Episode #3: Choice in Education – Living and Learning in Community

Most families find their children are happier and healthier when the place they spend their days is a good fit for who they are. For some children, this might be a public school. However, for many others, it isn’t. What learning opportunities already exist in our communities? How can home educating parents and other interested people collaborate with community spaces to offer even more? Could society itself use some deschooling? How might this play out for different families and even people across the lifespan and socioeconomic range, to really tap into opportunities for living and learning for all? Join us as we explore some thoughts, at least scratching the surface, about the possibilities of education that happens beyond a building. We discuss: How libraries are wonderful places, often offering more than people realize. Community spaces are still quite centered around the school schedule and the school year The benefit of spaces that include a few things such as a playground, sports area,  library, maker space, cafe and others The changing landscape of home education, from grass roots DIY homeschool groups to sometimes more of a ‘contracting out’ The potential difficulty with social exclusivity in homeschooling when the pool of families is too small That sometimes there is groundwork that needs to be done in homeschool connections to community spaces. There are benefits to the community doing the inviting, but also an importance to parents being instrumental. The loss of some overlap between new and experienced homeschool parents as a result of the pandemic as far as guiding and organizing The misunderstanding that developed about what home education is from so many children doing virtual school at home Supporting places such as sports and art classes and libraries to figure out what families are wanting, helping them to “deschool” what they offer and collaborating with grace and patience on both sides The way that societal expectations of standard paths and success don’t match what works for many people and what they are actually doing. When programs and places such as forest schools are open to hearing children’s ideas as well, great things can happen and the organizers learn oodles from the kids. Lifespan views – looking at how we accept freedom at various life stages, particularly the senior years Loosening our grip on how we see success on a whole lot of levels … would that change the way we think about earlier learning? Democratic schools, self-directed learning centres and private schools and how they fit well for some families and not as well for others The beauty of multi-age learning and interaction, and ways of making education spaces more family-informed Flexi schooling – where it’s worked and where it hasn’t.  How sometimes it’s easier to support our child in joining an existing volunteer opportunity than to try to start a new initiative How maybe we don't need to be so heavy with curating and setting up opportunities if kids have access to meaningful, purposeful work The possibility of extending more funding to community and family learning Resources Mentioned: Dr. Peter Gray – Libraries as Centres for Self-Directed Education Forest School Movement Living Joyfully Podcast – Episode 321 Democratic schools Teacher Tom