Educators need to break some laws

Overtly political post here.

We need to learn how to navigate the world we live in, but we should also try to live in a way that allows for the creation of a better world. Laws are rarely enacted for ethical or moral reasons. They are most commonly enacted to take or preserve power. That is also why laws are arbitrarily, selectively, and disproportionately enforced; with the impact of that enforcement falling most heavily on the most historically marginalized and oppressed peoples.

Some laws need to be broken.

Days 137, 138, & 139 of AY20-21: wrapping up cycle 9

May 7th, 10th, and 11th were the final three days of cycle 9 at Abrome. May 7th was a Friday and was the last scheduled in-person day of the cycle, and the 10th and 11th were our scheduled remote days prior to changing up the cell compositions for cycle 10.

Cycle 9 ended with a whimper in many ways. The three inclement weather days coupled with lower turnout on the in-person days led to decreasing attendance as Learners often opted to stay home if a bit tired or wary of the weather knowing that their friends might not show up, either. This seemed like an inevitable place to end up as the pandacademic year chugged along, but there was hope on the horizon in that it seemed inevitable that we would be dropping down to risk stage level 2, soon, which meant that we would be able to come back together in larger cells, giving Learners more motivation to show up, despite what would certainly be rising temperatures. On Friday, though, the low attendance gave the Learners the opportunity to really connect with other Learners and Facilitators in a bunch of one-on-one interactions.

Good spot for a nap

My cell chose to be walk to the waterfall in the morning, which was nice, and then walk back to the lake in the afternoon. During the walk to the waterfall I played music requests from the Learners, and at the waterfall I got into an extended conversation about rap music history with one of them. We are truly of different generations, yet we still found common ground on our taste for music from both eras.

When we got to the lake, I spent some time chatting with the youngest Learner before he decided that the day would be a lot of observing others and taking some naps. The oldest Learner, meanwhile, spent her time talking with another young lady who she had met at the park prior.

I spent a most of my time that day interacting with an adolescent Learner who prefers to spend his time interacting with other adolescents when possible, while the other two Learners chose to spend much of their time away doing their own thing.

Earlier in the year we spent a lot of time and effort trying to save tadpoles in a puddle that kept drying up, and we succeeded in bringing many of them along to adolescents, themselves. On this day we noticed that the puddle was once again filled with tadpoles, but that large numbers of them were stuck in the mud, as their portion of the puddle dried up. The Learner and I went searching for some discarded bottles or cans to use to try to save them, and the Learner ended up cutting open a can to serve as a water transport tool and a shovel.

We thought that the operation would be pretty simple, as the previously stranded tadpoles seemingly came back to life as soon as they had enough water, but on this day it appears we arrived too late, and many of them perished. Nonetheless, we persisted and we were able to relocate enough of the ones that were still clinging to life to the water, and it was fabulous to see them swimming free, again. We hoped that our effort may have allowed them to eventually grow into viable mosquito eating adults.

Although I had no plans to jump in the water that day, the Learner then convinced me to jump in the water. We considered doing a backflip off the top of the overhang to the dock, but we failed to overcome our fear on that day.

At the other cell Facilitator Lauren spent a good amount of time connecting with a Learner who has really struggled with connecting with others since he joined Abrome in January, but was not able to show up in-person until March due to the Covid-19 surge and then the Texas Freeze. But on this day, given a smaller number of people, he made what seemed to be large strides.

At one point, the Learner asked Facilitator Lauren if he could show her a clip from a movie while she was trying to eat. She said he could but would appreciate it if he could wait until later so she could finish her lunch. He then responded that sometimes people say later without given a set amount of time, and that leads him to keep asking, which becomes annoying. Facilitator Lauren acknowledged the awareness, thanked him for raising it, and told him that she needed 20 minutes. He then set off to explore, during which time he caught a toad. Later, she asked him if he wanted to share the clip, and he did. They then continued to talk for a long time.

Later in the day Facilitator Lauren went on a 45-minute walk with another adolescent Learner, connecting with him in a meaningful way for the first time in many months as due to them not being in the same cells or him choosing to be remote for multiple cycles.

There was also ample hammock time, with Facilitator Ariel, and Learners getting their turns relaxing in the great weather before departing for the weekend.

When we returned virtually on Monday we braced ourselves for low turnout yet again, but some combination of missing each other and anticipation for dropping to risk stage level 2 for the first time all year seemed to have gotten a decent number of Learners out of bed for the morning meeting.

