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Hi, I’m Annie Friday, the current Editor-in-Chief of Tipping Points Magazine. I am passionate about self-directed education being an inherent part of our time on this planet as well as Self-Directed Education (SDE) as the best schooling option for families and young people. I am an SDE parent, a former educator in conventional settings, previous administrator at an SDE center, and in what feels like a lifetime ago, a journalism student.

I started teaching 22 years ago, and even though I knew very little about Self-Directed Education, the youth rights movement, and unschooling, I knew in my bones that the way that adults were in relationship with children was wrong. This shaped my path as an educator. I fell in love with early childhood education and care because care and play remained integral components to any pedagogy. This then led me to working to create a more equitable society through public schools before eventually making my way through progressive education, and finally into the world of SDE. I first became a volunteer for the Alliance for Self-Directed Education (ASDE) because I had been reliant on the organization in my early years of unschooling. When I got questions from others and felt doubts bubble up from within myself about what the heck I was doing with my kids, I connected with the voices, stories, and experience shared through ASDE and through Tipping Points, specifically. My fears were eased with anecdotes, care, research, reminders, and awareness. For that, I have been grateful and grounded in our choice.

My birthday is at the end of August and I’ve started joking that back-to-school season has ruined my birthday. When I was a kid growing up in the 80s and 90s, maybe I got a couple new notebooks, some colored pencils, and a box of tissues or two for the classroom, but it wasn’t an entire season that begins the day after summer break starts. Going back to school was just something that happened. We didn’t even take a front door photo to mark the First Day of School holiday. This year, the intensity of the early push of back-to-school had me reflecting on how important those stories and articles in Tipping Points really have been for me in tuning out the loud clanging of the societal school bell.

My family’s experience with SDE has meant that my kids have chosen to participate in a variety of programs along the way that have helped them to find their own interests, build their confidence, and connect with other wonderful humans. Even though we’ve been at this for years now, there are still times when I need bolstering. Tipping Points Magazine is meant to help us see ourselves in the stories shared here or get a peek into somebody else’s world. Tipping Points is meant to serve as a tool to build awareness about youth oppression, the damage of coercive schooling, and the ways we can get out of this mess. A tipping point is the moment in a culture at which so many people believe something to be true that they get behind it, not only in theory but in practice, and a critical shift happens. With the building momentum of the movement, I believe that one day we will achieve this tipping point and shift how the world views learning and that systems of schooling will experience true change globally.

Tipping Points runs on volunteer submissions from around the world. These contributions are crafted into publication-ready pieces by a team of volunteer editors who work collaboratively with contributing writers. As those of us in the SDE movement know well, there are many divergent ways of thinking about this world. By sharing our vision as well as our experience, we can create a cohesive understanding of the myriad paths of accepting that living is learning.

Consider this your invitation to share submissions from your corner of the world, regardless of who you are, your age, level of writing experience, or where you come from. Your story is part of the fabric that makes up SDE. This past year, we published articles from South Africa, Mexico, Sweden, Slovenia, the US. We heard from voices in rural communities, urban communities, those engaging in SDE communities online and those in person, too. A range of topics was covered including deschooling, equity, access, and accountability. We will continue to publish a variety of stories from a variety of sources in hopes that everyone can see how Tipping Points can be both a mirror and a window into the lives of SDE practitioners everywhere.

Topics of interest for Tipping Points readers include stories of what SDE has brought to your life; tales of practicing SDE in communities like co-ops, learning centers, and other shared spaces; experiences of challenges and barriers to SDE; examples of creative solutions to access SDE; and the research, statistics, and data being actively gathered on SDE. Upcoming articles this fall will cover topics of dyslexia in SDE settings, shared power and control, deschooling, and poetry written by unschooled youth.

I also invite you to share your feedback regarding Tipping Points with us. It is valuable to hear from you on what feels resonant, unfamiliar, or discordant with your own experience. It’s valuable to hear the topics you want to learn more about or connect deeper to. It is important to me as the editor to make sure we are covering what SDE looks like globally. There seems to be a general misconception out in the world that unschooling is only for the privileged, and even more specifically that it is yet again another opportunity to hoard in order to further improve only the individual unschooler’s position in life. It is important to acknowledge that this type of individualistic mindset does exist in unschooling spaces and is typically rooted in white supremacy. I see ASDE as an organization to reclaim unschooling as something that is deeply rooted in human tradition and a choice that should be accessible to all. From my personal experience moving in ASDE-led spaces, I have found that the majority of us participating here see SDE as a pathway to collective liberation. My hope as editor is that Tipping Points is a place to share stories and learn from each other in order to create more access, remove barriers, and strengthen the connections among us. I feel especially compelled to center, elevate, and amplify the stories of youth and the global majority as they are the groups most systematically kept from having the power to choose how they direct their own education.

Another reason I love this editing job is because I am a word nerd who loves to watch language evolve with use over time. The overnight speed at which two numbers like six and seven suddenly become a secret language not meant for adults to understand truly delights me! One of the first lessons I learned through Tipping Points was the importance of language in this movement. For instance, at ASDE we prefer the term “conventional school” rather than “traditional school” when speaking about schools to acknowledge and honor the fact that SDE lifestyles are not new but rather part of the tradition of Indigenous cultures who have lifted up children in community by fostering their growth and development through storytelling, game playing, and hands-on experiences for thousands of years. In my early SDE days, I found myself nervous to say the wrong thing or use the incorrect term. As I gained comfort and experience in the practice, I remained hesitant at times to use strong language that calls out the exposure to harm that is inherent to conventional school systems for fear of alienating those new to the movement. For example, some may find that terms like “oppression” and “youth rights” might come on too strongly to those just leaving the system behind. However, I now realize why it is important to use those words even if they might feel heavy. The language can unite us. By using honest language, even the kind that stirs up discomfort within us, we name the harm for what it is. We force ourselves to face it, sit with it, and process through it in order to carry ourselves into a new world without oppressive schooling. Exploring SDE through shared terms is vital to our ever-evolving, collective understanding.

We embrace our social responsibility to break the conventional hierarchy of power over young people in order to blend that traditional way of life into modern society. By choosing SDE, we are all, on some level, taking a risk and stepping outside of societal norms to recognize that young people are fully human and fully capable of directing their education. Tipping Points is here to remind us that we are doing this together. All over the world, we are doing this together, and through sharing these stories we can create a space for each other to find comfort and power to continue challenging the toxic, widely accepted norms. If writing, creating media (audio, visual, or other!), or editing for Tipping Points piques your curiosity, reach out or find the submissions application here. Thank you for reading and sharing.

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