Alexander Khost is a father and children's rights advocate. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Tipping Points and founder of Voice of the Children, promoting and facilitating art and activism for young people. He is also Vice President of Friends of the Modern School, supporting the history of anarchistic education, and he works at the homeschooling coop, Brooklyn Apple Academy. He previously founded the Teddy McArdle Free School, a democratic free school in New Jersey, and more recently he co-founded play:groundNYC, a junkyard playground for children on Governors Island in New York City.

2018-02-27Challenging Convention and Post-Secondary Education in America

Conventional wisdom says we all need to go to university, but is that really what’s best for everyone?

2018-02-20Making Sense of #metoo

Consent is a big part of what we do at Mont-Libre. But tackling an issue as sensitive as #metoo with teenage boys is still a challenge.

2018-02-06From Fear to Freedom

One family recounts their journey from an education based in fear, to an education based in trust.

2018-02-01The Children’s Civil Rights Movement

“Why are those teachers screaming at those kids?” my son James asked me, with a look of true shock and concern on his face. He […]

2018-01-30How Self-Directed Education Supports Children’s Mental Health

How a child’s personal attributes can be valued and fostered in one setting, and labeled a mental health disorder in another.

2018-01-17Deschooling in School

Part 1: Is it possible?

2018-01-09The Real Stuff

Authentic learning happens anytime, anywhere. Children have the natural ability to find real meaning in everyday experiences.

2017-11-16Our Road Trip: Visiting SDE Communities

Driving across North America, connecting SDE dots.

2017-11-16Choice Is An Illusion If Not Free

Students making free, self directed choices is a vital part of democratic education.

2017-11-16Personalized Learning for Two-Legged Walking[_]Computers

Behavior Modification Trumps Self-Directed Education

2017-11-16La Escuela Mata la Creatividad

“¡La diferencia es abismal!”: Rebecka Koritz nos comparte las observaciones hechas dentro de sus proyectos educativos sobre el nivel creativo de niños escolarizados y de niños desescolarizados.

2017-10-16The Power of Story

Encouraging homeschoolers, unschoolers, and those who attend alternative schools to change the world through personal narrative

2017-10-16SDE and the UNCRC Part 2: Education as ‘Compulsory’

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child enshrines the child’s right to an education that is child-friendly and empowering, and that enables the child to enjoy the full range of human rights. Yet, it also makes this ‘compulsory’. Is this the contradiction that it seems to be?

2017-10-16Unschooling In Class

College students gain first-hand insight into the intrigue of unschooling

2017-10-16Living With An Explorer

Like St. Exupery’s “The Little Prince,” my son, Jamie, surely fell to us from some small, distant planet where money doesn’t exist, no one suffers, […]

2017-09-18An Experiment in Schooling

Living in Costa Rica leads one unschooling family to examine the culture of institutionalized schooling.

2017-09-18JUAL is a Jewel of a Journal

Peter Gray Interviews Carlo Ricci, Founder and Editor of the Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning .

2017-09-18The Taming of the American Child

Micromanaging and making kids’ lives risk-free makes them unhappy and unhealthy, and it’s not good for the planet either. Parents can give kids their lives back by refocusing on their own, making everyone more well-adjusted and joyful.

2017-08-16The Key to Learning: Process vs Product in SDE

A beautiful real-life example of how life-learning, process-orientation and collaboration can trump lectures, product-orientation and competition.

2017-08-16Can Teens Self-Direct?

By preserving their innate autonomy, Self-Directed Education helps teens become confident, capable adults earlier than their schooled peers.