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.
2019-02-28Educare, Educere, Explorare
Discussing the etymology of the word, “education,” arguing that it is problematic, and suggesting a different word as the foundation for a philosophy of learning.
2019-02-14Racial Equity in Self-Directed Education
A transcript of the panelists at the Heartwood ALC Liberation & Education Summit 2019.
2019-02-14Redefining Respect, Part Two
Respect has the consensus of being important, so why are adults yanking it away from our children? Follow me, an unschooler with strong opinions, as I use a short audio series to deconstruct the concept of respect, replacing conventional ideas with a more unschooled perspective.
2019-02-07Todo lo que se necesita son las condiciones apropiadas
Nos hemos alejado tanto de la naturaleza, que no logramos ver la perfección en cada niño. Tan alejados estamos de poder reconocer su innata sabiduría.
2019-01-31Redefining Respect, Part One
Respect has the consensus of being important, so why are adults yanking it away from our children? Follow me, an unschooler with strong opinions, as I use a short audio series to deconstruct the concept of respect, replacing conventional ideas with a more unschooled perspective.
2019-01-24In the Moment: Managing Conflict at North Star
“I just want to know the rule. Can we play the guitar in the common room or not?”
2019-01-17Ours First
Have non-White families even considered this fascinating new way of educating?
2019-01-10The Only Right Way to Learn is Freely
One family’s journey of going through various methods of education, including from one method of Self-Directed Education to another.
2019-01-03Day 50 – Back to the Roots
It all starts with Trust.
2018-12-20Back Home: self-directed learning in fiction
Most children’s books reinforce the hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling. Back Home by Michelle Magorian is an exception, with the heroine Rusty ending up at an early democratic school which is presented as a common sense and humane approach to education.
2018-12-12What Are You Up To?
The weekly routine in the wonderful life of an Agile Learning Facilitator.
2018-12-06Change up Change Up
How new perspectives brought about empathy at an Agile Learning Center.
2018-12-06Agile Learning Centers, Liberated Learners, and Sudbury Schools: What’s the Difference?
An exploration of three popular models for supporting self-directed learners.
2018-11-29Schooling’s Assault on Young Anti-Authoritarians
In this excerpt from Resisting Illegitimate Authority, Bruce E. Levine surveys the means by which conventional schooling punishes anti-authoritarian impulses and primes children for conformity.
2018-11-26Self Directed Stories: Unschooling in China
Iris Chen, author of the blog Untigering, shares about her family’s SDE journey, #SelfDirectedStories
2018-11-21¿Controlar o confiar?
Nuestra falta de confianza en los niños genera la necesidad de controlarlos a ellos y lo que aprenden, cómo y cuándo. Rebecka Koritz explica su punto de vista.
2018-11-16Role for Initiative
An examination of role playing games as a microcosm of healthy Self-Directed Education environments
2018-11-12The Unschooled Engineer
How a teenager who has been unschooling can begin preparation for academic study of STEM.
2018-11-04John Taylor Gatto In Memoriam for ASDE
John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) was an award-winning schoolteacher and author whose public embrace of Self-Directed Education in the 1990s shocked many educators and motivated many […]
2018-11-02What Makes a School Successful: Are the Kids Happy?
Young people are happier at Sudbury than the students in conventional schools because of three important aspects of the Sudbury model. Sudbury provides a place of happiness by removing arbitrary stresses, by allowing students autonomy, and by giving space for true socialization.