As some may know, I recently started writing a book titled "School Sucks so Start Your Own." The book describes how young people can take their educational destiny into their own hands by starting their own self-directed learning communities in their areas.
In the fall and spring, I ran workshops at libraries and other venues discussing the ideas in the book (which is currently being edited) for teens around New England. Upon their request, I decided to post a video from the workshop I ran on my birthday at MIT as part of their Spark! program.
If you want an early preview of the book-in-progress, Contact Me, and I'll share a link to the Google Drive doc. If you have further questions about self-directed learning, I suggest you contact some of the youth directly who practice this methodology via the Peer Unschooling Network.
Some of the feedback from the kids who have attended these workshops:
I found this workshop to be very inspirational. I related a lot to the issues discussed about school. I had never seriously thought of dropping out of school until after this talk and I found it very helpful. I have talked with my parents and I will most likely be dropping out of public school after I finish sophomore year to pursue unshooling.
- Lilah, 15 year old from California
I really enjoyed the talk. It helped me see that people actually do unschooling and peerschooling and it seems like a real option now. I feel like I learned a lot and it was motivating to have someone know a lot about it and have them tell me how it works and how many options there are and it was just really cool. I don't think I'm leaving my school, but it's nice to know there is an option even if I don't take it. The talk was really cool and you don't seem like a teacher, you're just talking. It was cool.
- Kate, 16 year old from Massachusetts