As with many morning meetings, we shared announcements and then a prompt. The most exciting announcement was two of the older Learners saying they got their second Covid-19 vaccination shot over the weekend. Later, one of the older Learners dropped off call as soon as she responded to the prompt. I jumped on Discord and asked if she was okay, and she said she was, so I asked why she dropped off. She said she shared her prompt and was done. I explained that being there to listen to others is often more valuable than sharing, as it allows others to know that what they have to say is valued. She then jumped back on for the remainder of the call.

Next, we shared the calendar for the two remote days and went through an abbreviated Set-the-Week meeting. One Learner wanted to have everyone join him in gaming, and Facilitator Ariel encouraged him to formally hot the offering so folks would show up. We also threw in some water chugging to get folks hydrated, but it turned out that only Facilitators showed up for that. The hydration struggle continues.

Later, I had a nice conversation with the mom of an unschooling family that was considering enrolling, but they felt that 1 hour and 15 minute commute was probably too much (and I agreed with them). Then they surprised me with, “I so appreciate your calling out Chris Hyde and your emphasis on diversity and justice.” She was referring to the difficult letter I wrote pointing out how incompatible any form of bigotry or dehumanization of groups of people, in this case the houseless, was with any form of liberatory education work. Because we both exist in a world that values (or at least markets to) unschooling families, I could not allow an anti-houseless narrative to go unchallenged.

In better enrollment news, on Tuesday I walked a prospective family through the Family Financial Worksheet and confirmed a shadow for their child the next cycle. We had delayed asking for enrollment agreements from families until the summer as we wanted to give them maximum flexibility considering our lack of clarity over what our pandemic plan would be for the next year. We did not feel comfortable asking for commitments in the first few months of 2021. We knew most families would probably re-enroll, but we could not be sure without enrollment documents in hand. But having a family commit to shadow, with others also lining up to shadow over the final two cycles, made me feel a bit more secure.

The other highlights of Tuesday included one of the Learners turning on his video to show us his haircut, and Facilitator Lauren and a young Learner watching old cartoons and talking about them together. They chose to watch ThunderCats and The Croods.

After the afternoon roundup the Facilitators did our final After Action Review of the cycle. We felt exhausted from Zoom, surprise, surprise, and couldn’t wait to be back together in-person, hopefully in larger numbers, when cycle 10 was set to begin in six days.

Liberation means liberation for all

Self-Directed Education communities can be magical places where young people and adults come together to build relationships and find meaning through shared experiences and endeavors. But there are challenges that most SDE communities face, and if they are not addressed they can undermine the well-being of the community. One challenge is that Self-Directed Education communities are too often place based (e.g., in a building, within property lines), walling their members off from broader society. Another is that SDE communities often acknowledge the necessity of youth liberation, but do not take seriously liberation projects for other historically marginalized and oppressed populations.

We are proud to be a part of the Flying Squads network because it actively takes on both of the aforementioned challenges. As a practice, Flying Squads do not confine themselves to physical, private structures. We deliberately take up public space as an act of defiance against an adultist society that expects young people to be confined to schoolish settings. And the Flying Squads network recognizes that not embracing the liberation efforts of other people, particularly those who are most marginalized and oppressed, would merely reinforce the dominant sentiment that education is a tool to be used to help certain students position themselves to rise to the top of a hierarchical society, instead of helping to create an inclusive and just society.

By addressing these two concerns in tandem, Flying Squads promotes bringing young people into the world, and extending the concept of community outward, to include everyone, including those that society wants to wall out or wall in.

The why of pulling kids out of conventional schools

Abrome is a member of the Agile Learning Centers network because of a shared commitment to liberatory ideals. We believe that in order to help co-create a better world, we must actively work against the many forms of injustice that exist within our society, to include the oppression of young people. Abrome is a place for young people to practice freedom in a community that values consent, practices consensus, and centers the needs of those most impacted by our decisions and actions. We seek to provide an alternative to conventional schooling and dominant culture.

From the outside, the struggle to emancipate young people from conventional schooling environments may sometimes seem to put us on the same side as people who are not seeking liberation for kids, but are instead trying to maintain their privilege or to hack the game of schooling. Some want to protect young people from the indoctrination of schooling to shield them off from society so that they can indoctrinate them at home. Some are okay with hierarchy and domination so long as their children benefit. We are no more interested in lifting up the voices or allying with such groups than we are of doing so for those who want to “improve” or “fix” schooling, which will also, by design, perpetuate the harms of the status quo.

