Day 125 of AY20-21: saying goodbye to a friend

April 21st was day 125 of the pandacademic year and it was also our last day with a Learner who was moving to Los Angeles. We expected the day to be a sad one but we were determined to make it a special one nonetheless. Before the Learner who was leaving showed up, the Learner’s mom texted that he did not want a big deal made out of his final day, so we were planning to honor that. But I did tell him, I’m really going to miss you” just before I had planned to hand him a box of organic jelly beans that he often ruminated on when we were in our Flying Squad the prior cycle. But he cut me off with, “don’t say anything about that.” I said, “oh, well, I just wanted to give you something …” as I pulled the jelly beans out. He grabbed them, held them to his chest, and said, “oh my God, I love you!” I said, “you love me?!?”, and he said, “no, I’m talking to the jelly beans.” It was perfect.

Facilitator Lauren and I recognized that moving away from the lake for part of the day has had a really positive impact on that Learner’s daily experience, as well as others, so we were planning to ask if we could take a hike early in the day away from the lake and then we would consider returning to it, later. As the other five Learners began to trickle in, Facilitator Lauren noted that some of them seemed underdressed for the colder than usual morning weather, and offered them sweatshirts to wear and hand warmers, and multiple Learners accepted the offer. Instead of launching into the meeting when the final Learner showed, I floated the possibility of taking the hike before the morning meeting and then settling in for a meeting. Everyone agree, and we decided that we would take a walk to the second waterfall. When we took off I decided to pull out my speaker and play some songs for the Learner on the hike.

By the time we got to the first waterfall everyone was in a great mood thanks to the music, and one of the Learners asked if we could hold our meeting there instead of moving to the second waterfall. Everyone agreed, and we settled in, but first we decided to enjoy the scenery and jam out to some more music. There were multiple requests, and there was dancing.

When it was time for the meeting an adolescent Learner offered to be the game master, and then I facilitated the meeting. I stated with announcements, and then everyone shared their intentions for the day. Next, I began to tell them a story that was an adaptation of the allegory of the long spoons where in hell someone finds that everyone is stuck at a table with elbows that cannot bend, so they cannot eat the delicious food that is laid out before them. I was about to explain how the scene in heaven was similar in layout, but how everyone was able to eat. But before I could get there another adolescent Learner asked, “why don’t they just feed each other?” I was so thrilled that he figured out the solution, as in the heaven in the story people were just feeding each other. His question was so sincere that it was apparent that he had not heard the story before. Finally, each of us shared what gift we hope to be able to give the world.

After the morning meeting folks gravitated toward a long gentle flowing portion of the creek to skip rocks, with some ‘experts’ helping to show the others the best techniques to get multiple skips. They had a blast and I slipped away to record the daily update video on Instagram.

One of the younger Learners who has been quite apprehensive about charting his own path through high grasses and shrubs soon found himself drawn into exploration. It was nice to see him playing in the woods for a change.

After all the singing, dancing, rock skipping, and navigating through areas with no paths, the crew was ready to swing back by the drop off spot, fill up with water, and head back down to the lake for the rest of the day. We went back at different speeds, with me going back with some of the slower folks. Along the way I stumbled across two of the youngest Learners acting as human statues, and they did a pretty nice job of keeping their bodies and faces stiff.

As I passed the Learners they very quickly ran past me and found the mulberry tree and immediately began to evaluate the ripeness of the berries. Soon three of them were harvesting and eating them, and then they decided to climb the tree, as well.

What a yummy harvest!

At the dock, some of the Learners set up in their usual spots. One of the Learners decided to have a conversation with me about Usual Cruelty, a book she was still working through that I had recently finished. We talked about some of the individual stories in the book that she found upsetting, and I tried to highlight how the stories were intended to give a human face to what happens to countless people because of how the “criminal bureaucracy” works. The conversation was shorter than I had hoped, but it was great to see her take the initiative to chat about a book that we agreed to read.

Harder than it looks

Meanwhile, two of the other Learners were busy collecting fallen branches so they could carve them with their knives. After fashioning them into spears, and then breaking them so that no dogs would injure themselves, one of them invited the rest of us to a workout. I agreed to the workout, but said that I would have to modify some of the exercises because of my wrists. The Learner who was leading the workout emphasized that everyone should do what they felt comfortable with, but he warned us that it would be a bear of a workout. It was way more than a bear. It was a killer workout. By the time I barely finished I knew I would be feeling it for days. For me, the best part of the workout was listening to a variety of old school workout jams and some intentionally horrible music (recorded off beat, or off tune on purpose).

