Janice (she/her) is an unschooling mom and Editor of Tipping Points Magazine. She loves connecting with others through sharing stories.

July 29th, 2024

This is Part One of a two-part SDE Facilitator series.

Part One explores what an SDE facilitator is, what they do, where to find jobs, and signs that becoming an SDE facilitator might not be a good fit.

Part Two will focus on sharing insights into daily and long-term supports, resources, and practices that current SDE facilitators have found useful. Find Part Two: SDE Facilitator Supports and Resources here.

Main Article Headings:

Introduction
What is an SDE Facilitator?
What is an SDE Facilitator’s Role?
Main Facets of Being a Facilitator
Challenges a Facilitator May Face
Best Parts of Being an SDE Facilitator
Getting Hired as an SDE Facilitator
Conclusion
Article Contributors

Introduction

Several months ago, after a colleague and I were talking about how they wanted to work toward becoming a Self-Directed Education (SDE) facilitator, I realized there seemed to be a shortage of information about SDE facilitators and resources to support current and future SDE facilitators, especially that’s all gathered in one place. From there, I decided to survey and chat with several people who were currently working as SDE facilitators or who were in charge of hiring SDE facilitators to see what valuable information they had to share.

Some of the questions I asked were, what skills or experience does someone need to become an SDE facilitator? Are there types of experiences that make it harder to be in a facilitator role? What personal qualities thrive when working in a self-directed learning environment? What work can they do to set themselves up to have a meaningful experience as an SDE facilitator? Keep reading to see what I learned.

What is an SDE Facilitator?

Remembering way back to my high school French class, the word facilitator is based in the French word – “facile” which translates to “easy.” A facilitator is someone who helps make things easier for others. The dictionary defines a facilitator as, “someone or something that facilitates something. Especially: someone who helps to bring about an outcome (such as learning, productivity, or communication) by providing indirect or unobtrusive assistance, guidance, or supervision.”

Note: Even though unschooling parents may see a lot of similarities in the tasks they do on a daily basis reflected below, I’d just like to note that for the sake of this article, I am referring to an SDE facilitator as someone who specifically works in a Self-Directed Education school or center.

In general, there doesn’t seem to be one set description of what an SDE facilitator is. It seems to be a unique role that for the most part is defined by the center seeking to fill the position. It is not the same role that a teacher has in a conventional school setting, although there may be some overlap. Spencer Babcock, Rock Tree Sky, said this about facilitators, “In our community, we refer to our facilitators as mentors. We believe individuals of all ages can mentor, teach and learn from one another. We recognize that everyone brings unique experiences, perspectives, and skills to the community, regardless of age and there are things to learn from everyone. We embrace the role of mentors, we facilitate, cultivate, and grow our community that cares for each other in our learning process through engagement, mutual exchange, collaboration, inclusivity, and diversity.”

Beyond the conventional view of a teacher having all the knowledge and being the one responsible for passing it on to students, SDE facilitators embrace not having all the answers and trust that young people, not just adults, have the capacity to share their knowledge with others. Another difference between conventional schools and SDE spaces is that “classes” are called offerings because attendance is not required. This can mean that sometimes a facilitator will plan to lead an offering where no one shows up. These are just a few examples of what it’s like being an SDE facilitator.

The word “facilitator” itself isn’t always used to describe the people in this role. Depending on the center, one might also hear them called educators, talent managers, executive assistants, mentors, staff or staff team, and/or program advisors.

Here is a wonderful ALC facilitation guide that goes more in-depth into how Agile Learning Centers (ALCs) view facilitation.

What is an SDE Facilitator’s Role?

Sifaan Zavahir, Kinder Republic, has thought a lot about the role of an adult in his center, “From at least since we started Kinder Republic, I’ve wondered ‘what is my role?’

“I didn’t want the role of a teacher (because that conveys a responsibility to teach, even if that need not be in the same way as in mainstream school); I didn’t even want the title facilitator (it’s less burdensome than teaching, but still suggests that there is a dependence on me performing a facilitating role).

“At the same time, even though Education is for all people, the way we perceive Education is different. Children / Young People are coming and investing their time (and their families’ money) in the expectation of some kind of educational value, whereas adults (if they are staff) will invest their time primarily for remuneration – it is a job. So what is my job?”

