First day of school for local kids (not at Abrome)

Today tens of thousands of students in Central Texas will be returning to school, joining the scores of thousands who returned to school yesterday.

While there is palpable excitement for many students who want to be around large groups of peers again, many other students feel like hostages, knowing full well that they are entering into buildings where their safety is not being taken seriously. This latter group understand that bringing large amounts of people together indoors for hours at a time greatly increases the risk of spread, even with masks. They understand that because their school populations are majority unvaccinated that the risk is amplified, and that some of them, their peers, or the teachers and staff are going to get seriously ill or die. They understand that people who get infected are going to bring the disease home to their families and their local neighborhoods. Yet they have been told they have no choice—schools will not push back the reopening dates, schools will not go remote, many schools won’t even enforce masking requirements. They are told that they must risk their safety and the safety of their community because the schooling machine requires their participation to operate. Some of them will recognize that they do not have participate. Some teachers and staff members will realize the same.

Solidarity to all the students, teachers, and staff who refuse to participate in indoor schooling at this time.

Do not let go of your time outdoors when the pandemic ends

When we went outdoors this year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were not sure how the Learners would respond to the heat, the cold, the rain, the bugs, and the physical activity. Because we are a Self-Directed Education community that elevates free play as a wonderful use of time and a fabulous end in and of itself, we figured that the Abrome Learners would better adapt than those who were only given a 30-minute recess in elementary school, and no recess in middle or high school, and often being stuck indoors even when at home because of homework or studying. While it has certainly been a challenge for some, others have really thrived.

Over the past pandacademic year, we have become much more comfortable with discomfort, we have found ways to find joy when sweaty and dirty, and many of us have rediscovered the endless miracles of nature. It seems likely that many of us will have the opportunity to go back indoors in September as cases will hopefully continue to fall as more people get vaccinated and people continue to avoid needlessly congregating indoors in large groups. However, we hope that what we gained this year in going outdoors is not lost when we have the opportunity to be shielded from the elements or when digital entertainment is easier to access.

Our society has been systematically deprived of the regenerative power of nature, and next to only those who have been incarcerated, children are the biggest victims of the institutional walls that seal us off from nature. It is educational malpractice for adults to tell children that they should forgo all of the benefits of nature in order to thoroughly school (in school and at home) in order to prepare themselves for the false promises of a supposedly successful life. Children’s lives include the present as well as that future, and more time in nature enriches both.

When this pandemic ends, whenever you consider it to be over, please do not let go of your time outdoors. And most importantly, do not force the kids back indoors.

The criminalization of houselessness and the complicity of educators

On May 1st, 90,428 people voted for Proposition B, re-criminalizing houselessness in Austin, TX. Only 66,292 people voted against the proposition. Austin had long criminalized homelessness through a no sit, no lie ordinance that allowed the police to ticket and arrest the houseless—yes, for sitting or lying down in public. But in 2019 the city council voted to decriminalize sitting and lying down in public, which at the time seemed like a big win for civil liberties and civil rights, locally. Of course the police harassment and abuse of the houseless that preceded no-sit, no-lie continued even after city council removed the ordinance, but far fewer houseless people were being ticketed and arrested which helped limit a lot of the harm.

In February of 2020, the political action committee Save Austin Now started a petition drive to reinstate the City’s camping ban. A second petition attempt succeeded in February of this year, leading to the ballot measure being included in the May election. When people attacked the effort saying that criminalization was anti-homeless and did not do anything to help end houselessness, Save Austin Now and their allies (such as the Austin Police Association) often argued that they were not trying to criminalize homelessness—that they were actually trying to help the homeless! But the language of the proposition is unambiguous, it focuses wholly on criminalization and not at all on helping the houseless:

Shall an ordinance be adopted that would create a criminal offense and a penalty for sitting or lying down on a public sidewalk or sleeping outdoors in and near the downtown area around the University of Texas campus; create a criminal offense and penalty for solicitation, defined as requesting money or another thing of value, at specific hours and locations or for solicitation in a public area that is deemed aggressive in manner; create a criminal offense and penalty for camping in any public area not designated by the Parks and Recreation Department?

The new ban is expected to go into effect on May 11th. Currently, we do not know what that means. Will the police immediately begin ticketing and arresting the houseless? Will the city or the state begin to raze current encampments? Or will the city wait until more support is in place to help the houseless people who will be displaced? The questions are coming not just from the houseless and those who care about them, but also the supporters of Proposition B.

What we all know, those who care about the welfare of the houseless as well as those who want to disappear the houseless, is that Proposition B is intended to harm the houseless. Fines, jail time, and threats of violence only deepen the struggles of the houseless community, making it more difficult for them to escape houselessness. It is uncivilized and inhumane to punish people for being too poor to afford a safe place to go. The harm of criminalizing houselessness is tangible and real. Those who support Proposition B are okay with harming the houseless because they just want them out of sight and out of mind—in jail, in prison, pushed out to another city, or dead.

Image created by Eli H. Spencer Heyman (Twitter: @elium2)

It is no surprise that the people who are most in support of criminalizing houselessness tend to be those who feel most removed from the threat of falling into houselessness, and who do not see the humanity in those they see as the other. The map of voter support for Proposition B (see image) maps quite well onto the map of financial support for Save Austin Now, as well as onto the higher income neighborhoods of the city. While the initiative was driven by Republicans, it was successful because of the eager support of a large share of affluent Democrats and independents.