Days 135 & 136 of AY20-21: what should we do when we see harm?

Wednesday, May 5th was our 135th day of the pandacademic year. On this day, I facilitated the morning meeting for the cell I was a part of. I prepared three prompts for the meeting that I had hoped would spark an interesting conversation for our group that ranged from the youngest to the oldest Learners at Abrome. The prompts were: (1) When society is doing something harmful, what should you do about it? (2) What is society doing now that is hurtful (locally, state, nation, world)? (3) What should you do about it? The meeting stretched on as everyone took the prompts seriously, with each sharing their thoughts. One of the adolescent Learners who is normally quite reserved opened up in surprising ways during the conversation.

Relaxing in the water

Some of the ways that the group felt they should respond to society doing something harmful included helping someone who is affected by it; protest and rally to change the minds of leaders; introspect, talk about it, and participate in communities that are supporting people; help create alternatives that can undermine systems of harm; and “if you see something say something.”

What they felt society was doing now that is hurtful included racism; police abuse of power; removing and destroying homeless settlements; discrimination against AAPI and LGBTQ communities; devaluing and destroying the natural world; and the criminalization of people who are already hurting.

What they felt they should do about it included supporting the impacted communities, and donating or joining relevant organizations; filming the police; connecting people with nature, especially young people to reestablish connection with nature; supporting organizations that help people recover from the impacts of criminalization; and making books or movies about racism.

Great spot for sun

The day was going to be short for some of us, as one Learner was going to leave early for some skin art, I was going to drop some books off with a prospective family and schedule a call with another prospective family, and another Learner would end up going home because of an unfortunate run-in with a bunch of bugs. After the uncharacteristically long morning meeting, we walked to the river so that the Learner who had planned to depart early could enjoy some time there. After 45 minutes we walked back to the pickup spot together and then hung out on some large rocks talking about life while waiting for her ride.

After the Learner had left, I drove out to the home of four prospective Learners to drop off some books, and got to say hello to the 12-year-old girl member of the crew. I then returned to Abrome and scheduled a call with the family of four more prospective Learners for the next day, as well as trying to organize shadows for other prospective Learners who said they wanted to shadow with us before the end of the academic year.

Enjoying the temporary stream

Meanwhile, back at the cell, the Learners broke out the inflatable paddle board until one of the Learners who was on shore had a run in with a bunch of insects. The bites were nothing serious but he was ready to go home. On his walk back to the pickup spot they spotted a bunch of eggs that were located at the base of a tree and relayed that information back to the group still at the lake.

The rest of the crew did their best to enjoy themselves on the water but on this day a large number of local high school kids showed up for what would quickly turn into a very loud party, complete with fermented drinks and funny smelling cigarettes, if you know what I mean. Facilitator Lauren raised the desire to cede the space to the kids who seemed to have been let out of school early, as their presence (density, noise, smells) coupled with the increasing intensity of the heat seemed overwhelming. The other Learners agreed and they decided to take a walk to the first waterfall for the short remainder of the day. On their way they kept their eyes open for the eggs (later determined to be chicken eggs that someone had inexplicably placed there). It was a short stay at the waterfall, where they had their afternoon roundup. The discussed what was enjoyable about the day, what they had wanted to do but did not do, and what they wanted to do the next day.

Gaming in nature I guess

At the other cell, a Learner returned from his day off for his Star Wars birthday (May the Fourth be with you). Facilitator Ariel handed him the birthday card that all the Facilitators signed for him, and then the crew decided to walk to the location they dubbed “the cave” for their morning meeting. There, one of the adolescent Learners volunteered to lead the morning meeting.

While the walk was long, the Learners largely stayed in one place the entire day, enjoying the water and each other. Two of the Learners really focused on taking in all that nature had to offer them that day, soaking up the rays of the sun, appreciating the sounds of the water flowing by, and getting their feet wet and appreciating all that was happening on the bed of the temporary stream. Two of the Learners meanwhile spent much of their time playing video games on a phone. Not how I would spend my day but it worked for them. One of them did take some time to check out the water, and both seemed to appreciate the hike to and from the cave. At the end of the day another Learner led the afternoon roundup. He asked what everyone was excited about and consensus was that they were excited about the shadowers who would be joining us in the coming cycle. On the long walk back, Facilitator Ariel was able to have a deep conversation with one of the adolescents who is working through a lot in their life.

