ASDE News

Self-Directed Education books, documentaries, and special projects

ASDE Board Member, Kerry McDonald, recently had a new book published, with a Foreword by ASDE’s Peter Gray. Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom blends the historical context of Self-Directed Education with modern research and real-life stories of individuals, families, and educators who are embracing a world without coercive schooling. Kerry will also be presenting on behalf of ASDE at this month’s AERO Conference in Portland, Oregon (see below for more information about the AERO Conference!)

Ken Danford, co-founder of North Star, has recently published a book called Learning is Natural, School is Optional. This book weaves together memoir and how-to to tell the story of North Star: Self-Directed Learning for Teens, which has provided support to hundreds of students over the past two decades. You can purchase the book on Ken’s new author website.

Jeremy Stuart, director of the popular homeschooling documentary Class Dismissed has a new film about to be released entitled Self-Taught: Life Stories from Self-Directed Learners. It will make its premiere screening at the AERO Conference in Portland, OR.

Through the stories of six extraordinary individuals, Self-Taught explores what self-directed education means to them and the impact it has had on their lives, ambitions, work, and beliefs.
Whether Artist, Scientist, or Entrepreneur, they all have one thing in common: their belief that true education is the capacity to author your own life instead of merely accepting the one you’ve been handed.

Find out more about the film here.
You can see the trailer here!

Alexander Khost and Özlem Arkun are working on a project to share the history of one of the oldest Self-Directed Education communities in the modern world. They will be editing and transcribing Alexis Ferm’s writing to make this important history documented and accessible to educators, children’s rights advocates, and historians. You can learn more and support their project here.

JP Green School is working on opening an adventure playground in New England! Opening day is June 29th. Come play and support them if you are in the area.

Other Events and Happenings

The Homeschooling Global Summit is a free event that will take place online from June 17th-29th. This event features many speakers who are involved in Self-Directed Education, including Pam Laricchia, Lainie Liberti, Jeremy Stuart, and ASDE’s own board members Pat Farenga and Peter Gray, and Managing Coordinator Bria Bloom.

Agile Learning Facilitator Summer trainings are filling up! There are over ten different ALF Summer events happening across the world. More information, as well as dates and locations of ALF Summers, can be found here.

There are several events about Self-Directed Education happening in Barcelona and Romania this Summer, including entrepreneurship camps for young people to pursue thier interests in a supportive, SDE-based community, and SDE facilitator trainings.

The Sudbury School of Atlanta is seeking volunteers to join its Board of Trustees. They embrace authenticity, diversity, self-expression, consent, democracy, and above all: respect for one another. The Board of Trustees supports School Meeting’s work and provides mission-based leadership and strategic governance. While day-to-day operations are led by School Meeting, the support of the board is essential for the development of the organization. They’re seeking volunteers interested in making a commitment to help grow a diverse and self-directed community. You can find more information about the school and the position here.

Unconferences, conferences, and gatherings

Rooted us, a youth liberation, anti-oppression unconference will be taking place in New York City on June 21st-23rd. The schedule just went up this past week and it looks incredible. Check it out and learn more about this wonderful unconference!

The AERO conference is coming up on June 26th-30th in Portland, OR. There will be a large presence of people involved in Self-Directed Education in a variety of ways, and there are numerous SDE offerings available. For more information on this conference, and to get a special discount code for ASDE members, check out this past newsletter.

The Education Transformation Jam will be held in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, on July 8th-14th. This gathering is a chance for education leaders and visionaries to connect, collaborate, and inspire one another to make change in the world. For more information and to apply to attend, check out their website.

There will be a Worldschooling & International Unschooling Family Retreat in Czech Republic on July 12th – 21st.

The IDEC-EUDEC conference in Ukraine is coming up on August 1st-9th. This conference is dedicated to Democratic Education and will feature various speakers sharing their knowledge and experience in Democratic Education, as well as many chances for the community to come together and connect.

Have another announcement or an SDE-related event going on in your community? Please share them on the forums under the News and Announcements section.

 

The online magazine from the Alliance for Self-Directed Education, designed to amplify and celebrate the voices of our movement.

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