Sifaan went on to conclude that his SDE center is like an airplane and that his role might be similar to that of a flight attendant. Where a flight attendant has the responsibility of stopping or pausing dangerous activities (at least until concerns can be addressed), so too does he have the role of health and safety officer in his community. Similarly, where a flight attendant assists passengers, so too does he assist his community in their comfort and enjoyment of the journey they are on together (as long as he is capable and willing to do so, and even sometimes when he’s not quite willing, because of the commitment he has made to this job). He was also aware of how a flight attendant could offer certain amenities they thought might make the journey more pleasant, yet he wanted to keep in mind that if he offered too much assistance, it might start to feel unhelpful and like a denial of the young people’s autonomy.

Note: In between the interviews and publication, Sifaan now prefers a different self-conceptualization based on child rights that gives him more structural support, as well as legitimacy, and furthermore removes the burden of “being qualified” (which is both possible and essential in a role that is subject to a lot of regulation and standardization; but is less helpful in education).

Besides the task of being a health and safety officer and offering assistance to the young people in a space, such as Sifaan mentioned above, what other roles does an SDE facilitator typically perform? The answer can depend on the size of the SDE center in which they work. In smaller centers, facilitators may be asked to do more administrative tasks besides their other youth interaction duties. The list is compiled from survey answers from current SDE facilitators, folks in charge of hiring facilitators, and looking at facilitator job postings. Farther down, I will explore more in-depth certain factors that seem to be central to the role.

SDE centers may look for someone who is open and willing to:

Oversee health and safety, general supervision, and support
Plan, organize and lead offerings and field trips
Play and have fun, especially without an agenda
Build relationships and connections
Model lifelong learning, curiosity, inquisitiveness, passion
Model self-regulation skills and self-care
Provide emotional support and model expressing emotions in a respectful way
Process feelings about uncomfortable events with other people
Introduce youth to a variety of experiences
Advocate for the youth and encourage them to advocate for themselves
Focus on process instead of product
Support conflict resolution and group decision-making
Listen non-judgmentally
Understand that children communicate in more ways than just verbally
Support new youth members in navigating the center and help them integrate into the community
Maintain the environment, including cleaning, organizing, or acquiring materials and supplies
Fundraise
Potentially do some administrative tasks
Communicate with family members, and other facilitators
Network with wider community members about the center and SDE philosophy to open up new opportunities
Do some inner work, such as related to deschooling, anti-adultism, decolonization, anti-racism
Take accountability and feedback, as appropriate
Engage in professional and personal development
Trust kids
Be trustworthy, responsible, and reliable
Be consent-based
Be flexible and adaptive
Be financially creative
Be self-motivated
Be organized
Be honest, authentic, and transparent
Be respectful, kind, compassionate, and empathetic
Be humble and open to not always having an answer
Be aware of their limitations and able to ask for help
Be attuned to their own and other people’s needs

For someone considering becoming an SDE facilitator, it could be important to look at what is expected of the specific role they are applying to and how much that aligns with their strengths and capacity. Tomis Parker, ALC Mosaic, cautions about burnout and centers that may ask facilitators to fulfill too many roles, “Each SDE community should look at all the different work that is within the scope of their program and make sure it is explicit so you can find facilitators that are able to fill these wide ranging needs while still operating within their natural strengths. You will burn out very fast if you’re wearing too many hats (especially if they don’t easily fit you) and the community as a whole will struggle to create and maintain a healthy and joyful culture if too many people are being asked to fulfill facets of SDE facilitation that they’re not good at or don’t enjoy.”

Let’s take a closer look at the key factors associated with being an SDE facilitator.

More Than “Just a Job”

The one thing that stood out to me across many of the survey answers was the fact that a lot of facilitators think of this as more than “just a job.” Cassidy Younghans, Wild Roots Learning Community, shared what she thinks about being a facilitator, “It is HEART work that asks more of you than any other job will because it’s not just a job. It’s being the most conscious, intentional, authentic version of yourself in space with young people where they also get the space to be in their fullest expression. You will need to continue to grow and transform all the time in order to thrive and help kids thrive in this type of environment. There is no model, no perfect right answers that will guide you besides having an open heart and knowing you will need to look inward, and surrounding yourself with a solid team willing to do the same.”