A great place to relax

Water fight!

On Thursday, May 6th, I was fully remote, focusing on administrative tasks. On the day I had a great 71-minute call with a family looking to shadow with us, and I communicated with other families, as well, to include one that may be moving from Mexico to join us! I was also compelled to write a blog post distancing ourselves from a nature educator in the area who has been vocal in his support of actively harming the houseless population as a means of ‘cleaning up’ the city. I also wanted to raise the awareness that educators have been complicit in the criminalization of the houseless. Too often many on the political left believe that if only we school more we will have a more tolerant, more peaceful society, but they ignore that the people run and are employed by the school come from our current society, and they ignore the explicit aims of schooling.

At the cell that I would have otherwise been at that day, many other Learners were also out. This left only one Learner and Facilitator Lauren. The Learner was given the option of staying home by his mom, but he chose to stay for the day and spend it one-on-one with Facilitator Lauren. But with flexibility in mind, they decided to relocate to another park for the day. The mom went home and picked up some water blasters and floaties, while Facilitator Lauren pulled out some water noodles.

At the park they went to, the young Learner thoroughly took in having Facilitator Lauren all to himself for the day. They got in a water blaster battle, played volleyball, sat in the sand, swam with noodles, and just enjoyed the green grass. It was a great day for both, and it would most certainly be the last time that only one Learner would be showing up for an Abrome day.

Meanwhile, at the other cell they had another hiking day. A long hike that gave the Learners plenty of opportunity to take in the beauty of the hill country in spring. When they finally settled down at a spot near the water, one of the Learners rested against a tree limb with his feet in the water. Nearby a toad was also appreciating the view, or maybe it was looking for food. The only thing that was not relaxing about the day for the other cell was that it was determined that there was a monster prowling in the water. Fortunately no one was hurt.

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 67 of AY20-21: remote, but grateful

And local schools are still open …

Day 67 was our last day of our first week of 2021, and it was the first entirely remote week of our pandemic year. With the numbers continuing to rise in the Austin area, and without a combined effort by the businesses and institutions of Central Texas to shut down to stop the spread of Covid-19, we expect multiple more weeks of being remote to come. Nonetheless, I tried to go into Friday with as much energy as possible.

Facilitator Ariel was leading the morning meeting and his charge was to make it short so that we would have enough time for the Check-in and Change-up without taking up too much of the day. When Facilitator Ariel started the meeting a young Learner said he wanted to lead the meeting. Facilitator Ariel suggested they split the prompt to accommodate the wishes of the Learner but also move through the meeting as quickly as possible. The young Learner asked what everyone’s favorite instrument was: piano, standup bass, ukulele, “one of these” (steel tongue drum), piano, drums, none, acoustic guitar, guitar, mayonnaise, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, none, and kazoo. Ariel asked what everyone had for breakfast: nothing, n/a (intermittent fasting), waffles and syrup, eggs and toast, leftover shrimp and feta over rice, bagel with eggs and bacon, banana, yogurt, air, blackberries with sun-butter, n/a, corn nuts, and air.

Morning meeting

We then moved into the Check-in and Change-up which I was leading. The Check-in, where we raise awarenesses that we can work on to improve our culture, is an expectation of all members of the community. They community came up with four awarenesses for this first Check-in of our first fully remote week of the year: sometimes people talk over others during meetings, some people are distracted during meetings, sometimes not enough people show up for offerings, and we need to keep an eye out for weird creatures. You may note that none of the awarenesses call out a specific individual whose actions may have been the impetus for the awareness because we are focused on what works for the community, and because we want to prevent Learners from feeling like they have to defend their past actions. The goal is to come up with ways to improve the culture going forward, not to dwell on the past.

I really dug into the awareness of not enough people showing up for offerings because it was framed as two potential problems: people saying they would show up and then not showing up, and not having a critical mass of people showing up to make the offerings meaningful or fun. The Learner who raised the awareness was in his first full week at Abrome and was frustrated by my efforts to clearly define the awareness. Facilitator Lauren, seeing his frustration, jumped in to help the Learner understand why specific language for the awareness was important. This helped him get past his frustration and more clearly articulate what he felt needed to be addressed.

