History & Structure
1921 – A.S. Neill founded the Summerhill School in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest children’s democracy in the world.
1968 – Daniel Greenberg founded Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, MA.
1996 – Ken Danford founded North Star for Teens in Sunderland, MA
2010 – With guidance from Ken Danford, Joel Hammon founded Princeton Learning Cooperative in Princeton, NJ.
2013 – Liberated Learners founded by Ken Dandford and Joel Hammon. A non-profit organization aimed at assisting others to get self-directed learning centers up and running across the nation. (Liberty SDLC is a member of the Liberated Learners network.)
2013 – Manhattan Free School reopens as the Agile Learning Center in New York, NY
2016 – Alliance for Self-Directed Education is founded. A non-profit organization dedicated to increasing accessibility and awareness of Self-Directed Education as a way of living and learning, and connecting the communities and voices of the movement.
Today – there are dozens and dozens of self-directed learning centers across the nation and world wide and more are popping up all the time! And whether they are more Sudbury, Agile, or Liberated Learners in style – they are all under the same umbrella of the self-directed learning model. Click the link to learn more about the three popular styles of SDL: Three Popular Models of Self-Directed Education
While Liberty SDLC is not a 100% direct democracy like you’d find in a Sudbury style school, our members do in fact have a lot to do with the management of the center and its operation. The structure and administration of the center is a reservoir of “learning opportunity,” and participants learn first-hand some of the principles, processes, and politics of democratic governance. They balance individual and communal needs while experiencing autonomy and responsibility within a tightly-knit and equitable community. Thus, kids are responsible for directing their own lives and for caring for the community!
Rule infractions and interpersonal conflicts are resolved using sophisticated restorative justice tools. Community Meeting protects boundaries and ensures order by maintaining a robust and explicit lawbook and through the processes carried out by its Resolution Committee (“RC”).
Any Community Meeting Member (student or staff) may fetch a member of the RC (commonly known as a “Resy”) at any time during the day when they experience conflict or otherwise have a complaint about a potential rule violation. Elected and appointed Resies respond immediately by listening, investigating, facilitating conversation, and otherwise assisting towards a resolution all parties are satisfied with. Issues may be resolved by conversation itself, and/or they may be resolved by further actions. Resies do not have any coercive power to define what resolution looks like in any particular case, but if they are not satisfied that genuine resolution has occurred, they may send the issue to the next Community Meeting for discussion and consideration. Community Meeting does retain coercive power to impose what it considers to be a reasonable outcome. For that matter, if the aggrieved party or the party which has crossed a boundary does not believe the initial meeting with a Resy produced a genuine resolution, they may also send the issue to the Community Meeting.
Yes. Currently, all members have three mandatory obligations: 1. Everyone must participate in the daily community clean up. 2. Everyone must attend and participate in the weekly Community Meeting if they are in the building on the day of the meeting. 3. Everyone must take part in the Resolution Committee’s processes when/if they find themselves involved with an infraction or a conflict that requires it.
Curriculum & Activity
Liberty SDLC serves as a venue in which any curriculum and/or learning method or modality may be utilized, including off-campus learning (college courses, internships and apprenticeships, employment, etc.). It’s common for members to take a “post-curricular” route consisting of a mix of activities, formal and informal, traditional and unconventional, collective and independent.
On a deeper level, we believe each person has their own curriculum within their being – and it’s our role to simply provide the time, space, community, and support for it to be explored and discovered.
Conventional schooling reduces learning to bite-size curricular objectives packaged into lessons and “delivered” to students in classes without experiential context. It’s a fine way to study and acquire some knowledge, among many other fine ways. It has some advantages, such as optimizing the expense of a teacher’s time, and it has some drawbacks, such as being relatively ineffective and boring for many students much of the time. Regrettably, this method dominates conventional schooling to the exclusion of other methods – so much so, that the word “learning” has come to be widely associated with this one overused method, applied to the standard academic curriculum.
