We will explore the ways our multicultural experiences, perspectives, and identities can inform and expand our practice of self-directed education. What can we celebrate about our different cultural backgrounds? How can our multiculturalism help us to resist standardization and conformity? How can it challenge existing norms and worldviews? Come ready to share your own thoughts and experiences!

Mind-Heart-Body play for us to explore self, judgement and curiosity as learners and facilitators. No prescriptions, no how to’s, more questions than answers.

A play at explaining why children need less advice from adults in order to learn on their own.

About play and learning in teens

Intrinsic motivation is a powerful force for learning and living. Self-determination theory is a helpful framework for parents who want to create an environment in which their children can thrive according to their own choices and passions.

In the Mental Health panel, panelists explored topics such as how we show up in self-directed education spaces? Can we be ourselves when we have a bad day? How can we hold space for those who have a mental illness, or for ourselves for that matter? How to dive into experiences when having different forms of anxiety, BPD, bipolarity etc.? How to take care of our mind, with intention, and with what the pandemic helped us learn?

The roles of parents in schools can become a heated debate, but this startup school is doing it differently. KC Restoration School is a brand-new, Sudbury-inspired, trauma-sensitive, equity-based, student-led, self-directed learning center with a unique Parent Circle. Hear from the founder and one of the parents as they share their early observations on the school’s development so far, the Parent Circle, and how they are figuring it all out together.

Opened in 2004 from the question “what if schools were different?” The Village Free School has evolved significantly since its inception. In this session, they discussed & shared some lessons learned, challenges, and tools that uphold our continual growth through a conversational platform. We welcome questions and stories of all kinds.

At the VELA Education Fund (VELA), we envision a world where every family and young person has agency over their education and access to rich, meaningful learning opportunities that create pathways to a life of purpose. We believe learning happens anywhere and everywhere, both inside and outside of conventional learning environments. During this session participants learned more about what VELA is and why it exists, heard stories of grantees and models VELA has funded, and learned about what’s next for the organization!

The Sacred Art of learning is an interactive tea circle of sharing, learning, and exploring the multiple streams of learnings and unlearning, reflecting on biological, geographic, spiritual, and communal aspects of learning/unlearning. This space was led by Chévanni sharing stories and experiences from his child self, as Founder of a Self-directed learning community and as a Parent. This space looks to hold a sense of intimate collective exploration and reflection on our perception of how learning shows up and what we can do to support and cultivate spaces and ideas of this sacred practice.

Dominique shared a tool that she has been using in community with other unschoolers to help them stay mindful and present in regards to their unschooling practice.

This session was a panel discussion with youth who attend a Liberated Learners center. Liberated Learners centers are based on the groundbreaking work of North Star: Self-Directed Learning for Teens which has been in existence since 1996.

During this offering, participants learned how to create and run an SDE program that is accessible to every family no matter their socio-economic standing. Sundiata shared the key foundational considerations needed to execute this approach based on his experience co-founding GROW, an SDE learning space in Metro Atlanta Ga.

In this session participants explored the power of knowing your Why. While life regularly presents difficult decisions about what to do next, it can be especially challenging in times of uncertainty to know and feel like you are on the right path. This interactive workshop provided 1) practical tools to assist you in anchoring to a sense of purpose that can help you create new plans and see hidden opportunities in upheaval, 2) a better understanding of where your values, skills and passions intersect in order to move in a useful direction even during uncertain times, and 3) the opportunity to continue emerging from isolation and connect with peers who may also be wondering what to do next.

Flying Squads provide young people the opportunity to make decisions in a nurturing community of human connections. This is a Q&A with members of the Flying Squad groups. They answered questions about what they do on a day to day basis and shared some fun stories.

How would you describe the influences and beliefs that the conventional model of schooling has interjected on you? In this session, Alex Bretas, a brazilian researcher and writer on the field of self-directed learning, shared his brand new book called “Schooling Beliefs: the hetero-directed and conventional education that still lives in you”. Based upon the work of authors like Ivan Illich, Yaacov Hecht and John Holt, as well as his own observations and experiences in conventional education, Alex has collected a series of 96 schooling beliefs that limit our capacity for self-directing our own learning during our lives. To raise awareness about these limiting cultural beliefs is the first step to build our way out of the educational box and, thus, live authentic and meaningful learning paths.

What is intersectional unschooling, why does it matter, and what does it look like in practice? iIn this video, participants have a heartful conversation about an orientation of unschooling that is rooted in and geared towards social justice. Why does this orientation raise so many objections? And for those of us for whom an intersectional approach to unschooling is the only way we can live it, what does that look like? We gathered to share our best practices and most troublesome ones, answered some of our most pressing questions, our insights, and our inspirations.

Several self-directed projects have taken on publishing youth content in newspapers and zines recently.

This is a video from the 2nd SDE Weekend. The panelists explored themes of intersectionality and how social Justice and racial equity shows up in SDE spaces, movements, and organising.

Issues 1 & 2 of a zine by unschoolers.