Next we moved into the Change-up portion of the meeting. During the Change-up we identify what our community needs are related to each of the raised awarenesses, and then we come up with practices that we will try out for a week or two to see if they address the needs of the community. If the practices do not work, that’s okay, and we implement new practices in the future. The goal being that we make the practices part of our community norms so that the awareness is addressed and our communal needs are met. The thing about practices is that we all agree to implement them into the way that we move throughout the Abrome space, even when remote, even if one did not participate in the Change-up, but that practices are not rules that people get punished for if they do not quickly adopt them. They are called practices because we are practicing them, and we can let each other know when we are not upholding the practices, but no one is going to get written up for coming up short.

Change-up meeting

Identifying needs is particularly helpful because it focuses us on what our values are as a community, instead of just problem solving. For example, for the awareness of sometimes people talk over others during meetings we identified our needs as take care of others, take care of myself (self-advocacy), and everyone is heard.

The practices we came up with for that awareness were commit to actively listening to others, game shifting (e.g., popcorn, pass the ball), and muting ourselves when we are not speaking. We did the same for some people being distracted during meetings. We put aside the awareness for sometimes not enough people show up for offerings because the Learner who raised the awareness did not stick around for the meeting. Anyone can raise an awareness, but we have a practice that we will table it if the person who raised it does not want to stick around for the Change-up.

Finally, we addressed the awareness raised by a young learner of keeping an eye out for weird creatures. The needs we came up with were take care of myself (so I don't get eaten), and take care of others (so they don't get eaten). Seems logical. Then we came up with practices. The first was to keep your head on a swivel. If you don’t see the weird creatures coming at you from the side or the rear you will be in serious trouble. Then we added to only have one earphone in so that you can hear them coming at you. We the modified the awareness to keep an eye and an ear out for weird creatures.

7-minute workout

I then moved right into a 7-minute workout with two adult members of the community (still hoping some young people will join us soon), and then I moved right into the free write offering where one Learner was waiting for me. Unfortunately, while I was on Discord, I was not in the proper voice channel for the free write, so just as I joined the Learner who was waiting for me logged out. I reached out to her guardian for help to let her know that despite the delay I was available. The Learner jumped back on and we wrote together for 40 minutes, although I was a bit distracted and did not get much writing done during that time.

Among Us

After the free write I joined the Among Us offering that was being hosted by one of the new Learners. He expressed his frustration that people were not joining the offering. I remarked that we would have worked on the awareness he raised that morning had he not left for the Change-up portion of the meeting, and then we briefly brainstormed ideas for how he could make the offering more appealing to the other Learners. We ended up playing in public mode meaning that he only knew three of the people who were playing. After Among Us, the Learner I had a one-on-one check-in with called me on Discord and we had a short call, and then I responded to some emails and ate lunch.

Natural dyes offering

Meanwhile, Facilitator Lauren was leading a natural dyes offering where folks could make tie dye fabrics using kitchen products. Only one Learner and his guardian showed up for the offering, but they had a blast doing so. The biggest complaint was not enough white t-shirts available for dyeing, so it is probable that Facilitator Lauren will do another natural dyes offering in the future.

Ewok hunt

Facilitator Ariel was hosting the next offering, online games. Only one Learner showed up for that game but Facilitator Ariel reached out to one of the two Learners who has not been showing up for offerings to invite him to join him. If you’ve been reading my past blog posts you would know that remote learning is an insufficient replacement for in-person community in a Self-Directed Education environment, but it is what is necessary for us to hold space for Learners during a period when we need to be remote to protect our community and the Central Texas community from Covid-19. Facilitator Ariel will continue to invite the Learner to participate, as he has also done for the other Learner who had not yet joined us online this week. During the online games offering they ended up playing a game called Ewok Hunt in Battle Front II on PS4.

After the online games offering and before the afternoon roundup there was a thirty minute break. All of a sudden the other Learner who had not been showing up for meetings or offerings logged in! She immediately began joking around, interacting with the other young Learner who joined the call, and talking to Facilitator Ariel. It was great to have her back, and it did not escape the notice of the other Learners and Facilitators who began to log on for the afternoon roundup.

I lead the afternoon roundup by saying, “everyone has favorite things. Like Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favorite things. What is one of your favorite things?” Some of the favorite things from the Learners and Facilitators at Abrome include cooking outdoors, sitting in front of a fireplace on a cold day, walking barefoot outside, twisting up a swing and swinging from it, oxygen, my art, nordic and greek mythology, bike rides, my chickens, Facilitator Lauren reading to me, and games. Most also shared their highlight of week: working on bike, participating in our processing groups, the natural dye project, playing Among Us, talking to all the peeps, staying at home, joining the free write offering, one-on-ones with Facilitators Ariel and Lauren, and calling Ariel on Discord.