The self-directed learning model restores the meaning of “learning” to include many learning methods and domains of learning. Some of these learning modes, methods, and mechanisms, which are mostly unavailable and unknown in conventional schooling, are interest groups, self-service systems, systemic or meta-message learning, public process, accelerated culture, near-stage transmission, commerce and entrepreneurship, multiple lines of development, self-balanced development, deep and true play, and functional apprenticeship (for more information on on all of these, please see Jim Rietmulder’s When Kids Rule the School).
In short, members of self-directed learning centers sometimes learn in the same ways they do in conventional schools. More often, though, our members learn in a variety of ways, enhanced by the self-directed and community dynamics. The result is learning that is more meaningful and enduring and daily life that is more fulfilling.
We consider the conventional academic “basics” – reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic – to fall outside the academic category; rather, they are basic life skills, and students here pick them up as byproducts of living their lives in an interesting, stimulating, and text-rich environment. Their learning is seamlessly integrated with their lives; rather than study “the basics” as discrete objects during discrete periods of time, they absorb them as ways of thinking while they pursue other interests and goals. The “basics” are so important to functioning independently in our world that all students eventually have a very good reason to acquire them, and, motivated by that reason, do so rapidly.
Mandatory curriculum harms children’s learning, intelligence, and joy of life in many ways: it displaces better developmental opportunities, promotes shallow learning, turns kids off to academics, undermines introspection and self-awareness, deadens initiative, fosters passivity, disempowers, alienates, and normalizes coercion. Ouch! If nothing else, our self-directed learning model avoids these damages!
And it gets worse! The educational theory of standardized curriculum has been discredited by science and scholarship. Aside from broad patterns, each child’s development is unique and unpredictable, influenced by infinite variations in cultural, environmental, and personal factors. The idea that a standard sequence of learning steps will lead every child from kindergarten to college and economic prosperity would be laughable if it were not so deeply entrenched in our institutions of mass education. What’s wrong with coercive curriculum? It doesn’t work and it causes harm.
Virtually all children who are organically able, learn reading, writing, and arithmetic. Beyond that, the possibilities are as vast as human knowledge. Most children learn about many conventional academic subjects and many other subjects as well. Most learn some things more deeply, joyfully, and durably than is likely in standard schools. Generally, kids learn what they’re interested in, what they must learn in order to function in their world, and what they must learn in order to achieve self-chosen goals.
What do they learn? At Liberty SDLC, young people develop cognition, general intelligence, and critical thinking as they practice life in a stew of culture, community, nature, and technology. Instead of worksheets and word problems, or sometimes in addition to, students tackle personally meaningful challenges – social, emotional, physical, intellectual, political, situational, and existential. Self-directed education cultivates introspection, self-awareness, initiative, decision-making, and resilience. Community cultivates collaboration, awareness of others, and life skills for navigating society. Collective self-governance (and to a degree school administration) cultivates authority, political sensibility, policy awareness, and public mindedness. Through it all, learning and self-management become a fulfilling lifelong practice.
Perfect! Playing is fun and kids need to have a lot of fun.
And not only that: play is the ultimate learning modality, and many children have an innate desire to play constantly, from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until the moment they finally close them, in exhaustion, in the evening. Children rapidly learn huge amounts of a wide variety of knowledge and skills through various types of play. They make meaning, construct causal maps and world models, develop counterfactual reasoning and theory of mind, and cultivate a whole host of other physical, intellectual, and emotional attributes and skills. Different types of play – symbolic, rough-and-tumble, locomotor, etc., lend themselves to particular types of learning. And it all happens naturally – as a matter of course – while young people simply follow their instincts, pursue their passions, and enjoy their lives.
Also perfect. Kids in these self-directed centers sometimes spend long periods of time doing what looks like nothing. So do hunters. So do monks. So do most animals. The point is just that there are often invisible processes underway which are ultimately quite valuable to the kid’s development and well-being. Sometimes they are processing events, information, feelings, or thoughts. Sometimes they are resting. Sometimes they are just being. Sometimes they are testing the adults at school to see if they’re serious about refraining from interference. And sometimes they are “deschooling.”