After the workout was finished we were spent. We each settled in and just tried to recover, while drinking water, of course. But everyone in the crew was kinda spent from the excitement of the day. Some of the younger Learners played along the ..edge of the lake while one of them focused his attention on the ducks. Another young Learner broke out her fuzzy notebook and used it to write.

We then came back together for the afternoon roundup, which one of the adolescent Learners volunteered to lead. She started with announcements and then shared two prompts focused on accomplishments and feelings of pride. But the ducks, John and Lisa McQuarkerson, ambled into the middle of a circle and stole the show. The adolescent Learner then took charge of the meeting again, and we each responded to the prompts.

Saying goodbye

We then made our way back to the pickup point where each Learner said their goodbyes to the departing Learner, and then went home. At the very end of the day I pulled out a card that the Facilitators had signed for the departing Learner, and another box of jelly beans. He did not even notice the jelly beans at first. The last thing he said to me and Facilitator Lauren was “ciao!” We are really going to miss him.

Meanwhile, at the other cell, they went chasing waterfalls, spent time pondering the meaning of life (or appreciating the beauty in nature), found some cool looking rocks, and took some naps.

Not sticking to the rivers and lakes

It is beautiful out here

Don’t worry, he’s not a giant about to drop a rock on another Learner

Catching up on sleep

Day 124 of AY20-21: a tale of two cells

Tuesday, April 20th was the second day of cycle nine and my first remote day. With both Facilitators Ariel and Lauren thriving as Facilitators I am taking a step back twice a week to focus on supporting prospective families and on tying up some loose ends administratively. Even though I am not going to be physically present twice a week, I planned to be in touch with Facilitator Lauren and available if she needed my support.

Day two was a beautiful, gorgeous day and the Learners showed up in really good moods. There positive moods helped lead into effortless and fun activities and discovery to include picking mulberries that are not quite ripe yet. Also, one of the Learners decided to showcase his beatbox skills while the other showed us some pretty classic dance moves. If they were born thirty years earlier they might have been child stars!

Mulberries!

The day was a great one for moving around, and two of the adolescent Learners came to Abrome with intentions to workout. One of the Learners went on a job, and another Learner led a workout that Facilitator Lauren participated in. It was a pretty intense workout, and the Learner said he plans to do the workout four times per week! One of the younger Learners watched the workout, but insisted that he was uninterested in participating in it. After the workout was over, the Learner walked away from the group to be by himself further down the shoreline. He was later seen doing his own pushups!

In addition to working out, there was also plenty of water drinking. Facilitator Lauren helped facilitate the drinking with a game of ‘never have I ever,’ and she also handed out some electrolyte packets for the Learners to put in their water bottles. The drinking game went so well that a younger Learner who has never been comfortable going to the bathroom at Abrome decided to nature pee twice. A pretty monumental step forward.

Although no one really got in water deeper than their ankles, there was a lot of time spent next to the water. One of the coolest observations of the day was seeing a water snake just floating on the surface of the lake. The Learners have largely moved on from being afraid of snakes to being aware of them, which is wonderful all around.

Two of the Learners stayed on the dock of the lake while three younger Learners walked to a waterfall where there was much more shade as they found it getting hot at the lake. And although few people found their way into the water on this day, all of them committed to getting into the water on Wednesday.

The snake was not the only animal that we appreciated on this day. There was a fuzzy caterpillar that we came across that looked like it could be menacing. One of the Learners offered Facilitator Lauren ten dollars to touch it, but she passed on the offer. But thanks, anyway!

Exhausted

The day was exhilarating but exhausting, and the Learners left quite content with the ways in which they chose to spend their day.

It was a slow day for the other cell, and a good one for reading. An adolescent read 200 pages of her book, and Facilitator Ariel finished the second of three long essays in Usual Cruelty. Another Learner who said he was not into reading books had a nice conversation with Facilitator Ariel, and it turns out there are some books that he likes. Facilitator Ariel then let the learner borrow his copy of The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. When the Learner was finished with the book he took a nap. The other Learner took out a knife and carved out some eating utensils for lunch.

The other cell is also a small one, but on this day they got word that a Learner who has been out since the winter Covid-19 wave may be coming back this week, as he got his second vaccination shot! As of day 124 of the pandacademic year we have four Facilitators fully vaccinated, and four Learners at least partially vaccinated!

Day 115 of AY20-21: limping along

Friday, April 2nd, was Day 115 of the pandacademic year. It would be a sparsely populated day with only three Learners showing up, with one of the Learners planning to be there for only half a day as she had a planned Girl Scouts meetup in the early afternoon, and Facilitator Ariel arriving late dealing with some insurance related issues because his car got rear-ended the day prior.