Unfortunately, it was also supported by too many educators, as well. As I pointed out a week ago, wannabe school board members and too many educators have rallied around issues such as criminalizing houselessness, protecting and promoting white supremacy, attacking trans kids, and removing pandemic safety protocols from public and private spaces and organizations. What all of these positions have in common is the dehumanization of historically marginalized and oppressed groups, or a complete disregard for the lives of those groups.

I was recently made aware of some eager and harmful social media comments by a local nature educator who serves many homeschooling families and some local school communities. His name is Chris Hyde and he is the founder and leader of Natureversity. The reason I feel compelled to call him out by name and raise this point is two-fold. First, it is vital for people in alternative education communities and the homeschooling and unschooling communities to understand that a disregard for the humanity of others is not congruent with a belief in child and youth liberation, as liberation requires a commitment to anti-oppression as a base to build off of. Second, Abrome paid Hyde to take us through a multi-day outdoor training last summer, and one of the Facilitators at Abrome had previously worked with him at another organization, and it is important to us that we publicly distance ourselves from his rhetoric and actions.

Some might dismiss Hyde’s comments as focused on cleaning up trash, whether he meant picking up actual garbage, or if perhaps he considered the personal belongings of displaced people to be trash to clean up. We know for a fact that in the past the local police have forced houseless people to leave their stuff behind at the threat of arrest, and then they would trash their personal belongings, or a ‘cleanup crew’ would come in and threw everything away. They’ve even destroyed water bottles in the summer, and thrown away mobility devices. Some might even question whether cleaning up is a euphemism for disappearing people, such as mass arresting the houseless, or putting them on buses with a one-way ticket out of town. Hyde’s comments did not appear to go that far, but plenty of people on the same “Take Back Austin” Facebook page thread were willing to go there (images attached). Take Back Austin, by the way, seems to be a collection of anti-houseless, pro-MAGA folks led by right-wing City Councilwoman Mackenzie Kelly who somehow feel that the affluent Austinites need to take back their city from houseless folks. As if the houseless have any power whatsoever. Inhumane and delusional.

We had some difficult conversations around houselessness during the training that we did with Hyde this summer. We made clear why we would not call the police on the houseless, and we argued that houselessness is a choice made by society far more than it is a choice made by those experiencing it. That in a just, compassionate society that prioritized the wellbeing of everyone, that houselessness would not exist. We clearly did not move him to recognize the humanity of houseless people, or our collective responsibility to each other and the environment.

Whether or not to criminalize houselessness is far more than a question of aesthetics, or a effective tool to combat houselessness. It is a question of ethics, and a question of what type of society do we want to live in. Any educator who believes that all children should be treated as full people must be opposed to the othering, marginalization, and oppression of the houseless. After all, over 2 million children experience houselessness each year. Instead, educators should be working to help change the conditions of society so that children are able to grow up in a world that will nurture them and allow them to contribute to their families, their friends, their neighborhoods, and to improve the human condition. And in order to help create that world we must begin with a firm commitment to anti-oppression.

Day 45 of AY20-21: the last in-person day of the cycle (for a while?)

Last Friday was scheduled to be our last in-person day of the third cycle of the year. Unfortunately, it would only be the last in-person day for one of the cells, as one cell was forced to go remote when our county went to risk stage level 4. The county went to level 4 because of the rapidly rising numbers of Covid-19 infections and the lack of capacity to support those infected if Austin were to replicate the infection rate of El Paso on the western tip of Texas. Knowing that it would be my last day with this cell, and because we are going to have a remote cell next cycle, I wanted to be as present as possible with the Learners on day 45.

Hanging out at our favorite waterfall spot, sans the water

Everyone showed up for the last in-person day of the cycle, and got right to setting their intentions: crochet, eat, eat, eat lunch, drink, chill at the lake, conversate on dock, rehearse, don’t die, don’t die, freetopia, freetopia, freetopia, work on comics, and raise awareness to go to waterfall. I was excited about the intention to raise awareness to go to the waterfall. One of the Learners had been asking me about how great it would be to walk to different parts of the park that we had been frequenting, but she wasn’t raising it each day when we were figuring out where we would spend her time. On Thursday when she brought it up, I encouraged her to raise it the next morning. And she did, and she convinced all but two Learners to join her.

Making watercolor art

We found the walk to the second waterfall to be pleasant. After an initial uphill at the beginning of the hike most of the way to the waterfall is relatively flat as it runs along a stream. At the waterfall people got to playing right away. There was climbing, exploring, breaking old branches, and throwing rocks at rocks. There was also lots of conversation among the older Learners. I also had a debate with one of the Learners about the quality of my jokes versus the quality of her sense of humor. A debate that is still to be settled.

After a couple of hours everyone was ready to move back down to the lake. Once we got to the lake the two youngest Learners went straight to the beach to dig in the sand. Two of the older Learners asked for the watercolors for the first time this cycle, and began to paint.

On the dock where the Learners were painting were also the two Learners who decided to skip the waterfall and head straight to the lake. I felt like they really missed an opportunity to get in some good exercise and bond with everyone else in the group that morning, so I was happy to see that the Learners who wanted to paint set themselves up there.

Soon enough, the day was coming to an end. It was a fun day for all the Learners, but it was also likely the last time some of them would be able to be with each other in-person for a while as we expect the pandemic to continue to get worse over the coming month. We tried not to dwell on the possibility that some or all of us might be stuck at home for the next cycle, and instead focused on what we appreciated. We talked about the things that we liked the most about the cycle, and we shared gratitudes. Then we packed up and walked to the pick-up location. We had two remote days scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, so at least we could look forward to connecting over Zoom after the weekend.