“When you teach a child something you take away forever his chance of discovering it for himself.” ~ Jean Piaget
Kids at our center are exposed to many, many topics, activities, ways of thinking, and information, since they are free to investigate whatever they want, associate with who they want, and witness what everyone else is doing around the center every day. We believe that our kids benefit from being free of the limits of the conventional classroom and its standards and objectives – and they actually benefit greatly by what they are not exposed to while here at Liberty instead of being in a conventional classroom (see Why is it so important to have autonomy in curriculum? above). Having said that, “classes” are in fact offered when and if a community member or members make a request for one and/or put one together themselves. We also have guests come to Liberty from time to time to show interested members their personal interests, expertises, hobbies, skills, etc.
The range of activities going on at Liberty SDLC at any particular moment in time is rich, diverse, and never twice exactly the same. At the moment, as this is being written, kids are talking about ideas for new school policy, playing basketball, reading, gaming, playing musical instruments, selling pretend snow cones made out of snow and colored water, enjoying a late lunch, talking excitedly with each other, making art in the art area, watching Youtube videos, and many other things.
“Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions.” ~ Alfie Kohn
Even though adults may not notice it, children set goals for themselves all day long. When they are young, the goals are usually small: they may want to make a birthday card for a friend; they may want to learn how to play a video game; or they may want someone to read a book to them. Some goals are larger, like proposing a new rule or planning a field trip. In our program, children learn how to accomplish these goals for themselves. They become skilled at creating their own reality by doing things on their own or asking others for help. As their confidence grows, so do their goals. The important thing is that students don’t rely on anyone else to set goals for them.
“What I have learned, very slowly and painfully over the years, is that children make vital decisions for themselves in ways that no adults could have anticipated or even imagined.” ~ Hanna Greenberg, founder of Sudbury Valley School, in The Art of Doing Nothing
The adults at Liberty SDLC chose not to call themselves teachers because everyone and everything is a potential teacher. We do, however, recognize our special role as leaders and caretakers in the community; staff members are ultimately responsible for maintaining safe conditions and for the smooth functioning of the program. On a day-to-day basis, staff members focus on holding the space in which children can be free within the boundaries of safety and respect.
Staff are hired for who they are, how they fit into the community, their skills relevant to managing and caring for the center, and their skills relevant to member interest. They are expected to provide a variety of models of effective adult behavior and to be available to kids as resources. Generally, staff members spend about half their time engaged in administrative or maintenance tasks and half their time “on the floor,” so to speak, engaged with the community.
They can learn it! Often on their own, using the center’s resources. But if they want support for their learning, robust support is available. Whether it’s the arts, sports, or academics – we’ll do everything in our power as a community to get the needed support in place. Sometimes our staff will be sufficient to meet the need, and other times we look to and depend on our community volunteers/partners to provide it.
When members initiate tutoring or an interest group or a class, it’s an organic process, and it always ends up looking different. Sometimes a staff member creates a curriculum and leads the class like a “teacher.” Other times all the participants learn alongside each other as peers. If there’s no one on hand who’s qualified to offer the type of instruction a member is seeking, we will request assistance from our diverse list of community partners.
*Personal devices are allowed at school and we also have a handful of screens (tablets, desktop computers) we provide and have available to the community. There are currently no restrictions as far as time-limits. Screen time is no doubt a hot-topic and we are constantly involved in the discussions both with families, our network sister centers, and all of those in the self-directed learning community at large. The vast majority of self-directed learning communities do not limit screen time as it falls under our philosophy to trust kids to spend their time as they wish, learn to self-evaluate, and decide for themselves when they’ve had enough of one thing or another. Listed below are some helpful articles on the topic:
Hype Versus Fact on Social Media and Teens Mental Health
Sense and Nonsense About Video Game Addiction
Hype Versus Fact on Social Media and Teens’ Mental Health
*We have a network firewall that prevents inappropriate material from getting through while technology is in use here at Liberty SDLC.
No! That is, unless a member chooses to involve themselves in a class or activity which requires it. Parent roles as homework helpers and enforcers are over – at least for those of their children that attend Liberty SDLC.
No! Unless, again, a member chooses to take a test. College admissions tests are sometimes useful tools for our older members, as these tests allow them to offer colleges quantitative data as a signal of competence.
