high school senior Sam Levin and the people involved in the Independent Project, recently featured in the New York Times and through their video on YouTube. Ken and the four North Star teens who joined him all felt completely impressed by the initiative of Sam and the flexibility of his school administrators. The Independent Project is a testament to trusting the innate desire we all have to wonder and to learn, and serves as a significant beacon of hope for self-directed learning in public education. SPREADING THE WORD This year North Star has made an effort to share our model and with Finn. people interested in replicating it in their own We’re pretty happy to have him around too.
Our members marched at Pride Day in Northampton in May! We are so lucky to live in an area that celebrates diversity of all kinds. communities. In March, Ken traveled with six teens to Princeton, NJ to make a presentation on behalf of Joel Hammon and the Princeton Learning Cooperative to forty interested people. On the way to Princeton they participated in the Voyagers Conference promoting alternative schools and approaches, where noted author and school critic (and North Star advisory board member) John Taylor Gatto sat front and center chortling at our group’s presentation. “That was the best panel I’ve heard in a long time!” John exclaimed when the teens concluded. At the end of May Ken and intern extraordinaire Jonah will be heading to Montreal to make a similar presentation to support Marilyn Rowe’s vision of starting a program in Canada. Marilyn is hoping our efforts can spark interest and momentum to confront Quebec’s less-than-inviting homeschooling regulations.
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We must change the question “How intelligent are you?” to “How are you intelligent?”
KENDRA ROSENBLATT Mauricio Abascal Editor’s note: Mau’s presence at North Star is invaluable in many ways. As you read his profile, keep in mind that he is a volunteer. We are humbled by his dedication to our teen members! In my two years at North Star, I have found that the noncompulsory nature of the classes presents a whole new set of challenges for me as a teacher. Because the students can choose whether or not to attend my classes, I’m challenged to experiment with new and innovative ways to inspire them. The peculiar advantage of this system is that once members activate their own prerogative in learning, they become excellent managers of their own will for selfactualization. I myself am a high school dropout currently attending the University of Massachusetts and maintaining a high GPA. It took me most of my twenties (I am currently 31) to develop the self-confidence, drive, motivation, and initiative that most of the young members of North Star can take for granted in their teens. I often wish that North Star had been an option for me when I was a teen. I am now driven by the opportunity to offer this empowerment of will to the teens at North Star.! Through my twenties I experimented with a great variety of social, experiential, and professional opportunities that now provide me with quite a toolbox to work with at North Star. I teach classes and tutorials in various disciplines including Spanish, photography, video production, music
-Sir Ken Robinson
LIBERATEDLEARNERS SPRING 2011
TEACHER PROFILE
production, and even a Food class. I have created a class called “Playing with Light” that investigates the commonalities between photography and video, including discussion of lighting, composition, equipment, media management, and publishing. I meet with teens one-onone to help them develop their own projects. I created the Food class as a way of addressing the epidemic in bad nutrition. By watching the food habits of teens at North Star over the past few years I have identified two main obstacles to good eating: lack of knowledge of nutritional value of various foods vs. junk, and lack of experience in cooking and preparing healthy, balanced meals. In the class we identify ingredients, prepare and cook, and discuss nutritional value, environmental impact, and even policy implications of food production. The food class has become quite popular even with its menu of highly nutritious, balanced, vegetablebased, “adult” foods. With a donut shop across the street from North Star and a convenience store filled with sweets and fats only two blocks away, I aim to break through the competition for young stomachs. My primary goal in my work at North Star is to engage members in learning valuable skills and in making considerate decisions about their futures without encroaching on or disrespecting their present priorities. I strive to create an environment where students can learn through experimentation and build the confidence needed to use their new skills in their native environment.