Rubén Darío, who supports several Agile Learning Centers, talked about the importance of living one’s values in this work, “You need to love this in order to succeed. Long term, you need to really, really love this because this work demands presence in many ways. We facilitate and lead by inspiration, by modeling. That demands the embodiment of values and doesn’t stop. It doesn’t stop when you talk. It doesn’t stop when you eat. It doesn’t stop when you go to the bathroom. It doesn’t stop. It doesn’t stop. You really have to love liberation work because it brings a lot of fun opportunities of growth and evolution.”

In this way, it’s important to note that an SDE facilitator is essentially always a role model. For this reason, I did not separate that into its own section, as it applies to all of these areas.

Relationship Skills

Many of the survey participants named building relationships and connections with young people and community members as an integral part of being an SDE facilitator. SDE centers are looking for someone who can be respectful, honest, and authentic in their relationships with people of any age. Personally, I believe this is the most complex piece, especially if one considers the diversity of beliefs and experiences that come together in a center. I’ve found both the Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication workbook by Meenadchi and attending The Shift: Deschooling Intensive with Becka Koritz and Sari Gonzalez, Radical Learning, to be invaluable resources that helped expand my understanding of how people relate to each other. Meenadchi writes that there are a set of universal human needs, such as water, sustenance, creativity, and acceptance. All humans work to fulfill those needs. Conflict occurs not at the level of our needs, but in the strategy we use to fulfill our needs. The more we are aware of how we are trying to meet our needs, the more we can be in alignment with our values and how we want to relate to each other (2021).

Where conventional educators sometimes use rewards and sanctions in their relationships with young people, SDE facilitators typically don’t use control or coercion to exact certain behaviors. SDE facilitators often rely on their authentic relationships with young people to support them through communication and conflict. This might include modeling behaviors, sticking with them through hardships, and utilizing other attachment and connection tools.

Relationship skills are made up of these and several other factors that I will expand on below– communication, nonjudgmental listening, trusting kids, personal accountability, inner work, consent, conflict engagement, working with uncertainty, play, and youth empowerment.

Communication Skills

Communication is another important skill needed for someone who wants to be an SDE facilitator. It can be helpful to know there are different types of communication and communication styles. Leif Schmit, Village Free School, said that great SDE facilitators tend to understand that “children communicate [their feedback] in more ways than just saying what they need.” It can be helpful to be in touch with one’s own needs and able to express those to others. One situation where communication can be tricky is when working with children who have PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance, also known as, Pervasive Drive for Autonomy) or other neurological differences. In those cases, there are resources available to help a facilitator be more intentional about their word choices and how they phrase requests.

Nonjudgmental Listening

It seems important that SDE facilitators move away from judgment and criticism, and strive toward asking questions in order to understand what other people are experiencing. This means, recognizing when they might have implicit biases and working to set those aside. Michelle Hunt, Sunset Sudbury School, said “It’s important to be comfortable being equal with children– not above them. Having the belief that everything is a learning experience. Be comfortable not judging student’s activities as educational or non-educational. As Sudbury staff we believe that every endeavor is educational. The students in this philosophy can only really excel when they aren’t judged.”

Trusting Kids

As straightforward as “trust kids” sounds, it can be difficult in practice, especially if one didn’t experience being trusted or feeling trustworthy in their childhood. Spencer Babcock, Rock Tree Sky, said, “SDE requires a fundamental trust in the inherent capacity of young people. A facilitator who lacks trust in the natural learning process or doubts the efficacy of self-directed learning may inadvertently undermine learners’ confidence and motivation.”

Personal Accountability

Reliable and Trustworthy

Another factor to consider at smaller SDE centers is that one’s presence is highly valued, they aren’t just one in a nameless thousand. The flip side of that is any absence is keenly felt by both the young people who want stability and predictability, and the other staff/facilitators who might have to pick up any extra duties in their absence. In this regard, being reliable and trustworthy are extra important.

Self-Motivated

Several centers mentioned looking for people who are self-motivated — someone who sees something that needs to be done and does it. This is especially helpful for simple tasks around the space, or tasks that are easily undone if there was missing information.

Personal Responsibility

Another element of personal accountability is the willingness to take responsibility for one’s actions. A lot of centers named conflict resolution and restorative justice as important to the health of their community. Is a facilitator willing to work through conflict? Are they able to see the impact of their actions and work towards repair?