Yes! Usually, lots of them! They can be as small as one student, and as brief as a trip to the supermarket, or as large as close to the whole center. They can be “private” – a specific group of students, or they can be “public” – open to anyone at school to sign up for.
Yes. Each teen member has a staff mentor. There are no formal graduation policies or requirements at Liberty SDLC. Members may “graduate” when they feel they’ve gotten what they need out of the Liberty program and they are ready to move on to the next steps in their lives. These “next steps” will be discussed and planned with the member’s mentor to the extent and to the detail that the member requires.
School Culture
New students are greeted with enthusiasm by members and staff alike. New students’ choices and personal space are respected – they aren’t forcefully pulled into activities, but they are routinely invited.
No! Students and staff mix freely regardless of age or ability.
Not only is age-mixing safe, it is one of the secret weapons of self-directed learning centers. Segregating individuals by age doesn’t make sense from an evolutionary perspective; how can we learn from and about each other if we aren’t allowed to be together? At Liberty SDLC, members of all ages gain knowledge and skills from those who are more advanced than they are, regardless of age. We see 16-year-olds ask 8-year-olds for skateboarding tips, 5-year-olds reading to 7-year-olds, 14-year-olds drawing with 9-year-olds. It becomes a familial relationship of role modeling and caretaking. Older kids are required to think about the effect they have on others and teenagers retain an ability to stay young longer, inspired to play by their younger counterparts.
On occasion, regardless of safeguards that are in place, younger members are exposed to conversations or topics they might have been more sheltered from in conventional schools. This often results in conversations between parents and kids, which parents have noted have been some of the most important moments they have been able to connect with their children.
Transitions
In his article Deschooling: A Work in Progress, Ben Draper defines “deschooling” as, “a personal process of deconditioning our schooled mindset, which sees all learning through the lens of traditional education, and coming to see learning more clearly for what it is: an inevitable outcome of living one’s life.”
Deschooling is sloughing off the paradigm, attitudes, perspectives, ideas, and practices associated with conventional school – but since that paradigm is so deeply embedded in our culture, the process is ongoing for everyone at Liberty SDLC, including the staff, and even most of our parents go through it too. The paradigm of conventional school, based on instruction and authority, does rear its head at our center with some frequency, and all our members have to contend with the deeply ingrained notions of what school, education, and learning are supposed to look like.
Deschooling is also exciting and invigorating – as the constraining perspective of the schooled mindset melts away, the walls of the classroom do too, and the world opens up.
Transfer students are quite happy to arrive at self-directed learning centers; they are free of the burdens of conventional schooling, and their childhood is back in their own hands. At first, it’s common for them to spend most of their time doing whatever it is they most feel like doing, especially if there’s something they’ve been blocked or prohibited from doing before. It’s a honeymoon period, and it can last anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more. But- you don’t have to be Shakespeare to know that all honeymoons come to an eventual end. The truth is, it’s challenging to be responsible for your own life, and all our kids run out of gas or hit roadblocks during their self-directed learning experience; they get bored, listless, even mildly depressed. They mope, they complain, or they act out. They often will say “this is boring” or that there’s “nothing to do.” They search for external agents to blame for the negative emotions they’re experiencing. Often they ask to go back to wherever they came from. We call this “hitting the wall,” and it looks different for everyone, but the crux is the same: the kid is transitioning, preparing for development. They need to reflect and ask themselves vital questions such as, “who am I now,” “what do I want to do next,” and “what is my next task?” If they can stick it out through these challenges, with the support of their family and the SDL community, meaningful action will come out of the crisis. Our members usually don’t go through this only once either – it’s twice, or thrice, or more. We like to say that our kids get to have their quarter-life crisis when they’re 9, and they’re mid-life crisis when they’re 13.