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A promising future By Abbey Morton, current member
As I read Abbey’s essay, I was amused to remember that she once thought of herself as shy. Currently, Abbey is a strong and delightful presence at North Star, constantly up to something creative, important, and good. She seems to be friends with everyone. She enjoys challenging me, even scolding me as necessary. I do remember the first visit Abbey describes in her essay when she tagged along as her brother was learning about North Star. I’m fairly certain that Abbey and her father were clear, “We’re here for him.” But that didn’t stop me from including Abbey in the conversation as she sat in the background, and it turns out to be one of those extraordinary moments when I never know what long-term impact my actions can have. Abbey’s experience demonstrates another important idea as well. Often, the teens we believe are doing fine in school are nevertheless teens who can benefit immensely from something different. We often encounter an assumption that a teen must have a problem in order to need or want an alternative to traditional school. But that isn’t always the case. Abbey is one of many North Star teens who were ready for more than the success they had achieved within the system. After twoisyears with North Star, Abbey is now ready to move on to This new challenges. I’m thrilled she has enough commitments and Adriana! connection to North Star to continue with us as well. With any luck, she’ll turn into one of those alumnae who stick around a long, long time. - Ken Danford
Photo: Ben Rosser
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remember walking the halls of Lynndale Heights for the last time before moving on to high school, and feeling a little apathetic. I had gone to this school for the last eight years of my life and spent numerous hours within the walls learning from different teachers and working on projects for different subjects that would prepare me for my future education. I did enjoy my time there – for the most part – but lately school didn’t excite me the way it used to. I thought maybe it was just because I had outgrown the small K - 8 public school and I was ready to move on to high school. ! I lived in Canada from 2002-2009, visiting my dad in America on holidays and in the summer.! The summer after I finished grade eight, my family decided that my brother would stay behind with my father and stepmother in Massachusetts and try out this “Alternative Education
Center,” as they put it. I heard that this meant homeschooling, and I was definitely curious. The only time I’d ever thought about people who homeschooled was when I watched a little girl win a spelling bee my brother participated in. I remember hearing remarks scoffing about her unfair advantage. People complained, “She was homeschooled. Of course she won.” After that event, though, I didn’t ever really think about homeschooling or what it meant. Not until the day I tagged along with my brother, Sam, and my dad while Sam tested the waters of North Star and had a meeting with Ken.!!!!!!!!!!! Sam was the main focus of the conversation and I gladly sat in the back because I was too shy at the time to answer any questions Ken had for me. I listened to his stories of how North Star changed the lives of many people and I realized it was a perfect place for not only Sam, but also for me. !On the drive home from the meeting, from the back seat, I told my dad I wanted to move from Canada to America to live with him and go to North Star. Our eyes caught in the rearview mirror and I could tell he was happy. He said it would be great to have both kids living with him; I just had to talk to my mother about it. It wasn’t an easy discussion because I had lived with her for my whole life, but in the end she agreed to let me go on the condition that I try out high school first. I wasn’t going to push my luck, so I agreed.! My four days of high school consisted of trying to corral myself through the busy halls of either obnoxious teenagers who obviously didn’t want to be there or quiet kids who also didn’t want to be there. The same went for most of the teachers. Some took as little time as possible to assist the students who obviously needed extra help. They were more focused on getting the lessons out, no matter the clarity, and sending the “bad kids” to the office. There were a few great teachers who really knew how to connect with their students, but the teachers who weren’t so great overshadowed them. Within the first two days my algebra teacher informed me I was already failing her class because I had started school a day late. She told me I could bump up my grade if I took the math test we did again, but she didn’t show me the mistakes I made nor show me the right way of doing things. ! After a few days at my new school, I knew that high school wasn’t right for me. I needed a lot more stimulation when it came to learning. My dad and step-mum, Tadd and Carol, could already tell I was quickly fading with every grueling day at school. I remember one day after school I was going to a show with Sam and Tadd and I was in such a bad mood that in the middle of the parking lot I broke down in tears professing I hated school and didn’t want to go back anymore. That was the last straw for them and they decided to send me to North Star. I was so happy knowing I didn’t have to go back to school.! ! North Star was a definite transition for me. I remember asking Ken if I could take off my shoes when we were playing games on the lawn on the first day and he told me, “This is the last time you ever have to ask that.” I had never been to a place where I chose everything I got to do,
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LIBERATEDLEARNERS SPRING 2011
whether it was which classes I’d take or what time I ate or as a hobby for years to come. I even sometimes imagine when I left. It was amazing. The term “self-directed traveling or doing some performances with a circus after I learning” was a new concept to me, but it quickly became a work on technique and strength-building some more. !! big part of my life.! I’ve learned a lot more about video making and filming I have made many more friends at North Star than I by taking classes and working on projects with Mau, the would have made in years in Canada, much less in high North Star video teacher. Looking back at the first footage school. The North Star teens were all so welcoming and I ever captured compared to the footage I can take now, I nice in my first few days that see that I have learned how to steady I no longer felt like one of my hand and rework composition so I remember asking Ken if I could the new kids after a week. I’m not just videotaping people’s take off my shoes when we were Soon I realized I wasn’t so torsos. One thing I especially love shy. I wasn’t that quiet about making videos is how playing games on the lawn on the person who only went with I can find inspiration from first day and he told me, “This is the sometimes the flow of things. I was the smallest thing and suddenly I’m last time you ever have to ask