Inner Work (Deschooling, Decolonization, etc)

Those who came from a conventional school upbringing or pursued a teaching degree could have a generous amount of inner work to do. This is typically called, deschooling, where one works to unlearn some of the harmful ways of interacting with young people that they’ve been taught potentially since birth. A lot of SDE centers also focus on decolonization, anti-adultism, anti-racism, anti-ableism, and more. According to Sifaan Zavahir, Kinder Republic, “I see this all as the struggle to realize human rights and dignity – whether that’s adultism, racism, patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism, ableism, etc: it’s all connected, perpetuated by a foisted coercive education that is a tool of all hegemonies and a hegemony in itself. The struggle for self-direction in education is an integral part of the struggle for freedom from oppression.”

Consent-based

Several survey participants mentioned various aspects of consent — having a choice, taking no for an answer, and realizing the difference between a request and a demand. One of the core aspects of SDE (as opposed to compulsory schooling) is choosing what one wants to learn and do, therefore, it makes sense that understanding consent would be an important aspect of being an SDE facilitator.

Conflict Engagement

Another big challenge is interpersonal conflict. Conflict is a fact of life, but many of us did not learn relationship-centered ways of working through it. Bria Bloom, Flying Squads Portland, said, “Conflict is hard. I mean, it just is. Especially as a group moving around in space, and with people with differing comfort levels with one another and varying experiences and all of that. I am amazed at their advocacy for themselves, but it can be hard to know how to approach certain conflicts when they happen quickly at a checkout counter, or something like that. It’s harder to say hey, let’s pause and talk this out, in public spaces while moving through.”

Annie Friday, formerly Blue Bridge ALC, mentioned that conflict in an SDE community can be even more challenging than in a conventional educational space. Typically, SDE centers don’t use punitive measures when young people are showing challenging behaviors. This is where it can be difficult as a facilitator to know what to do, “because we all love kids but how do you handle it when a kid loses it and throws a chair across the room?”

Facilitators are often liaisons between the SDE space, caregivers, and other community members. When caregivers are acting from their fears and anxieties, it can take a lot of emotional labor to figure out a way forward. Facing conflict is a main aspect of being an SDE facilitator. It can be especially important then, for someone considering this role to reflect on their relationship with conflict and whether they have the capacity to navigate it constantly.

Working with Uncertainty

It seems that several SDE facilitators struggle with not knowing how or when to help young people, especially those who might be working through mental health struggles, neurological differences, issues with deschooling, conflict, or other universal human struggles. Joel Hammon, Princeton Learning Cooperative, said their facilitator’s general default mode is to let people be because they feel that a core principle for their center is having a choice. The challenge comes when people get stuck in a rut that they can’t get themselves out of. It can be hard to know if or when to step in with more support, even if it’s not being asked for.

Honestly, I think this is a struggle that translates across many relationships – parent/child, friends, colleagues, mentor/mentee, and many others. It is especially tricky when one considers different power dynamics. How does one delicately support another while still respecting their autonomy?

Play

Play is an important part of being an SDE facilitator. It is one way to foster relationships between people. Marc-Alexandre Prud’homme, Mont-Libre: Centre éducatif agile in Montreal, mentioned that their center uses play as a way to connect with the kids to build a trusting, secure relationship which, in turn, helps them connect to their emotions.

Youth Empowerment

An SDE facilitator’s goal is often to empower young people, which can happen through choice. Dominique Paloma Bible, Off Da Beaten Path Learning LLC, said, “My purpose is to spread choice far and wide, and to help people realize their own power to enable positive change in their lives and in the world.” It’s important for SDE facilitators to question power dynamics and to recognize that all people are born innately holding their own power. Part of reflecting on this is to pay attention to where facilitators are taking power away from the children and where are they able to not impede the children’s expression of power over their lives.

Administrative Skills (optional)

SDE centers vary in how many facilitators/staff they employ. This could be an important factor to consider, as some of the smaller centers rely on their facilitators to perform many tasks and fill roles that one might not necessarily consider part of “being a facilitator.” Amy Damant, Celebrate Learning, and, Joel Hammon, Princeton Learning Cooperative, both mentioned that when considering applicants they tend to look for people who have administrative skills.