“When kids are constantly having to make decisions [in a democratic school], they begin to know who they are, and to know how they feel about almost everything. When these kids go into an authoritarian situation, they do not feel threatened about losing their identity; they see the situation, instead, as a game that has to be played in a certain way.” ~ Jerry Mintz, founder of Alternative Education Resource Organization
It is quite common for members to transfer from our program to conventional schools. In terms of placement, schools usually place students in their age-appropriate grade level up to high school. When members transfer into high school, it can be more challenging to get into the age-appropriate grade level, depending on the administration of the particular school the kid is transferring into. Either way, all the reports we’ve received claimed that the academic transition went fairly smooth and easy – sometimes stunningly so! Some students may require some targeted remediation but tend to get caught up rapidly. It’s not a surprise to us, because we know that even when students here are not doing academic work they are acquiring all the skills which support any kind of effort toward a personally set goal.
There are no formal graduation policies or requirements at Liberty SDLC. Members may “graduate” when they feel they’ve gotten what they need out of the Liberty program and they are ready to move on to the next steps in their lives. Each teen at the center has an adult mentor and these “next steps” will be discussed and planned to the extent and detail that the member requires.
We award our own diplomas to members who would like to receive one. Since we are a non-accredited alternative school option, the diploma is more of a certificate of participation or completion if you will. It’s important here to understand the fact that most colleges/universities do NOT require high school diplomas for acceptance into their institutions, it’s simply not a document that is as important as we’ve been led to believe. In the event a college or university does require a high-school diploma, the member will have to pursue and earn a GED. The teen’s adult mentor will support the member in this process.
They fill out the applications and cross their fingers, just like everybody else!
All colleges and universities have two applications for admittance. One is for kids coming from the standard, conventional high school. The other is for kids like ours that are coming from a “non-traditional” or “homeschooling” high school experience.
The format and content of each of our transcripts is unique, reflective of each member’s path, choices, accomplishments, and goals. They usually stand out among the many standard transcripts colleges receive each fall. Because our kids spend so much time at the center in conversation with interlocutors of all ages, they’re often articulate and confident in person, and perform well in college interviews. And because they’ve had the time and space to discover and nurture their calling (whether it is a general field, a set of skills, or a particular activity), they often strategically target colleges for specific reasons, further increasing their odds of admission.
There are a couple of effective alternative routes to college that also work well for our kids, including beginning at a community college and transferring after a year. It is worth noting that “getting into college” per se is actually very easy.
Of course, Liberty SDLC does not consider college to have more inherent value than other paths a young person might take, such as directly entering the workforce, starting a business, finding an internship, traveling, making art, or anything else! Many kids do find they want and/or need to attend college in order to accomplish their goals, and when kids make that decision they have plenty of time and support to make a dedicated and successful effort to get into the college or university of their choice.
Learn more: College Admissions for Alternative Schooled…Applicants
Kids moving on to college from SDL centers tend to adapt to college more easily than their peers from conventional schools. The pattern is striking, and we hear it over and over. In conventional schooling, students commonly get the message that they should sit down, keep quiet, wait for a teacher to tell them what to do, and then do exactly what they are told. These are the messages conveyed by the system itself, communicated to students regardless of teachers’ best intentions. In contrast, SDL kids build their lives on intrinsically motivated pursuits, supported and constrained by the community around them, without adults directing and enforcing. They become self-responsible and accustomed to overcoming obstacles to reach goals and build fulfilling lives. The independence and self-responsibility of college comes easily to our kids because they’ve been practicing it throughout their school years. When our graduates go on to college, they adapt quickly and smoothly, often bewildered by their peers’ struggles with self-direction and time management.
Assessment & Reporting
Staff are always happy to meet with parents to discuss our policies and philosophy, but we generally ask permission from kids before discussing their detailed activities at school in anything more than the most casual way. There isn’t a policy guiding us here, just our ethos: we extend to our kids the same respect and regard we would to our friends and colleagues. Maintaining this standard allows our members to feel true ownership of their time at the center. It allows them to try things out, make mistakes, and recover from them, all on their own and without input from home if they don’t want it.
Of course, we recognize that our kids have guardians, and we definitely communicate concerns related to safety whether we get permission from kids or not.
The center has no formal mechanisms for assessing kids. We are always happy to discuss with parents our impressions of how a member is doing.
Absence of mandatory assessment makes several wholesome results more likely. First, children develop strong self-assessment habits and introspective skills. Second, they more freely seek and absorb meaningful feedback, gaining ability and confidence in their original thinking. Third, children’s natural curiosity and motivation are preserved – habits of growth, rather than action to please adults.