that.” planning a whole new project for happier. I didn’t feel like a faceless student who only myself. I’ve made a few short videos went along with the crowd. I with my friends and I’m going to be found myself becoming more comfortable with these new working on longer, more planned-out videos. friends than I’d ever felt with anyone. !! Last March, I traveled to the Dominican Republic with Participating in classes became something I enjoyed a lot. North Star, which was the farthest I’ve ever been away from One of the best things I’ve done at North Star was home. It was an amazing experience. I got to interact with challenge myself to take Speechify, the public speaking people in ways I never thought of, such as having a class. I have always loved the idea of talking in front of conversation with someone who didn’t know the same people, but until now, didn’t have the courage to do so. language as me and still having some sort of connection Similarly, at the beginning of my North Star experience I with them. Plus, I got to learn about another part of the looked over the class descriptions and questioned whether world, not from a desk but by actually going there and or not I should do theater.! I had done theater things before seeing it first hand. but I was still a little shy.! I am really glad that I ended up I think that without North Star, I would have barely doing theater because it has become a big part of North made it out of high school and probably not have wanted Star for me and it’s helped me get over stage fright.! to move on to college. I would have been able to manage at North Star also gave me time to pursue things I wouldn’t high school and push through the tests and classes, but I have been able to do with the lack of free time that I had as would never have enjoyed my education the way I do now. a high school student. It has opened up my Wednesdays to I am excited that next year I will be starting community focus on learning on my own. I’m taking an aerial silks class college after getting my GED. At almost-16, I’m not done on Wednesday nights. Aerial silks is a circus act where I with North Star yet but I can see a promising future climb silks hanging from the ceiling and wrap myself and because of what I learned about myself and what I want to hang in pretty sequences. It’s so much fun. I have already do with the help of North Star.!!! improved since I started and it’s something I plan on doing
Thank you to Hannah Laird, Ramon Elinevsky, Marie McCourt, and Lynne Manring for making our 7th annual Celebration of Self-Directed Learning Brunch so special. It was a great success!
NG
Liam, Abbey, and Marco starred in Words, Words, Words by David Ives
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7PRINCIPLES that inform our work (#’s 1 through 6 were published previously)
John Sprague
Emily Odgers
Staff Member, Alumni parent
Current Member
Last year, when I was in school, nothing I did felt meaningful, whether or not I found the subject interesting or the assignment useful. Yet now as a North Star member, everything that I do feels worthwhile, and it’s because of one key element high school doesn’t offer: freedom. Tibet loved computers, and began an apprenticeship with a local When you’re free to choose programmer. For a year he studied what you get to do, when you feel with his teacher, and then began 7.! The best preparation for a in control of your own actions, working on professional projects. At sixteen, he accompanied his meaningful and productive future is a you begin to care about how they affect everything. Now that I mentor to a major computer meaningful and productive present. choose what I do with my time conference, where he and energy, I can do social justice demonstrated and taught work that affects people positively. professionals how to use software he had helped design and develop. Right now, as I work with the Too often, education is thought of in Tibet also spent time reading, local Human Rights Commission, terms of preparation: “Do this now, playing sports, socializing, hiking, where I focus on issues such as even if it doesn’t feel connected to and exploring music. He has LGBT and socioeconomic rights, your most pressing interests and continued his happy lifestyle to this I sometimes feel frustrated that concerns, because later on you’ll find it day. Now at age 29 he lives in San even though we are making Francisco working as a software useful.” We believe that helping things better in Northampton, engineer for a solar energy company, teenagers to figure out what seems our country and our world are and enjoying camping and going to still full of suffering. That’s when interesting and worth doing right now, music festivals with his friends on I remember something we talked in their current lives, is also the best the weekends. about this year in Buddhism class way to help them develop selfat North Star: the good we put Meanwhile, Miro spent his early knowledge and experience at figuring into the world now is good that teen years exploring varied interests out what kind of life they want and we will always get to live with. In until he discovered a love of jazz. what they need to do or learn in order high school, I wasn’t giving the He started learning jazz piano at age world much good, just posters thirteen, and focused on it so to create that life. In other words, it’s and worry about tests. Now I am intensely that by the time he was the best preparation for their futures. helping people attain their rights, fifteen he was performing making for a happier world and a professionally. At seventeen, Miro better future. was leading his own bands and booking gigs around New England. The work I do now also builds Then he left to go to Manhattan School of Music. The intensity of me a foundation for what I’ll do later in life. Last New York led to some struggles. But now, after graduating, he is month I may have only voted for a resolution on reclaiming his natural flow as an inspiring, in-demand pianist. His music transgender rights, but maybe in a few years, I will has taken him all over the world, including appearances on national help pass federal transgender rights. Or maybe I’ll television. It is remarkable that the life he is developing began as a do something for immigrant or racial equality. I’m young teen. not sure; I’ve got a lot of options. All I know is that what I’m doing now is better for my future During their teen years, each of my sons focused primarily on creating than anything I could have done in high school. a meaningful life right then and there, but so much of what they did as teens ended up serving as wonderful preparation for their adult lives. When my sons, Tibet and Miro, joined North Star, I was immediately struck by how different their lives were than mine had been at their age. When I was fourteen, I went to boarding school, and simply assumed that I would continue in school until I finished college. Real life was far in the future. School was like being on a train that had no stops for eight years. So I was amazed to see my teenage sons discovering that their lives were already their own.