Day 44 of AY20-21: the day the Covid-19 risk level changed

Covid-19 has shaped much of the way that we meet during this pandemic year. It is why we are meeting outdoors, masked up, in small, physically separated groups. We focused early on on taking care of one another, and we have endeavored to find ways to protect the Learners and Facilitators of Abrome, the people who live in their households and those in their pods, and the broader community beyond Abrome. Our efforts have allowed us to come together more safely during this academic year, but it has also limited our ability to grow our community. We wrote into our plans for this year triggers that would force us to be apart if there was uncontrolled community spread of the disease in central Texas, and over the past several weeks we realized that we would likely be hitting the first of those triggers by Thanksgiving.

Early Thursday morning I updated both the family resources tab of our website and the internal Facebook group page with the following message:

It seems probable that Austin-Travis County will declare Risk Level Stage 4 by Thanksgiving. This would require us to have at least one remote cell the coming cycle. If they declare Risk Level Stage 5 everyone will need to go remote. Please mask up, limit contacts, and do not congregate indoors.

I then spent the rest of my morning doing a variety of tasks before heading out to the outdoors to meet up with my cell. When the Learners arrived I started the morning meeting with a conversation about Covid-19 and where we were going as a community. We talked about the rapidly rising number of cases around the country, and what was likely to happen in our county in the coming weeks, especially with so many Americans deciding to come together for Thanksgiving dinner. We discussed what it would mean for Abrome if the county moved up to risk stage level 4, and then to risk stage 5, and what we could do to take care of those in our households, in the Abrome community, and in the Austin area.

After the conversation on Covid-19 I asked the Learners, “what makes you, you?” The answers tended to center around something that was descriptive about them, or parts of their identities. I then asked to what degree is it our relationships with others that make us who we are, thanks in part to a point I came across in David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5000 Years, which I am currently reading.

Next we walked to the lake where we had planned to spend our day. Not long after we arrived I noticed one of the Learners practicing lines for an audition the next day, and I asked her what she needed to do to earn the part. She said that she needed to perform the lines she was working on and sing a song. I asked if she could sing “Tomorrow” from Annie, and she did, after warming up her vocal cords. Which got the song stuck in my head for the rest of the day. I then helped her prepare by reading along with her as she practiced the lines, three times.

I then decided to call Austin Public Health to find out if they had any upcoming announcements planned since it seemed to be a given that we were heading toward risk stage 4. The person I was talking to said she had heard nothing about possible changes, and then she said, “oh, well it looks like we just went to stage four.” I thanked her for letting me know and immediately contacted Facilitator Lauren to figure out what our next steps would be. Over the next hour I received texts from the guardians of two separate Learners informing me that the county just increased the risk level, as well.

According to our planning document, “if the stage level as determined by Austin Public Health increases during a cycle, Abrome will shift operations to meet the constraints of the new stage.” This meant that we had to decide which cell would go remote for Friday, our last in-person day of the cycle. We decided that my cell would meet in-person, and the other cell would go remote because they had more at-risk members in their households.

After working through some of the implications of the risk level change, I got back to focusing on the Learners who were at the park with me. I had a long conversation with a Learner about how our personal choices can impinge upon what is meant to be an anti-oppressive space, and then I had a conversation about masking with two young Learners who were playing in the same area as a young girl. The Learners decided they would relocate away from the little girl and ended up focused on navigating the edge of the lake (and poison ivy) by way of cypress roots.

Two older Learners joined me on a walk back to the drop-off spot so that I could grab a portable battery, and on the way back one of the Learners brought up the hundredth monkey effect. It was a fascinating tale of how once a critical mass of monkeys develop a new skill, that skill then quickly propagates well beyond those 100 monkeys to distant groups, even those separated by geographic barriers. And that this phenomenon has been observed in humans as well. The claim sounded familiar and implausible, so I did a few searches and we found that the claims could not be replicated, and that the original authors of the claim misrepresented their observations.

The day before, one of the Learners found a rock that was perfectly shaped like a large smartphone. He discussed the possibility of painting it to look like a phone, and we discussed ways that he could prank the other Learners with it. On Thursday we came up with a plan where he would pretend he was on a difficult call with one of his parents, and then throw the rock/phone into the water in frustration. I got in position to film it, and he began his acting off the dock, too far away for any of them to notice. I walked up to him and suggested that he move to the dock, which he did. I interjected a couple of times to get the other Learners to take notice, and when he threw the rock/phone into the lake. Two of the older Learners fell for the prank and a good laugh was had by all.

Carving, conversation, and community (the two right next to each other are siblings)

The two older Learners asked if they could once again borrow wood carving knives and they began to whittle on fallen branches while listening to music. I later asked if I could connect to the speaker to play “Tomorrow.” The music started to draw the others in and then the Learner placed water in the speaker to show everyone how the water would dance and jump with the bass. Next we queued up a variety of non-explicit songs to include “Gangnam Style” by Psy, “When I Grow Up” by NF, and “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X.

We then held our afternoon roundup where I informed all the Learners that we were now in risk stage four, and that the ways in which we would be able to meet on Friday, and in the next cycle, were going to change to meet the state of the pandemic. I encouraged them to continue to take care of each other.

On our way back toward the pick-up point a mom asked me if we were a school and I gave her a quick rundown of what Abrome was and encouraged her to check out our website. I planned to walk back but two of the Learners decided that they were going to beat me to the pick-up point, so I let them run ahead. Then when they let their guard down I raced by them. At the pick-up point I got into a conversation with another mom who was visiting the park with her kids, and I told her about what we do and shared the website with her, as well. The state of the pandemic continues to challenge us, but maybe some of these parents who have seen us out and about in nature will be drawn to our focus on community care.