Passions, interests, hobbies

It makes sense that SDE centers would want to employ people who love to learn. When interactions between people are fueled by a genuine love of the topic or the desire to share something fascinating, the interaction and relationship will feel different from a relationship that is built on a hidden agenda or trying to force a “teaching moment.” In this regard, it can be important that SDE facilitators have passions, interests, and hobbies that they want to share (as long as the other people are also interested and willing to listen). Some SDE centers will consider what their current staff already have covered and what new talents and passions might fill in some of their collective gaps.

Safety Holder

SDE facilitators are generally the people who make sure that everyone stays safe while in their care. Obviously, anyone at a center can also fill this role, but this is mainly the role of the facilitator/staff. There are at least two areas of safety to consider, physical and emotional. According to Joel Hammon, Princeton Learning Cooperative, a lot of the kids at their center had a hard time in conventional school. Then, when they came to the Princeton Learning Cooperative, they inevitably brought their mental health struggles with them. As a facilitator, it’s not always clear or obvious what to do to help them. If a facilitator is responsible for being a safety holder and doesn’t have enough knowledge, some outside training may be needed, such as a mental health first aid course or other safety training like a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) course.

Financial Situation

Interestingly to me, only one contributor mentioned anything related to personal finances. They said that financial independence was a factor that has helped them succeed long-term as an SDE facilitator. This is important for potential facilitators to keep in mind. Even though most of the people surveyed became facilitators because they were passionate about this type of lifework and find it deeply meaningful, bills are a part of life and should be taken into account when considering working at an SDE center.

I analyzed nine recent U.S.-based SDE facilitator job postings to see what compensation was being offered. The average compensation was about $23/hour (about half were full-time), only one mentioned some health care benefits. The lowest was $15/hour in North Carolina and the highest was $36/hour in California.

Challenges a Facilitator May Face

Alison Snieckus, Raritan Learning Cooperative, said, “Although it can be hard at times for lots of reasons, e.g., we are doing something radically different in a world where most people are defined by school, it is often fabulously fun!” Here are things other SDE facilitators find challenging about this role:

Staying consistent
Being uncomfortable with uncertainty
Feeling like an impostor
Building a culture around conflict and dealing with conflicts
Dealing with larger issues (theft, drugs, etc)
Having many coworkers who leave (high turnover rate)
Insecurities (both their own and other people’s)
Schoolishness
The amount of emotional labor required
Holding personal boundaries
Letting go of expectations
Perfectionism
Limited financial resources
How to talk about tough things like the big crises that are happening in the world right now
Addressing harm in the community
Working with difficult parents

Difficult Parents

I decided to give parents their own section because I think the fantasy version of being an SDE facilitator might include only working things out with young people. The reality is that parents are a giant part of the puzzle, whether they are physically in the space or the more invisible counterpart– the way their children bring their parent’s beliefs into the space. The biggest challenges related to parents are when they center the needs and comfort of their own children, project their insecurities onto the facilitators, try to exert control, or don’t want to listen. It can be a hard part of the job to hold the collective community’s needs in the face of such pushback, criticism, and individualism.

Best Parts of Being an SDE Facilitator

As hard as it is being an SDE facilitator, there are plenty of things that make it worthwhile. Some of the best parts of the job are:

The connections and relationships facilitators have with their coworkers and the kids
The things they learn every day from all different types of people
The ways they grow and are challenged
How inspired they feel
The impact they have and seeing the kids grow
Playing with the kids and seeing them happy

I just want to acknowledge that the size of this section doesn’t necessarily reflect the size of the impact of each of the items listed above.

Getting Hired as an SDE Facilitator

Ok, now that we’ve explored more in-depth some of the main aspects of working as an SDE facilitator, here are some more practical suggestions about actually getting a facilitator job.

Skills and Experiences Sought

Depending on what role they are trying to fill, some centers look for people who already have some type of experience working with young people, such as a coach, teacher, or social worker. For other centers, they are looking for people who are passionate about self-directed education, and youth rights. Several centers said that they are looking for diversity among their staff, meaning that they look at what ages, ethnicities, experiences, passions, gender, skills, and more that their staff represent and then they look for someone who might fill in some of the gaps. This means it could be important for a facilitator to ask why they didn’t get the job, as this could uncover whether it’s something they could improve on vs circumstances outside of their control.