Parents who have paid close attention to report cards in the past are sometimes anxious at first. But by the time their children have been enrolled for a year or two, most say they know them better than ever before and they don’t miss the grades. Sometimes they can’t remember why they ever thought they needed report cards. For some, report cards have been a source of tension between parent and child, even with “good grades.” Removal of the tension comes as a relief, and the relaxed parent-child relationship flourishes.
Almost all. Kids who, for whatever reason, are unsafe in an open environment are not suited to our center or the self-directed learning model. But otherwise, kids who are already self-directed thrive, and kids who are not yet self-directed get the opportunity to learn those extremely valuable skills.
When kids fail to thrive at Liberty SDLC, it’s more often about the parents than the kid. When parents apply undue pressure on their children to spend their time at the center in particular ways, or to accomplish particular things, or when they worry about their children “falling behind grade level,” etc., the children’s experience is often undermined.
Staff will not enforce agreements between students and parents. We generally discourage parents from making agreements designed to influence what their children do at the center because such agreements tend to undermine the power and value of our program. Exactly what students do is far less important than having the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to direct their own lives.
Parents
Parents’ experience of the center is a crucial factor in determining their childrens’ experience of the center. Children of parents who work hard to understand our philosophy, communicate with staff, attend events, and connect with the community usually get the most out of our program. Parents typically grow alongside their children as the family matures together within our bold, challenging, and trusting philosophy. Many parents find themselves doing things they hadn’t before enrolling their children in our program, like starting a business, taking up a new hobby, or dedicating themselves to art. Parents who remain open, think critically, and grapple honestly with questions and concerns about the program and their children’s education provide the best support for children at our center.
We welcome our parents to volunteer their time in any area of expertise, interest, and/or passion. We ask our parents to help us with spreading the word to the community at large about our center and the self-directed learning model; we ask parents to help us in our fundraising efforts as well. Parents are also often needed to chaperone field trips and/or fill in as substitute staff on occasion.
Sending your children to a self-directed learning center is a bold choice, and you can be guaranteed people will question it. Many parents find it helpful to attend our events and make connections with our learning community, and especially with other parents.
Of course! It’s hard to imagine running a modern family democratically anyway. Our center provides an arena for young people to practice directing their own lives (and the life of their community). In that sense, the center offers a chance to counterbalance the conditions of heteronomy young people find themselves in almost everywhere else they go.
Admissions
Send an email to troy@libertysdlc.com to get the ball rolling. We’ll chat about your needs and your understanding of the model. If it seems like a good fit we can schedule an initial visit here at the center.
Prospective members are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Our program is not equipped to handle a person who experiences severe difficulties in learning independently or in self-correcting negative behaviors. While we welcome neurodiverse students, we are not qualified to provide specialized mental health support.
All our members need to be able to care for their own basic needs and remain safe without constant adult supervision. They also need to be able to consistently respond to dialogue and questions. Our experience is that many students previously diagnosed with a “special need” can thrive in our setting, provided they have chosen to be here and their family trusts them to be in charge of their own education.
For many students diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, self-directed learning centers turn out to be a sanctuary. Here, when you need to move, you can move, when you need to go outside, you can go outside, and when you need to switch activities, you can switch. Our program allows these kids to shift not only their self-image from disabled to empowered, it also allows them to capitalize on their remarkable strengths.
Students traditionally considered “gifted” are able to move at their own (accelerated) pace at our center. Perhaps more importantly, they are freed of the “gifted” label and the tremendous yet often narrow expectations that label confers. They are able to acquire the “soft” skills which will support them in using their intellectual abilities effectively and responsibly.
Due to the nature of our program, there is never anything to “catch up to,” so we enroll students throughout the school year. You can contact us today to schedule an interview and a time to visit.
We offer part-time membership plans where fees are calculated on the number of days each week you’re wanting to attend.
Nuts & Bolts
The current membership fee for a full year (start of September thru end of May) is $10,000. We take members any time during the year and those fees are prorated. We also offer part-time membership plans where fees are calculated on the number of days each week you’re wanting to attend.