Day 43 of AY20-21: making a day of it with only two Learners

On Wednesday I was informed that a Learner had a slight fever of 99 degrees and would be staying home. I then communicated back and forth with the family who was unsure as to whether they should send their other Learner to Abrome. I emphasized that a 99 degree temperature was not a fever, and that according to our protocols which are stronger than any of the schools in Central Texas (probably all of Texas) that neither needed to stay home. The family decided to stay home for the sake of others in the community and planned to get a Covid-19 test for the Learner with an elevated temperature. Then another Learner who sometimes carpools with that family contacted me and said because one Learner they had been carpooling with had a fever that he was going to voluntarily quarantine until he knew that it was safe for him to come back to Abrome. So I explained the difference between an elevated temperature and the flu, but thanked him for putting the health of the community first. This was not the first time that families have been confused as to whether or not come to Abrome or quarantine, and it is not the first time that a Learner has caused some alarm claiming they had a flu when they did not. The document we provided to explain how we were going to safely come back together during pandemic is not a short read, so I am glad that the families are reaching out asking for clarification. And I am grateful that they take the health of the community so seriously. I think I should probably find time over the next week to provide them with a flow chart that they can use to figure out the appropriate steps for staying home, quarantining, or isolating.

I was also previously informed that one of the Learners was going to Enchanted Rock with her family in the middle of the week to enjoy it when there were no crowds. And when a Learner found out that the two Learners she spends most of her time with were not going to be in that day, she decided to stay home as well. And this left us with only two Learners on day 43. Self-Directed Education centers are unique in the world of education because they endeavor to return to children their autonomy so they can pursue their own interests while being in community with others. This not only increases the quality of education (more people with varied interests, goals, and life experiences leads to exponentially increasing learning opportunities), it also increases their sense of well-being by providing them with a safe space to immerse themselves in human relationships with others. Particularly if the centers are anti-oppressive, consensus based, liberation seeking communities like Abrome. But when the community is very small, or when people don’t show up during a pandemic in which there are only six or seven Learners in each cell, those benefits can quickly fade. Sure, it is still better than doing pandemic schooling at school or remotely, but it is a far cry from what happens when one is surrounded by supportive friends and mentors. So I focused on making the day as great as it could be for the two Learners who were there.

They propped up a root with a stick and built a cairn on top of it

We started off our day with the morning meeting. The Learners being six- and seven-years-old, respectively, I kept the meeting short and to the point. With so few Learners around we were pretty free to go wherever we wanted to go. Surprisingly to me, they did not want to go straight to the lake like on so many other days. They instead wanted to go away from the lake. We settled on a plan to hike up to the first waterfall, then to the second where we would spend an unspecified amount of time, and then maybe we would go to the lake. But before we left the Learners insisted on using a stick to prop up a broken root of a nearby oak tree that was sticking out of the ground, and then build a cairn on it.

Once that was finished we began our hike. The youngest Learner is almost always barefoot, so normally the hike would not be a problem for him. But he did get a nice cut on his foot the prior Friday, so I was a bit concerned about him on parts of the trail that were extremely rocky. But I think he is tougher than the rest of us combined when it comes to what his feet can bear, and he seemed to have no problem with it. Speaking of rocks, the Learners continued their ongoing focus of playing with larger numbers during the walk by debating how many rocks there were on the trail, and in the entire park that we planned to spend the day at.

Lunch break at the first waterfall

When we got to the first waterfall the Learners insisted on taking a break for lunch. Lunch is a very flexible concept at Abrome. Many Learners eat their lunch as soon as they arrive, while others only eat their desserts and save the main meals for later. A couple of us, me included, wait until 12 p.m. to break out our lunch. As they were eating lunch earlier than I was prepared for I set up my chair and had planned to do some work communicating with Facilitator Lauren. But the Learners decided that they had enough of the first waterfall location and they really wanted to move on to the second waterfall. So off we went.

The Learners were clear that they were excited to go to the second waterfall but only if we took the relatively flat route their, and not the route that forces them to climb up and over a large hill. The path that we took skirted along the stream that led to the first waterfall, and I encouraged them to enjoy the beauty of the walk. Just when one of the Learners began to question whether or not we were getting close to the second waterfall it appeared before us. For one of them, it was their first time there.

They immediately got to running, jumping, and climbing all over the rocks of the dried out waterfall, as well as the trees and paths around it. As I watched them I noticed that they were constantly drawn to taking moderate risks such as jumping from one rock to another or scaling the face of the waterfall. It was fun watching them openly discussing some of their fears, plotting courses of action to overcome their fears, and then launching themselves into their fears. While neither of them got hurt, it would not have been the end of the world if they did get hurt. It is hard to learn and grow if we don’t take risks.

Taking a Rubik’s cube break

Eventually they tired out and settled down. One of the Learners broke out his Rubik’s cube to play with, while the other focused on breaking downed sticks and throwing rocks at other rocks (and away from me and the other Learner). I also played around with my Rubik’s cube, still feeling great about finally solving it the day before. I also took out much lunch and ate it, and then pulled out some printouts that I brought with me to do some work while they focused on themselves for a bit.

Soon they were back to exploring and finding ways to engage with the space around them. One of the Learners noticed some larger holes in the large granite rock that water flows over when the creek is full and decided he would play a game of basketball with it by tossing rocks up into them from below.

