Tipping Points
March,  2024

The SDE Weekend 3: When Kids Want to go to Conventional School

“I think I want to try out conventional school.” This sentence can be alarming for those of us who are committed to an SDE and unschooling path. But there are many reasons young people might be compelled to try out school. Listen to this panel for an honest discussion about how this has come up in their family, reasons why young people might want to try out school, what the conversation is like when talking about joining school, and ways to navigate the school system when your SDE kid is in it.

The SDE Weekend 3: When Learning is “Invisible”

In this session, we talk about what education and learning can mean when we begin to see children as whole, complex, capable people. We discuss all the various ways young people learn and how reducing learning to something concrete and measurable strips it of the many ways it can happen and look like. We also talk about why it even matters to recognize learning, by discussing invisible learning as a way to push back on dominant narratives around children, education and learning.
Voice of the Children

My Unparenting

A poem about unparenting

The SDE Weekend 3: Holding creative space for self-directed learners

A workshop on the role storytelling can play in self-directed education and how we can support ourselves and others in creating and collaborating

The SDE Weekend 3: Pop Culture Positive: A human centered and positive approach to screen time

After having led many discussions on screen time, Brooklyn brings a different angle to this year’s SDE weekend, with a focus on the quality and values pop culture and screens bring to our lives. The idea of youth accessing popular media can be scary. Moving past the conventional; discussion of managing your youths’ time on screens, Brooklyn will explore how opening up to popular media brings a deeper world view for the whole family. How dissolving value judgments brings trust to our relationships with our youth and how to build media literacy and online safety into your family culture.
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Previous Stories

Differences Between Self-Directed and Progressive Education

Self-Directed Education, not progressive education, is the wave of the future.

The Transformative Power of Being Present: An Adult’s Role in Self-Directed Learning

In self-directed education, adults act as passion-driven role models, offering students silent invitations to explore diverse interests and showcasing alternative paths of learning and growth.

SDE Flash Fiction Collection

This is a collection of Flash Fiction (1,000 words or less) that was submitted to Tipping Points Magazine starting October 16, 2023.

The SDE Weekend 3: Consent, Kids + Cultivating Safety

Rosalia presented on the different aspects of body autonomy, boundaries, and consent. This foundational education is the basis for raising empowered children that understand their rights, but also the rights of others, and how this can create the robust and more effective transition to body safety education as the child develops.

The SDE Weekend 3: When Schoolishness Rises

How to recognize and process the thoughts and behaviors in educators, parents, and students that can compromise the integrity of your SDE practice

The SDE Weekend 3: When Both Parents Aren’t on Board

It is not uncommon for one parent to be all in (or mostly in!) on SDE, and for another to be skeptical or, sometimes, completely against it. This can be such a difficult situation, but one that many of us encounter. Listen to our panel discussion to hear the ways different families approach this and how it shows up for them.

The SDE Weekend 3: Things I’ve learned in 2 Years of Worldschooling

This is a presentation and discussion exploring the practice of intuitive family travel; an exploration ethic that aims to honor our internal navigation systems and create rich, fulfilling experiences for the whole family. Based on our 2+ years as a nomadic, unschooling family, I will discuss how we included our children in itinerary building, how our changing environments and landscapes shaped what and how we learned, as well as how our Worldschooling stories and strategies reverberate in our lives. We are engaging in embodied, environment-dependent learning even as we haven’t left our current home in a year! In the interest of including children in discussions about them, there will perhaps be some input on the day from my young people, should spirit move them to do so.

Joys of self-determined learning: An inspiring exploration of educational alternatives and unlimited possibilities

A book review for the 2022 collection of essays from Ricci and Riley: Joys of Self-Determined Learning

The SDE Weekend 3: How to end power struggles and build connection with kids

In this Radical Deschooling Chat, we’ll share why we adults so often engage in (and create!) power struggles with young people. We’ll dive deep into triggering moments and the underlying fears that spark them, and how changing our perspective of what’s happening can help us both change our attitude and language in order to build connection with the young humans in our lives. Are you ready to combat the adult supremist in you? Regardless if you’re a facilitator, running an ALC or a parent, if you’re an adult supporting youth – this offering is for you!

What I Believe Teens Really Deserve

How I came face-to-face with society’s (and my own) anti-teen biases

Self-Directed Education in Action

My observations and reflections on spontaneous self-directed learning, aka, play.

The SDE Weekend 3: New and New(ish) to SDE

Are you new, or semi-new, to Self-Directed Education (SDE)? In this session we chatted about what SDE is, the underlying values and optimizing conditions for SDE to flourish, the many and varied ways SDE can look in practice, and answered any questions participants had about Self-Directed Education, and the Alliance. Watch this recording if you are looking to learn more about SDE and how it shows up in the world.

The SDE Weekend 3: Starting a (Decolonized) SDE Center with Raj Kanani

Are you thinking about starting an SDE center or community, or have you recently started one? Is your child a part of an SDE collective? Are you just looking for inspiration? During this workshop, Raj shared the Liberated Kids journey from seed idea to reality. Participants had the chance to ask questions, break out into small groups to map out their next steps, and share their own seed ideas with the rest of the group.

The SDE Weekend 3: Flying Squad Panel Q&A

Flying Squads is a youth liberation and anti-oppression collective. We believe in the abolition of divided spaces between young people and the rest of their community. This means that Flying Squads step out of the classroom and off the playground and into public space as a form of youth activism. Listen to a group of flying squad youth and facilitators discuss the ins and outs of Flying Squads.

The SDE Weekend 3: How to be an SDE kid in a schoolish world

In this panel, Unschoolers will discuss their experiences and thoughts on growing up in a world that is often doubting, questioning, mistrusting, and making fun of young people who aren’t sitting in school all day. Navigating doubtful family members, comparing oneself to peers, and getting the most ignorant questions from new acquaintances, unschooling can often feel alienating in a world where school is the default. We’ll talk about how we deal with these issues, and oftentimes, just laugh it off.

From the Archive
The Self-Directed Bookworm

Hail the Almighty Diploma

On the undeniable power of credentials and what self-directed learners can do about it

The SDE Weekend 3: When Both Parents Aren’t on Board

It is not uncommon for one parent to be all in (or mostly in!) on SDE, and for another to be skeptical or, sometimes, completely against it. This can be such a difficult situation, but one that many of us encounter. Listen to our panel discussion to hear the ways different families approach this and how it shows up for them.

Unschooling and Democratic Education: A dysfunctional marriage?

One parent’s experience of having moved from unschooling to democratic education, the differences and similarities.
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Tipping Points Press

Books for Sale

Profit from these books goes to support ASDE and Tipping Points Press.

book cover Rigged
by Hazel Smack

Purchase

The first $8,000 of profits from these books by Peter Gray will be used as advances to publish the writing of Women of Color. Half of all proceeds there after will also be used as advances for Women of Color authors.