The center is committed to being accessible to all families who want to join and we are willing to have discussions aimed at reaching membership fees that will work for both parties. We usually have a limited pool of “financial aid” we can offer from year-to-year, but the amount varies from year to year and it seems to go fast every year. With no state or federal aid, we rely on membership fees to keep the doors open and the lights on.
We follow the conventional school year calendar for the most part – early September to the end of May. Our calendar aligns with our local districts, give or take a day here or there.
We are open 8:15 am to 3:45 pm each day of the week. Members are free to come as much or as little as they like but there is no doubt that the kids who attend on a consistent and regular basis reap the most benefit from the learning community.
On occasion there are meals served but not on a regular or daily basis. Members are expected to bring their own lunch, drinks, and snacks each day and can qualify to use our kitchen equipment for their lunch preparation needs. Also, our open campus policy allows teen members to drive to nearby restaurants and shops if they so choose. Ordering food for delivery is also an option.
Liberty SDLC does not provide transportation to and from the center each day for families. Although, there is the potential for member families to work out a buddy system or some sort of ride-share program.
Liberty SDLC is for kids ages 5-18.
The staff at Liberty do not undertake a duty to directly supervise kids. It’s possible for members to find privacy indoors and outdoors throughout the day. However, we do rely on self-supervision and community supervision to ensure safety around the center. Generally, we find that our kids are actually safer because the staff are not supervising them. They know they’re responsible for their own safety and behavior, so they take care of themselves, and each other. Usually when someone is taking a risk which others judge is a step too far – climbing up to the top of a tree, for example, you can be sure someone will be standing at the bottom of that tree, checking in.
We as adult human beings appreciate being trusted – and young people are no different. They know very well that they deserve to be trusted and are worthy of it, so they’re delighted when it’s extended to them. They take it seriously, and conduct themselves very differently than when they are both unsupervised and mistrusted.
Generally we have a fairly even spread of ages and genders with a cluster here and there. However, it is important to remember that our members often have a wide diversity of friendships, not limited by age and gender.
Yes! If you would like to donate services or resources, or if you would like to offer instruction to members in a specialized hobby or interest of yours, please send an email to troy@libertysdlc.com.
Yes. We understand the self-directed learning model can feel extreme at first – especially when the only model of education most of us have ever known is the conventional one. Everyone’s path to acceptance of the SDL model is a little different and some folks will probably never fully accept it, which is fine. But after over two decades working in the public school system, I have no doubt the conventional model is not only not working, but is harmful to our kids – even to the ones that appear to get through it okay. The evidence of that fact is consistently on the news in a variety of different ways. It’s not a funding issue, it’s not a teacher issue, it’s not a poor parenting issue. It’s the simple fact that the conventional model doesn’t respect or trust kids. The system steals their choice, time, and free-will and then coerces them with reward and punishment to participate in a mandatory curriculum they have no say in. As long as that is the foundation of the system, things will only continue to get worse – just like we’re seeing. I believe the time will come when we look back at this era of public education as we know it with embarrassment, sadness, and regret. Human beings deserve to be trusted and have choice in how they spend their time each day. We deserve to be respected for our individual skills and interests and supported in the pursuit of exploring and discovering any and all ventures we each find worthy of pursuing – whether they align with some sort of state mandated curriculum or not!
Discovering the SDL model in the fall of 2022 was a life preserver for me. Unhappy with what I was experiencing and seeing in the system, I was reaching my drowning point in my career in education, and not knowing of the SDL model, I was seriously considering getting out of education altogether. I’ll never forget the day I discovered SDL; my life was forever changed. I appreciate you taking some time here to learn about the model and consider its many wonderful benefits. I believe it’s the future of education – it has to be! The good news is that folks have been doing the SDL model for over a century in the United Kingdom and over 50 years here in the United States so we have plenty of data now that supports the success of the model.
Click here for a list of more resources to continue your research on the SDL model!
Note: The content in this FAQ is quoted in part or in whole from Hudson Valley Sudbury School. While Liberty SDLC is not a Sudbury model school, we are in fact more alike than we are different and we are both under the umbrella of SDL.