Later one of the Learners noticed a large branch that was stuck in one of the cedar trees alongside the upper portion of the waterfall. But the large branch was not a cedar branch. We talked about how on earth such a large branch could get up there and concluded that it must have gotten stuck there during a flash flood, which is not uncommon in these parts due in part to the very thin layer of topsoil that cannot absorb much water during heavy rains. The eventually removed the large, dried out piece of wood and found that it quickly disintegrated when they hit it on the ground. So they proceeded to break it into tiny pieces in what looked to be a good little workout.

With the Learners uninterested in me, I went back to working on administrative stuff (which is much harder to do outdoors than indoors). They then began to talk about all different kinds of transportation technologies that were surely on the horizon. When they got to discussion of flying cars (which according to them will be rolled out in just a few years) one of them provided the very wise counsel of not being an early adopter. Wait a year so you can purchase it after the price drops.

Hiking back from the waterfall

Eventually we decided our time at the waterfall was finished and they wanted to go to the lake with a short stop at the drop-off location so we could refill our water bottles. It was a good day up to that point, and I am thrilled that these two made a day of it at the waterfall. The rest of the day was a bit more challenging as we worked through some issues of what it means to be true to our commitments and what it means to honor the Abrome principles. Those difficult conversation were not nearly as fun as the time we had at the waterfall, and walking to and fro, but they were just as valuable in other ways.

Day 42 of AY20-21: dismissing the schooled mindset

On Tuesday I woke up at 3:30 a.m., too early for sure. I have been shooting to go to sleep at 9:00 p.m. and wake up at 5:00 a.m. each day, but my bed time has been getting pushed back and my wake up time has been moving forward. It left me a bit sleepy but I felt that if I could right the ship later in the week I would not suffer too much. However, waking up early allowed me to take the dogs on a 5:30 a.m. hike in the hopes of seeing the meteor shower. Unfortunately the morning sky was brighter than expected and if there were any meteors I missed it. Another reason I took the dogs on an early morning hike was that I was not going to be taking them with me to Abrome this week. Cuddle Buddy Ingrid has been scratching at her skin so much that I had to put a cone on her. Ingrid, who was most likely abused before I rescued her, had been having a really difficult time with the cone, and was extremely nervous and jumpy not being able to see on either side or behind her. It did not make sense to take her to hang out with us in nature today, and it did not make sense to take Ivan and leave her behind.

After taking care of all my morning duties, I went to the drop-off point and waited for the Abrome Learners to show up. As they came in they wrote out their intentions: crochet, read, eat, eat lunch, work on comic, listen to music, be on my phone, hang out with [two Learners], freetopia, freetopia, and freetopia. Other than freetopia, our intentions tend to look more like goals than intentions. But that’s okay. One of the sixteen-year-old Learners noted that the other sixteen-year-old was not present so he would likely go home early. I spoke to him about finding value in the opportunity to be outdoors away from home, in nature, around others that he can engage with, or just to be alone without the distractions of home. He considered it, and decided that he would stay the entire day.

The day was an easy going one for the most part. The two sixteen-year-old Learners tend to bring a lot of energy and novelty of experience to each day, but with one out the other one found moments to be with himself. Meanwhile, the two youngest Learners paired off together, while the two tween-aged Learners also paired off. The younger ones did their usual of digging in the sand and playing on the edge of the lake. I try to keep my distance from Learners who are engaged with each other so that they don’t feel as though I am watching over them, so I don’t often hear the content of their conversation. But on this day I could hear them talking through very large numbers. An interesting critique of unschooling and Self-Directed Education is that if kids are not forced to learn how to read or write, or if they are not forced to sit through mathematic classes, that they will never learn basic literacy or numeracy. It is a critique without basis because virtually everyone who wants to be a part of broader society wants to learn what broader society values, to include literacy and numeracy. Although Abrome is a very young community, we have seen multiple young people come into our community unable to read or write or work with numbers. And in each case, given the freedom to not engage with any of it, each Learner has, when they chose to, voluntarily and quickly learned what schools stretch out and painfully impose on children.

The two tweens spent a lot of time hanging out together in the sun, telling stories to one another. The oldest Learner who had spent much of the morning with herself came over to the area I was sitting in and struck up a conversation with me, and then with the sixteen-year-old Learner. I stepped away and noticed that at that time that the Learners had broken off into three pairs of conversation. The folks who question whether kids can learn reading, writing, and arithmetic without formal schooling are also the same folks who ask, “but what about socialization?” The schooled mindset does a fabulous job of convincing much of society that children would waste away if not for adults shaping their time.

Three pairs of conversation

The sixteen-year-old who had considered going home was walking near the edge of the lake and noticed a large, mostly submerged branch that had somehow found its way next to the retaining wall. As he focused on it it drew the attention of the other Learners. We noticed that there were a bunch of zebra mussels on it, and he grabbed a twig to see if they were still alive. Eventually he decided to pull it out of the water. He could not, so he enlisted my help and we eventually got it up on the wall. There must have been a hundred zebra mussels all over it, as well as plenty of algae and a fishing line. The sixteen-year-old unworked the fishing line and debated fishing with it, much like they did last week. The younger Learners spent their time focused on the zebra mussels. We eventually put the large branch back in the water so that no one would get sliced by the shells of the mussels, again.