For this day, we decided that we would hold off on the Check-in and Change-up until Monday so that three Learners who were not present (they carpool together) could participate. In our morning meeting we each shared what was something that others could do that day to make us feel comfortable. The answers really highlighted the different wants and needs of the four of us who were at the meeting: acknowledge when I speak to you, staying at a pace I can keep up with (boot), going to the convenience store, and consider my feelings.

The request to go at a slow pace was because a Learner developed shin splints from all the walking that week, and was wearing a boot. We encouraged her to consider sitting it out for the day, and thought she would with the three oldest Learners not attending that day, but she was insistent that she wanted to be there. With her in a boot we felt that it made sense for us to slowly move toward the meetup point where she would me the other Girl Scouts, so we planned to walk along the south side of hike and bike trail toward the Congress Street bridge. This would allow us to walk on a softer surface, under more shade, and without the hassle and noise of car traffic.

I’ll be honest, it was a difficult morning for us. In addition to the low turnout (which can bring people down), one Learner showed up really upset about our focus on safety (e.g., drinking water, not running into the roads) and that energy stayed with him for much of the day. During the walk he tended to walk behind everyone swinging a long stick, which required multiple reminders to be mindful of people who are walking, running, or biking on the trail.

As we walked down the trail we turned around a bend with a view of the lake next to a small hill next to a baseball field. That led to a moment of sensory overload:

Learner 1: what’s that smell!?
Learner 2: trash?
Learner 1: dog poop?
Facilitator Antonio: I think it’s a dead carcass
Learner 2: oh yeah, look at that!
Everyone: 🤢🤮

Another reason it was a difficult morning for us was that another Learner was having challenges engaging with others in a way that made folks feel good. For example, the Learner wondered out loud why a duck was always in the field behind us at our meetup location. We agreed he might be there for food, and he said that maybe people were throwing bread out and I said that maybe he was there to eat snails. He said I was wrong—ducks do not eat snails. I said I was pretty sure they did, because I have seen video of them eating snails. He said that ducks would not be able to break the shells, and I said that they swallowed them whole. But since we were talking about birds eating snails and the challenge of getting them out of their shells, I said that roadrunners can eat snails by breaking their shells on rocks. He again told me that I was wrong. I challenged him and asked him why he felt the need to tell people they are wrong about something when they are not, and I said that it was okay to have gaps in knowledge. This has been an ongoing conversation that we will continue to come back to.

As we continued to walk, Facilitator Ariel met up with us on the hike and bike trail. By this time the struggles of one of the Learners became worse, as he needed to urinate and there were no public bathrooms where we were located on the hike and bike trail, but at the same time he did not want to walk down the path to find one. Then, he suddenly walked off in front of the group looking for a bathroom, leaving us (including the Learner in a boot) behind. Fortunately with Facilitator Ariel present we could accommodate the different speeds of the Learners.

After the bathroom break, we agreed that we would walk north on the First Street bridge, and then walk down Cesar Chavez, stop at a roadside restaurant for some Mexican food for those who needed to purchase lunch, and then walk south on Congress to the meet up point for Girl Scouts. We would walk by the houseless encampment that we previously went to.

We soon came upon two Austin Police Department cops speaking to two different houseless folks, with one of them being very upset and angry at the police. With Facilitator Ariel present, I asked the upset person if they wanted someone to stand there and observe the interaction, and she said, “yes, please.” I looked at Facilitator Ariel and he said that he’d stay with the Learners, asked me if I was good, and then I fell back and made my presence known. I kept my phone by my side in case I felt that I would need to begin to record. As Facilitator Ariel walked away he had a conversation with the Learners about why I would choose to observe the situation, why he asked if I was good, and what risk standing there posed to me. It was a good conversation for our social justice oriented Flying Squad.

After the cops left, I nodded to the houseless lady and began to walk back toward the Learners. They were already at the meetup spot for the Girl Scouts with some of the Learners eating lunch. I got back just in time to see off the Learner who was limping, and then watch the other Learners throw a frisbee around with Facilitator Ariel.

Now with only two Learners and a stellar 1:1 Learner-to-Facilitator ratio, we talked about how we wanted to spend the rest of our day. Both Learners said the wanted to walk back by a fast food restaurant and a corner store for food, and they wanted to pass by the playground we spent time at earlier in the week. We had a conversation about the challenges we have had getting back to the pick-up point on time during the cycle, and our concern that if we stopped for food we may not be able to make it. We came to agreement that if everyone was able to drink 2/3rds of their water, make time for me to film the daily update, and get to the fast food restaurant by 3:00 p.m., that we could make it back by the end of the day. Suddenly a day of frustration from the Learners started to shift, and they became much more intentional. Access to sugar and fried food can be a powerful motivator.