After the meeting two of the adolescent Learners stuck around to share gratitudes with the Facilitators. At the end of the week we sometimes share gratitudes as a way to recognize how fortunate we are (even if we are living through a period of pandemic, fascist violence, and racial injustice). One of the Learners said, “Abrome has gotten me out of a really dark place.” And the other said, “Im thankful for Abrome, for helping me when public school messed up my personality.”

One of the finished products

Day 66 of AY20-21: processing feelings after a difficult first week of 2021

Early Thursday morning I shared with Facilitators and guardians an Instagram post by our friend Abby from ALC-NYC on ways that we could support young people in the aftermath of Wednesday’s events. I also informed the Learners and guardians that we would host two processing sessions (1:00 p.m. for Learners, 2:00 p.m. for guardians) that they were invited to join us if they felt that it would be helpful.

Morning meeting

Facilitator Lauren led the morning meeting. To get a bead on where the Learners were at emotionally that morning, she asked them how they were feeling through two adjectives. One of the Learners asked what an adjective was so she explained. They then responded: meh, surprised, confuzzled, tired (4x), happy (3x), annoyed, excited, bored (2x), sick, grieving, frustrated, anxious, expansive, confined. It was clear that many of them were unaware or unconcerned about what had happened in D.C., yesterday, that younger Learners were generally happy, and that older Learners were more tired. Thank goodness their day starts at 10 a.m. instead of before dawn. Facilitator Lauren then asked the Learners what offerings they would attend and half said they were not going to attend any of them (and that’s okay) and the other half said they would attend the coffee and read (3x), the bike project (2x), the processing sessions, the book group discussion, Among Us, story corner, and Roblox.

Yet schools are still open in Central Texas …

After the morning meeting I stayed on Zoom with a Learner for our weekly one-on-one check-in. We were on Zoom because we had been having struggles that week connecting over Discord, but she said that her dad helped her fix the problem on her end so we could do Discord meet-ups in the future. She centered the conversation on the pandemic and about her frustration with people who will not do what it takes to stop the spread of the disease. We briefly discussed ethics and how they can shape behavior. She was hopeful that the pandemic would end by this spring but she said that we should be prepared for the worst, and I agreed that that was a good approach to take. I then asked her if she was going to go to the pet offering that ALC-NYC invited folks to join in on, where people would be sharing videos of their pets, and where she could share video of her pets. She said that she would think about it.

Coffee and read is growing

I then led a short 7-minute workout for two of us, and then joined the coffee and read offering led by Facilitator Ariel. At the offering each of us grabbed our books and found the most comfortable spot possible to dive in. For two of them it was stretched out on their couch. The coffee and read offering continues to slowly grow and hopefully by the third week of this cycle we will have what feels like a virtual coffee house full of bookworms.

Bike project offering

I then took some time to do some writing while Facilitator Ariel hosted his bike project offering, where he and Learners can work on their bikes. While multiple Learners indicated an interest in joining this offering only one Learner showed up. The Learner who showed up has been eager to participate in a majority of the offerings, which certainly makes connecting with her much easier. The challenge for us is to find ways to connect with the Learners who are not drawn to online offerings. My feeling is that because we are temporarily remote because of the pandemic numbers that the Learners are just biding their time expecting to be back in-person, soon. Given the numbers that may not actually happen until late February or even March.

At 1:00 p.m. Facilitator Lauren hosted her story corner offering while I hosted my procession call for Learners on Discord. None of the Learners showed up, but Facilitator Ariel did, and we talked about a whole slew of feelings about not only Wednesday’s siege of the Capitol but also issues of police accountability, racial justice, and broader liberation efforts. At 2:00 p.m. I jumped over to Zoom for a guardian processing call with Facilitator Lauren and three different guardians. Each of us shared our feelings about what happened Wednesday, and there was a wide range of emotions: frustrated, sad, overwhelmed, angry, fixated, exhausted, unsurprised, disbelief. We discussed a whole range of issues from how to protect ourselves and young people from the unrelenting news updates, what it means to have so many violent Americans who are living in a delusional state, how to deal with friends or family who got sucked into the delusions, to how do we create a better world. Halfway through the process Facilitator Ariel joined after his scheduled 1-on-1 check-in with a Learner just as Facilitator Lauren needed to leave for her scheduled 1-on-1 with another Learner. We then asked each other what support we needed and then some of the attendees expressed their gratitude for the role of the Abrome community in their lives (as Facilitators and guardians) and I felt that we all left in a better place.