With the Learners all engaged with each other or doing their thing I got to sit down and play with my Rubik’s cube. I had made it an intention to learn how to solve the Rubik’s cube no later than Friday, and after the previous week I was only getting tripped up with two steps of the solution. The Rubik’s cube fever had spread (we are good with certain things spreading, just not Covid) and the two youngest Learners had brought Rubik’s cubes with them that day, as well. And just like that, everything clicked, and I solved it! And then I did it a few more times to make sure it was no fluke. The two younger Learners then reengaged with their Rubik’s cubes. We joked about having everyone at Abrome learn how to solve it so that when someone came along and said, “do they even know how to do basic algebra?” we could respond, “do you know what algorithms are? Watch this! What did you even go to school for?”

As the day wore on the sixteen-year-old who was going to go home decided to ask me for a knife so that he could carve some wood. The younger Learners ran around and played all day. The tweens continued talking to each other. And then we had our afternoon roundup at the dock, and then worked our way back to the pickup spot. It was a good day, even without having told the Learners what their learning objectives for the day would be.

Unlimited free play should be a requirement in every school

Day 41 of AY20-21: navigating some ups and downs

Monday was day one of week three of the third cycle, or day 41 of the 20-21 academic year. Facilitator Lauren and I started our day early and chilly at a park in south Austin, masked up, and physically distanced so that we could meet with a potential Facilitator that we are really excited about. I had already met with the potential Facilitator online, but this was our first chance to meet in-person. We talked about our philosophy of education, the way that we try to be with the Learners, the culture we are trying to build, and our focus on consent, anti-oppression, and liberation. The potential Facilitator talked about their history, how they navigate different settings, and their focus on building community. It was a great meeting and a great way to start our day.

While I went in the day hopeful to be adding people to the Abrome community in the near future (a Facilitator and two prospective Learners), I was also weighed down by the possibility of people leaving the community, as well. In particular, losing people around some of our more stringent Covid-19 protocols. These protocols allow us to more safely be together during pandemic, except in cases where we go fully remote because everyone should be staying at home, but they can also be challenging for families and Learners who want more flexibility in how they may show up at Abrome or how they might interact with people outside of Abrome. This concern was coupled with quickly rising numbers of infections in our region, in the state, and across the United States. The protocols we have implemented help protect our community from Covid-19, but because most of society is not approaching the pandemic the way we are, including conventional schools, I was expecting that we would be forced to go partially remote by Thanksgiving, and fully remote sometime in December.

This mix of hope for the growth of our community with discouragement for the potential departures from the community, and the toll the pandemic is having on broader society left me uncertain about how the day would unfold for me and our cell. When we started our day we had a smaller crew than usual, with three Learners being absent for the day. Because we are operating in small groups during the pandemic the absence of just a couple of Learners can have a negative impact on the level of excitement of the people who show up. And on Monday morning that excitement deficit was palpable, and came through in the one line intentions the Learners wrote down: don’t freeze, hang out with [Learners who were absent], don’t die, not walk up the hill. I put on my best face in the hopes that I could lift their mood.

After the morning meeting the crew decided to walk to the lake. It was a normal walk to the lake, like any other day, but about halfway there one of the older Learners demanded that we all take notice of the stream that was aggressively flowing in the wrong direction. It was fascinating and we began to talk about the reasons why water would be rushing the opposite way. One theory was that the dam upstream had burst and a catastrophe was afoot. Another theory was that they were just releasing water from the dam upstream and that was pushing water upstream. I quickly checked twitter just to verify.

The stillness of the lake was beautiful; a bit eerie

When we go too the lake we just enjoyed the views. The lake water was higher than we had seen it all year, and it was remarkably still. It was tranquil. Every Learner just took it in. The temperature was quickly rising from the cold of the morning to what would turn out to be a very warm November day. It was a good day to be in nature, and not the worst day to have some time for solitude. I set up my chair and sat down and let the Learners know that I was available for them, if they wanted it.

Taking a nap

One Learner chose to spend his time in my orbit, not really talking to me, but just being around me. Another Learner pulled out her comics to work on. The two older Learners approached me and asked if they could borrow knives so they could whittle away on some sticks while chatting with each other. I gave them the knives, and they rotated between looking for sticks on the ground to carve, looking for pecans to eat, and sitting down and carving the sticks or eating the pecans while in conversation. The younger Learner took advantage of the sun and the warming temperatures to take a nap.

Appreciating nature with two feet in the water

With the absence of the two Learners she had hoped to hang out with, the Learner who chose to work on her comics took breaks every once in a while to notice and experience the changes that were taking place in nature as we moved through autumn, and to enjoy the uniqueness of the lake that day. At one point she took of her shoes and stood on the beach just staring across the water at the shoreline. While it was disappointing for her to not be able to spend time with her friends, it seemed that being without them opened up an opportunity for her to notice and take in the beauty of her surroundings.

One of the two sixteen-year-old Learners brought his bike for the first time, which allowed him and the other sixteen-year-old to take turns riding it, to examine the operation of it, and to connect over it.

Although I made myself available for the Learners, the older Learners chose to hang out with each other while the younger Learners chose time by themselves. Although the younger Learners did remain fairly close to me. I pulled out my Rubik’s cube and continued to toy with it, as I had almost memorized the algorithms to solve it, but I was not quite there.

The six-year-old Learner who felt he had nothing to do without his friend showing up, and who chose napping in the sun over interacting with anyone, eventually shifted his attention to a patch of dirt nearby. I saw him drawing in it with his finger, and then wiping it clean, and then drawing in it again. I walked over to see what he was doing and I noticed that he was practicing writing some words that he knew.