Many Paths to Becoming an SDE Facilitator

Several of the facilitators that I surveyed came from some sort of conventional educational approach to working with young people. It makes sense to me that this would be one path to finding Self-Directed Education since a lot of people who start in education care about and want to work with children. Once they are in the conventional system though, it can be hard to reconcile some of their values with the role they must play as a teacher. Yet, it doesn’t seem as if education is the only route to becoming an SDE facilitator. Here’s a list of other paths current SDE facilitators took:

Professional clarinetist
Kids soccer coach
Artist and Construction worker
Marketing specialist and Community organizer
Engineer
Worked for a major testing organization
Became a parent and knew they didn’t want to send their child to conventional school

Several centers mentioned that they didn’t care what a potential candidate did previously as long as they were willing to learn new ways of thinking about learning, had something they could share with others, and respected the young people at the space.

SDE centers have a lot of commonalities, but can also be very different. There’s a saying among the Agile Learning Network community that goes, “If you’ve seen one ALC, you’ve seen one ALC,” meaning that they are all different. I’m highlighting this here because as much as I’m trying to give some generalities, one has to consult the individual organization they want to join to get more specifics.

One difference among SDE centers is whether they mind hiring former conventional educators or not. Crystal Farmer, Gastonia Freedom School, said, “We seek all backgrounds and experience. We specifically want people who have experience supporting the freedom of children while having boundaries and the authority to make decisions when needed. I avoid traditional classroom teachers and people who are focused on ABA/aversive methods of working with children.”

Ultimately, people’s past experiences tend to shape their future actions. Catina Franklin Sweedy, Embark Center for Self-Directed Education, reflected on how her experience as a music student influenced how she wanted to relate to young people going forward, “My mentor teachers met me where I was and helped me meet my goals on a very personal and individual basis. When I became a clarinet teacher, I strived to be the same kind of mentor for my students. I also learned how I didn’t want to be as an adult in young people’s lives witnessing how some teachers treated young people and how oppressive school is.”

Former Conventional Educators

For those who went for a degree in education but eventually switched to SDE facilitation, the main challenges they faced were:

Insecurities and fears around doing enough, being enough, and worrying what the parents thought
Figuring out how to address conflict in a healthier way
Working through guilt about any harm they may have caused in their past
Struggling with their desire to control and/or “save” kids
Less access to resources than in a conventional educational setting
Having to make their own choices without a greater system or administration to blame
Being flexible and adaptable based on changing needs in each situation

Here are some resources that former conventional educators said helped them transition to SDE:

The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives by William Stixrud and Ned Johnson
Working with young people and realizing how hard it is to fix the system from within
Interning in a self-directed space
Alfie Kohn’s writing
John Taylor Gatto’s writing
Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO)
Summerhill School: A New View of Childhood by A.S. Neill
Having children and not wanting to go through the public school system

Signs Being an SDE Facilitator May Not Be A Good Fit

Below is a compiled list of potential red flags or signs that a person might not be a good fit as an SDE facilitator. Not all centers will consider these dealbreakers.

Not caring about young people’s choices and voices
Speaking about children in a demeaning way
Being unreliable
Blaming others/circumstances or not taking any accountability
Not knowing much about SDE
Poor collaboration skills
Pointing out faults in others as a way of dealing with their own insecurities
Controlling tendencies
Performativeness
Having subtle disdain for kids
Not understanding the difference between a request and a demand
Having a sense of superiority over young people
Unwillingness to engage in conflict resolution
Not having engaged with any deschooling work, especially if coming from a conventional educator background
Yelling
Having rigid ideas of what kids should and should not do
Defaulting to judgment instead of curiosity
Focusing only on changing behaviors without looking deeper at the needs trying to be met
Focusing on measuring, evalutating and assessing learning (related to fear of being behind)
Focusing on progress and success
Not having any good relationships with young people (other than their children)
Defensiveness
Focusing on curriculum
Authoritarian mindset
Resistance to young people being in control of their lives and learning
Lack of empathy or compassion
Trouble with being flexible and adaptive
Micromanaging others, especially young people
Close-mindedness
Poor communication skills
Resistance to professional development or personal growth
Lack of enthusiasm or passion
Lack of understanding the philosophy, mission, and values of the center they are applying to
Only applying because their children attend the center

Note to Parents Whose Children Attend the Center

Some SDE centers are fine with hiring parents whose children attend the center and some are not. Nancy Tilton, ALC Mosaic, said, “It can work to have staff that are parents of children at our ALC, generally, this works out best if the parent was in the field of education or working with children prior to having their own children.”