After the processing sessions the Facilitators met to discuss two chapters of Raising Free People which we are all re-reading, but I proposed that we hold off and cover four chapters next week, as I was drained from the events of the week and they agreed. So that gave us an opportunity to just decompress and prepare for the afternoon roundup.

Afternoon roundup

At the afternoon roundup shared updates on our day. The Learner I met with earlier in the day told us that she dropped into the online pet offering with a bunch of people she did not know from NYC. I then opened up with the prompt, what is the one thing that brings you joy? The answers were quite wonderful: art, my dog, my boyfriend, my cat, my dogs and chickens, my floofsters (pets), when I write, baby laughter, when my dog looks at me with googly eyes, live music, my music (that he produces), friends and family. I then asked, what is something you can do to bring others joy? Some did not have ideas they were willing to share but some did: write them a letter, be present, make new friends, follow them on Roblox, publishing a book, show people my roommate’s dog (which he then did on camera), share french fries, not be annoying (especially after being annoying), being nice to others, and the most popular answer of all—make cookies and give some away.

Day 65 of AY20-21: no big deal, just an attempted coup

I entered into Wednesday with much disappointment about the state of American society. Wednesday was not necessarily unique in that regard, as it has been a sense that I’ve had many times over during the past eight years, and a sense that has slowly escalated. On Tuesday, during our end of the day review, one of the Facilitators informed us that the District Attorney in Kenosha, Wisconsin, had just announced that the police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back this summer would not be charged, a day after an Austin Police Officer killed someone in a road rage incident. Since mid-2012 I’ve understood that police are rarely held accountable for their crimes, and that policing is not an issue of bad apples going rogue. That it is an institution designed to oppress, marginalize, and control the populace in service of systems of power including white supremacy and economic hierarchy. The police killing of George Floyd last spring and the resulting uprising led to a hopeful moment of increased chatter about exploring abolitionist efforts to finally address the issue of policing seriously as a nation, but that was quickly shut down by both the political right and left as “too radical.”

In addition to the issue of policing, I remain frustrated by the situation with the pandemic. Central Texas is now unquestionably in the worst stage of the pandemic, and it seems as though most of the people and institutions have given up trying to seriously stop the spread of the disease. People continue to leave home to congregate with others indoors, restaurants and bars remain open, and schools remain open. And while local government has little authority to prevent irresponsible behavior by people and institutions, even when Austin does the bare minimum to limit potential superspreader events from taking place, the state comes in and undermines such efforts.

Still remote due to Central Texas’ unwillingness to stop the spread

Because the county is in risk stage level five, Abrome is fully remote. It would be irresponsible for us to bring Learners and Facilitators together during this period of uncontrolled community spread of the disease, even though we had been meeting entirely outdoors this pandacademic year. Being remote is an insufficient substitute for in-person Self-Directed Education (whereas it is often a godsend for students stuck in conventional schools), but we are focused on preventing spread within and beyond the Abrome community. All institutions should be asking themselves what they can do to contribute to stopping the spread. And it looks like we will be remote for a while, as people continue to fail to mask up, to congregate indoors, and to not stay home whenever possible; and much more significantly, because businesses and public institutions (including schools) have abdicated any sense of social responsibility by not voluntarily altering their own operations in ways that could influence people to engage in safer practices, or at least by refusing to serve as convenient sites of infection

Morning meeting time

Nonetheless, I tried to roll into the day at Abrome with as much joy and positivity as I could muster. I opened the morning meeting with a request that people please mute when they were not talking, to please not talk over each other, and to hold off conversations until the end of the meeting. That initial statement did a lot to make the meeting run much more smoothly. Trying to get folks excited about their lives and about the lives of each other I asked, “what is the most exciting thing in your life, or what are you most excited about right now?” There were a lot of really great answers: anticipating the Lego Skywalker Saga game being released in the spring, playing Among Us, getting out of bed to play COD with the boys, staying home (because of allergies), getting my driver’s license permit on the 20th, being able to play Among Us, Biden being elected and the vaccine being rolled out, getting a Nintendo Switch, ordering a book written by an Abrome Learner as well as two books recommended by Facilitator Lauren, organizing with a local racial justice collective, having set goals and plans for the year, and learning.