At the end of the day the Learner who was working on her comics and enjoying nature for most of the day offered to lead the afternoon roundup. Then we had a pleasant walk back to the pickup point and everyone seemed to be in a better mood than they started the day with. As for me, I was pleased with how the day evolved. I also used the day to refocus my thoughts on the potential of adding a Facilitator and adding new Learners than I was over the possibility that we might lose some community members due to our Covid protocols, which I considered out of my control at that point. As the Abrome day came to an end I made a note to reply to each one of emails from the prospective community members that were sitting in my mailbox.

Day 40 of AY20-21: boredom comes through for the win

As I sit down to write this blog post at 7:00 a.m., a school bus drives by. It depresses me that conventional schooled kids are being forced to go to school so early. Many of the Abrome adolescents do not get enough sleep—yet they get an extra three hours to play with each night relative to their conventional schooled peers. At Abrome our day begins at 10:00 a.m. It depresses me even more that conventional schooled kids are coming together with teachers inside classrooms for seven hours a day during an uncontrolled pandemic. Nonetheless, I cannot spend all morning slapping my forehead over the lack of care that community leaders continue to display during this pandemic year, so I’ll get back to writing about Abrome.

Yesterday I wrote about one great day for one Learner, focusing entirely on that Learner’s experience for the day. Well, not everyone had that type of day, which was kind of the point of the blog post. Other people had different experiences. Like two 16-year-old Learners who said that there were bored for much of the day. I moved into Friday, the last day of week two of the third cycle with hopes that they would turn that boredom into something meaningful.

Goofing around with the panoramic pictures

Friday started as most days do, with Learners trickling in over a 30 minute period. They wrote down their intentions which included sleeping, eating, drinking water, reading, listening to music, watching stuff on iPhone, watching netflix, swimming, playing with Rubik’s cube, not dying, not dying, and to do nothing but to do everything. We then debated where we would hold our morning meetings, as Friday’s meetings are the longest of the week. Most of the Learners wanted to move directly to the lake, while the two youngest wanted to stay in place where there are two large fence posts that they can sit on. One of the older Learners emphasized that they were outvoted so we should just go to the lake. I intervened and once again reminded them that we focus on consensus based decision making, not on majority rules. Both sides were holding firm to where they wanted to meet. Then an older Learner suggested that maybe we could hold the meetings at one location this week, and then at the other location the following Friday. Everyone agreed to go with the suggestion, and then we settled into a nice morning meeting, Check-in, and Change-up, with lots of participation.

When we got to the lake the older Learners lingered nearby, perhaps because they were bored. I asked them what types of special interest cells might make sense as we looked forward to future cycles. The cells we discussed that made the most sense included a full-time Flying Squads, camping and survival, biking, service (focused on social justice), driver training (for Learners with driver’s permits), and no toilet (nature in places with no public bathrooms). I then tried to take a panoramic photo of everyone who had begun to scatter about, and the two bored Learners jumped into action so that they could be in the photo twice. The younger Learners, meanwhile, went to the beach to dig in the sand.

As the older Learners sat on the dock they listened to stories being told by one of the Learners about some of the more exciting moments at Abrome before the pandemic. And then boredom set in again, and the two sixteen-year-old Learners just sat there looking around. Then one of them mentioned that there was a lot of garbage in the fenced off section of the dock (where a beam broke and it had begun to collapse) and that perhaps they should pick it up. In an effort to stave off boredom they jumped into action, climbing up and over the fence, and using a garage bag I gave them to gather up all of the trash that was both an eyesore and a threat to wildlife. They picked up bottles, bottle caps, cans, cigarettes, empty cigarette packages, discarded cigars, clothing, food packaging, tissues and napkins, fishing line, fishing lures, and parts of a broken fishing rod, among other pieces of garbage. They then threw the garbage bag over the fence and the other older Learner walked it over and placed it in a garage can. I guess boredom can turn people into good citizens.

Ready to spear, grill, and eat some fish (on some future date)

While one of the Learners jumped in the water and began acting out a variety of scenes to amuse the younger Learners, the two bored sixteen-year-old Learners began working with the discarded fishing equipment that they set aside during their pickup. They decided that they were going to recreate a fishing rod and fishing line so they could go fishing. That led to a short conversation as to whether or not it was legal to do so (they said they would catch and release if they actually got a bite). The effort to use the broken fishing rod proved ineffective, so they then focused on just using line and tossing it into the lake. As one of the sixteen-year-olds ran with that effort the other one asked if he could borrow a knife so that he could fashion a spear, ostensibly to be used in the future for spear fishing. By the time he had finished making the spear the other sixteen-year-old had tossed his line (with bobber, lure, and hook) into the lake many times, all without a bite.

Then things got unboring, fast. The youngest Learner, who had jumped into the lake, was trying to climb out of the lake and in the process found a zebra mussel with his foot and sliced it open. He immediately called out for help and when I got over there he showed it to me just as blood started to pour from the cut. I quickly pulled out my first aid kit and stopped the bleeding. I then contacted his parents to let them know what had happened, and his mom said that she would make her way there to take him home. I turned to the sixteen-year-old Learners and asked if they would watch over all the others while I carried the young Learner to the pickup spot (about 500 meters away). They said they would, and I took off with the next youngest Learner carrying the injured Learner’s backpack.

After the injured Learner’s mom picked him up, the other young Learner and I returned to the rest of the crew. We talked about the injury (it might need stitches, yes it was a lot of blood, yes zebra mussels suck, yes the Learner will probably be back with us on Monday) until everyone got it out of their system. Then one of the sixteen-year-old Learners proposed playing a game, and then further suggested that it be mineral, plant, animal. After a brief introduction to the rules of the game (must ask yes no questions, can only guess three times), we began, with six of us fully engaged in the game. We played many rounds of the game for well over an hour until it brought us to the afternoon roundup.