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Ellen Morbyrne Staff Member, North Star Alumnae
I would consider myself a generally happy and successful adult. Most of the time, I even feel, dare I say it, wildly successful. This is not because I have a college degree (although I have two – an Associate’s and a BA from Smith College), nor because I graduated from high school (I didn’t – I don’t even have a GED). It’s because of how I spend my time, who I spend it with, and what impact I have on the world around me. I had mostly loved school up until 7th grade, when academics suddenly became an exercise in filling out worksheets and in checking off “necessary skills acquired.” It was definitely a learning environment with what seemed to be only one focus: getting through what was required (and I often wondered – why, and who requires it, and what for?). It was an approach intended to prepare us for an adult future, but it wasn’t preparation for my future; I wasn’t even sure yet what kind of future I wanted. When my family and I made the unexpected and delightful leap into self-directed learning with North Star, education
suddenly became an adventure of discovering who I really was and what I really cared about. My adult preparation suddenly became about taking the steps needed, right now, to make my future life possible. In fact, my present life became about living a full life today, in this moment, not about putting life off until some culturally accepted date had passed. And I discovered that an interested, available, committed teenager was fully welcomed and appreciated by adults, and could actually participate in the community in a meaningful and productive way. Isn’t that what education is supposed to be about – preparing youth to be productive members of society? And when a person’s unique happiness is the central motivator for what direction that productive life might take, a productive life and a meaningful life are suddenly one and the same thing. Now a mother myself, happily married, and deeply satisfied with my work, I can honestly look back and know that my adolescence was definitely a time of delicious preparation for adulthood. But if I had not already been living my life fully, as I expected myself to continue living when I “grew up,” then it would not have been adequate preparation. I sometimes think that North Star’s whole educational approach can be thought of as “follow your heart” and then “begin as you mean to go on.”
LIBERATEDLEARNERS SPRING 2011
We have been highlighting North Star’s 7 Guiding Principles by inviting community members to reflect on what they mean to them and how they have impacted their lives. To read the complete list of principles, go here: http://northstarteens.org/guiding-principles/.
NORTH STAR GOES TO THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC By Catherine Gobron, Program Director
In March, Mauricio Abascal and I led a service trip with six North Star teens to The Dominican Republic. ! We spent the whole year preparing for the trip by learning Spanish and working as a group on various volunteer and prep projects. !By the time March came we were a tight team. ! We spent six days volunteering at The Dominica School and Orphanage in East Santo Domingo, then three days traveling and enjoying the beautiful island. !Despite our best preparation, it was hard to know just what to expect. !We never imagined the greeting and appreciation we enjoyed. !The little kids especially were so affectionate and excited about our presence. !We had an amazing time playing and laughing and learning with them. ! Our main goal on the trip was a video project which we accomplished in a remarkably short amount of time with the older group. !In three afternoons they developed, rehearsed, and performed two plays and created an awards committee and ceremony, while a fourth, smaller group learned to use our video equipment and shot the whole production. !It was
phenomenal, but as usual on North Star service trips, we gained and learned much more than we could ever give. ! We will hold those children dear to our hearts forever and hope to continue to support the orphanage in the future. !To learn more about their program, go to!http://www.4dshift.com/Orphanage06/index.html.
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HELP SUPPORT NORTH STAR We’ve been changing lives for 15 years! We are committed to our policy of making membership available to any family, regardless of their ability to pay our full fee. !North Star receives NO state or institutional funding. ! Individual donations help keep our doors open to any interested family.
Thank you for your generosity!
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North Star is a project of Learning Alternatives, Inc., a non-profit corporation under Massachusetts Law and Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Contributions to North Star are taxdeductible. Please mail your donation to: North Star 135 Russell St. Hadley, MA 01035
We like music. This newsletter was put together and made to look beautiful by intern extraordinaire Jonah Meyer and Outreach Director Sarah Reid.