If the only motivation for a parent to become a facilitator is that their children go to the SDE school, that could leave everyone in a difficult position if the children’s needs or desires change. One way to care for everyone in the community could be for a potential parent facilitator to really consider their needs and what they would do if such a situation were to occur. For a parent to be able to work alongside their own child, special considerations should be made to ensure it works for the parent, the child, and the community.

Where to Find Jobs

One place to start a job hunt is in the Job Postings section of The Alliance for Self-Directed Education’s Resource Directory or the Jobs Postings page on The Alternative Education Resource Organization’s (AERO) website. Typically, April and May yield more job opportunities than other times of the year. This usually lines up with the end of a school year when centers start thinking about filling in their staff for the coming year.

Another approach for finding a job is to check the SDE Map to see where SDE centers are located, then checking their website or social media to see if they have any job openings. If nothing is posted, it could still be worth sending them a message to ask if they know of any openings that are coming. This can also help a potential candidate establish a relationship with the folks at the center.

Based on my interpretation of the answers from hiring folks, one route to getting hired as an SDE facilitator would be for a potential candidate to host an offering at the SDE center where they want to work. This can help them experience what it’s like to be at the center and how it feels to be in the space. It will give them a sense of how easily they’re able to relate to the people there (it might not be quite what they are expecting). It can also give the staff and/or other facilitators a chance to get to know them.

One last idea if none of those options fit what a person is looking for, is to consider starting their own SDE center or Flying Squads group. Starting a center has a lot of non-facilitator type of tasks related to it, so that might not be the best route for everyone. Starting a Flying Squads group tends to be more facilitator-focused, but does still require some administrative and outreach tasks. It’s important for a person to think through what they are wanting and really evaluate whether opening a center will fulfill that for them. Most center founders would gladly talk to and share their experiences with others who are considering a similar path, so a person could consider reaching out to a center they’d love to emulate to hear how the experience is for the founders.

Conclusion

I’m hopeful that this article gives readers more clarity on the wonderfully, complicated, magically challenging experience of being an SDE facilitator and whether they would be a good fit for the role or not. Justine McConville, Village Free School, described what being an SDE facilitator means to her, “It’s a very special job, and very rare. We are creators, intuitive problem solvers, dreamers, visionaries, soulful, caring people at the cutting edge of alternative education and youth liberation. There is no instruction manual for what we are doing in the landscape of late-stage capitalism. We look to the wisdom of our shared ancestry as human beings to lean into the natural and healthful ways to relate to learning and to one another in community. We are co-creating and investing deeply into this community with the kids (and sometimes other members of the families). We are not usually paid enough, and often our time is fraught with epic amounts of emotional labor. Holding personal and professional boundaries and doing deep self-care with supportive co-workers who share in this dream and these values makes it all possible. Seeing our kids happy, healing, and thriving makes it all worth it.”

Article Contributors:

in alphabetical order

Alison Snieckus, Raritan Learning Cooperative
Amy Damant, Celebrate Learning
Andrea Cubelo-McKay, Embark Center for Self-Directed Education
Annie Friday, formerly Blue Bridge ALC
Bria Bloom, Flying Squads Portland
Cassidy Younghans, Wild Roots Learning Community
Catina Franklin Sweedy, Embark Center for Self-Directed Education
Crystal Farmer, Gastonia Freedom School
Dominique Paloma Bible, Off Da Beaten Path Learning LLC
Joel Hammon, Princeton Learning Cooperative
Justine McConville, Village Free School
Leif Schmit, Village Free School
Marc-Alexandre Prud’homme, Mont-Libre: Centre éducatif agile
Michelle Hunt, Sunset Sudbury School
Nancy Tilton, ALC Mosaic
Oxana Ostrovskaya, Luminary Learning Village
Rubén Darío, supports several Agile Learning Centers
Sifaan Zavahir, Kinder Republic
Spencer Babcock, Rock Tree Sky
Tomis Parker, ALC Mosaic

If you did not get a chance to contribute to this article and have a perspective or resource that you feel is missing, feel free to email janice@self-directed.org.