As the day ended it was quite apparent that boredom really can open up opportunity for something more meaningful.

Day 39 of AY20-21: one great day for one Learner

In the Self-Directed Education world, Learners get to make of the day what they want to. If a Learner at Abrome says they want to sleep all day, so be it. There is probably a reason they need to sleep. Maybe they were up all night, maybe they are just exhausted by the world around them, maybe they just want to escape, or maybe they are going through a growth spurt. We honor their needs and support them in the ways that we can. On the other hand, if a Learner at Abrome says their intention for the day is ‘freetopia,’ meaning they want to just allow the day to unfold, without much intention or direction, then they are free to do so. Sometimes this leaves the Learners bored. Sometimes it leaves the Learners frustrated by what they did not or could not do. Sometimes it results in conflict that we get to work out. Each of these possibilities is fabulous because it allows the Learner to learn about themselves, their relations, and it helps prepare them for future growth. Not every day in a Self-Directed Education environment is going to impress someone who wants to see that the kids are constantly learning (by which they mean being taught academic content). But learning is always happening, whether educators and skeptics want to admit it or not. We welcome it however it comes.

On Thursday one seven-year-old Learner had a particularly great day. We started off the day with a gentle, alternative path to the lake where all the Learners wanted to spend their day, again. Along the way one of the young Learners noticed a long branch with a hook at the end so he grabbed it and dragged it 300 meters to the lake. The walk to the lake turned out to be a nice little workout for him.

At the lake he played with the other Learners but kept the branch near the entire time. The branch was used to probe at trees, in puddles, and in the lake. At one point he went to the end of the dock and dipped it into the lake to determine how deep the water was where we often jump in. Trying to get the branch all the way to the bottom was a bit challenging, as the branch floats, and it was pretty big relative to his body size, and the currents of the lake kept pushing the branch around. But he finally got it to touch the sand as he probed to make sure that what he was touching was actually the bottom of the lake. When he pulled the branch out he told me that the lake was about 11 feet deep off the dock.

After he pulled it out of the water we noticed that several zebra mussels had attached themselves to the branch while he was probing the bottom of the lake. Zebra mussels are an invasive species that have become quite a problem up and down the Colorado River.

From trash to treasure, we retrieved the scissors

The Learner then used the branch to try to retrieve some scissors that the Learners recently spied at the bottom of the lake, just off the other side of the dock. Like measuring the depth of the lake off the deep end of the dock, snatching the scissors was difficult because of the currents and waves of the water that pushed around the branch, as well as the waves made by the branch on the surface of the water that distorted the view of where the branch was coming up against the scissors. The Learner tried his best, but I think muscle fatigue started to set in and he asked me to finish the job for him. He was more than pleased when the scissors were out of the lake and on the dock. It’s interesting how the Learner grabbing that one branch led to so much learning and fun.

Next the Learner jumped in the water, a did three other Learners. In the water they played a variety of games with each other until the Learner’s sister stumbled upon the discovery that cypress tree seeds when broken open release a colorful film on the water, sometimes in beautiful circular rainbows. While everyone seemed impressed by this discovery, the seven-year-old Learner was transfixed with amazement.

Next the Learners chose to play around in some of the clay-like mud at the edge of the lake. The mud is particularly good for forming into mud balls to see how far they can be thrown. During this process the Learner feared that he saw a snake and that it might be a venomous snake. Of course that brought others in to investigate for themselves. But for the life of us, we could not see this snake that he said was staring us in the face. It was a matter of magnitude, as we assumed a snake would be sufficiently large, and he wanted us to think smaller. Eventually, when we zoomed in, we saw what he was talking about. It was the hammerhead flatworm, an invasive species that unfortunately feeds on earthworms. Like many venomous snakes, though, it did not have a rounded head. It instead, as the name suggests, had a hammerhead. Once we agreed that it was not a snake, the Learners got back to playing.

Throwing mud balls is helped by good form

Eventually the seven-year-old Learner reentered the water, as did the others Learners, but he decided to do so with a splash. He decided to climb up onto the railing of the dock where he and another young Learner sometimes sit for afternoon roundups that are held on the dock. Then he faced his fears, and jumped in. That effort later convinced his six-year-old friend to do the same.

The Learner was invigorated by the jump, and the adrenaline encouraged him to go even higher. So he climbed up onto the roof of the dock and prepared to jump in from there. But looking down from above it looked far scarier than the previous height. We assured him that it had been done many times before by members of the Abrome community, to include me and the two sixteen-year-old Learners present. I then broke out my phone and showed him video of one of those Learners jumping off the boathouse, which is even higher than the roof of the dock. He wanted to jump, but he could not find the courage to take the final step off the roof.

At that point one of the sixteen-year-old Learners asked him if he would feel better seeing one of us jump in from there. The seven-year-old Learner said it would, so the sixteen-year-old Learner said that he’d do it. Thing is, he had done it twice, but each time he did it was kind of terrifying for him. The second time he did it he did not land smoothly, either, which looked painful. Nonetheless, he prepared himself to climb up and make the jump to lend courage to the younger Learner. But he didn’t have to do so, his mere willingness to climb up and jump gave the younger Learner the will to take the leap.

Yes, the Learner had a particularly great day on Thursday. And the great was made possible because he was given the freedom to have such a day in a psychologically safe community, but it was also made possible because he had the freedom to not have such a day.

It was a great day for the Learner standing on the dock