By the time we got back for the afternoon roundup everyone was in a much better mood than when we were that morning. Although the large intake of water and a milk shake left one Learner not feeling that great in the stomach. At the afternoon roundup we did rose-bud-thorn for the week, we discussed what we could practice that weekend, and what we would do to prepare for the next week.

Meanwhile, at the other cell a Learner received a birthday card; there was lots of climbing up, over, and around obstacles; and another danger noodle was admired.

Day 114 of AY20-21: I will answer that education survey

Thursday, April 1st, was day 114 of the pandacademic year, and it was April Fools’ Day! All six Learners showed up for Flying Squad, and all of us were on edge for pranks. At the morning meeting one of the adolescent Learners volunteered to be the game master while Facilitator Ariel served as the facilitator. We started with announcements and then awarenesses, and then we each talked about something that we wanted to focus on that day through the end of the cycle, and then we shared ideas for what we could do this week related to social justice. Unsurprisingly, most of the answers to the first prompt revolved around play, particularly at the park we spent much of the prior day at, and the answers to the second prompt were pretty evenly distributed between houseless issues, adultism, white supremacy and racism, the criminal injustice system, and fascist vs antifascist actions. It was a really good, thoughtful morning meeting.

Stretching breaks are needed for Facilitators

There was not much debate about what we should do that day, as the Learners were unanimously in favor of going back to the playground from the day before. Two of the Learners who were not present the prior day were particularly eager to check out what all the hype was. So we ventured out going at a slow pace as we were mindful of the knee problems that Facilitator Ariel was having.

Learner is on lookout for our safety

We stopped at a convenience store along the way so that a younger Learner could get his organic candy treat for the day. We also stopped at the intersection of Lamar and Barton Springs so that I (Facilitator Antonio) could stretch my muscles, particularly my hip flexors which have been really bothering me. I appreciate that the Learners and the stop light are understanding of my needs.

When we got to the park the Learners immediately fanned out to play and push some boundaries. The youngest scaled to the top of the climbing structure and served as lookout, to warn us if any trouble was coming our way.

Continuing to not play fair

It didn’t take long for the Learners to find themselves near the large slide where they engaged in a game of ‘rip the Learner away from the bar and pull him down the slide.’ Typically it takes at least two people, one holding each leg, with some yanking to dislodge a Learner from the bar. We continued to practice until we perfected our technique.

And it got even more violent, later. There was a Godzilla sighting. I feared for the safety of the random schooled kids who don’t know how to keep their heads on a swivel.

In between the climbing, sliding, wrestling, and dislodging there was a good amount of hanging out, eating lunch, and socializing. But what about socializing, right? Apparently we don’t need to age segregate kids and make them sit in class for six hours a day to be socialized.

Radical candor is needed in education

With the Learners so into each other the Facilitators had a lot of time to focus on other things like reading, as Facilitator Ariel did; or having deep conversations, like Facilitator Ariel and a Learner did; or talking about Abrome to curious adults, like I did with the mom of a couple of kids who were at the playground. I had planned to create handouts for when parents ask us what Abrome is, and was quite disappointed that I did not have any handy for the mom. I added that to my ever growing to do list.

Unfortunately, three Learners that carpool together needed to leave at 1:30 p.m., leaving only five of us in the cell. We still played more, and still had fun, but it was a bummer losing half the Learners.

Danger noodle!

I also got to answer survey that I received via text toward the end of the day. The question was, “Should we spend more or less time in classroom teaching students about social justice issues?” I responded, “Classrooms and schools should be abolished. Schools cannot be vehicles for social justice because they’re inherently oppressive and serve to protect the status quo. Good luck.” Unfortunately, most education surveys and studies are focused on how to tinker within the practices and structures of schooling, so they continue to ignore the underlying problems of schooling. My answers always get thrown out as outliers in these surveys.

We had some struggles trying to leave at the end of the day. I chalked it up to exhaustion and dehydration. Ah, dehydration. Drinking water has been a big focus for us all year, and it is a continual struggle. But on a positive note, no one played any April Fools’ tricks on the Facilitators!

At the other cell there was lots of fun in nature. Speaking of nature, they saw a danger noodle! They thought so, at least. They thought it was a water moccasin. But they pulled out their field guides and opened up a web browser on Facilitator Lauren’s phone and worked on positively identifying it. found that it was a non-venomous danger noodle, so not a danger noodle at all.