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