After the morning meeting I had a one-on-one check-in with a Learner who had just enrolled. Some new Learners are quite skeptical of the claims that we make about honoring their autonomy and supporting children’s rights. Some expect that we will eventually try to manipulate them, control their time and bodies, and employ more authoritarian practices to get them to do what we want them to do instead of supporting them on their unique journeys. New Learners are deep in the process of deschooling and the way Facilitators interact with them should not undermine that. We need to build trust before we can do anything else. So my meeting with the new Learner was one of just asking questions about how he was doing, what he was interested in, and what he was looking forward to. We talked mostly about getting other Learners to join him for online gaming.

Immediately after the check-in, I hosted the daily 7-minute workout offering that two other adult Learners opted into, and then I moved into my free write offering. Fortunately, another Learner decided to join me for free write, although unfortunately we could not actually communicate with each other. The meet up location for free write was on Discord and the Learner could not hear what I was saying and I could not hear what she was saying. I spent so much time trying to troubleshoot the problem (that remains unresolved) that I did not get to write during the session. The Learner said she would consult with her tech-savvy dad to see if they could fix the problem on their end.

After free write a Learner had organized a gaming offering and was trying to recruit people to play with him. I said that I was not able to join today, and that I was planning to join every other day (so Thursday). Instead, I called a prospective family that is looking at schooling options as they prepare to move to Austin this summer. The prospective Learner would be in Kindergarten and her mom told me that we had actually met through mutual friends when I was a graduate student at Harvard seven years ago. We had a really nice call about the education landscape in Austin, and I encouraged her to read Raising Free People, Free to Learn, and The Book of Learning and Forgetting, after which she would know pretty well whether Abrome would be a good fit or not.

Yoga time

Next up was Facilitator Lauren’s yoga offering which I dropped in on, as did an older Learner. In addition to the 7-minute workout I did earlier in the day, I had just finished a brisk walk before the yoga session, so I was feeling pretty good about continuing to move my body in healthy ways while staying remote. Yoga, as always for me, was a struggle as I was forced to move in ways that I am not used to. But it was much needed. After yoga, Facilitator Ariel hosted an online gaming offering while I had a support call with one of the Abrome families whose just enrolled Learner is not eager to participate in remote offerings or calls. He told me about how the Learner’s previous teacher in a nearby conventional school would ridicule students during remote learning, and how that may be contributing to his apprehension to jumping online with Abrome. We both agreed that the most important thing to do was to not force the Learner online, and to have plenty of patience. Trust is much more important than attendance.

I then had about 45 minutes until the afternoon meeting so I checked my phone and saw a bunch of notifications. Apparently an attempted coup was underway at the US Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., and of course I got sucked in. Having been privy to a good amount of information about the growing white nationalism movement in the US over the past six or seven years, in part because of my unfortunate run-ins with white supremacists who were helping to fuel the movement, I was left shaking my head at the scenes playing out that so many talking heads and West Point and Stanford people that I knew insisted “could never happen in America.”

I then noticed the language that the media and their guests were using during the attempted takeover of the Capitol. They were calling the Trump supporters, who were willing to use violence to subvert an election in order to keep Trump in power, “protesters.” Just protesters. My mind began to race as I tried to recall the much harsher language that was used by these same folks to describe the people who were protesting racial injustice and extrajudicial killings by the police in the streets this past summer, and ever since I really tuned into the struggle against the same eight years ago. Then I heard the media call them “anarchists.” Not once, but multiple times over. I was floored that these media outlets could see fascism playing out in front of their eyes yet they insisted on labeling it anarchism.

I had to pry myself away from what was happening for the afternoon roundup that Facilitator Lauren was leading. It was clear as people joined the meeting that some were quite aware of what was going on. Facilitator Lauren asked everyone if they were able to go outside during the day, and what they did if they happened to venture outdoors. Multiple Learners gave their response and then added that they had been watching the US Capitol Building get stormed. But there was not much of a desire to discuss it beyond that, and we were not going to force the conversation on the Learners. I made a note to myself that it would probably be a good idea to plan something for tomorrow for those who wanted to process it after more information came in that evening. After the meeting the Facilitators met briefly and called it a day.

After the Abrome day was finished I debated to what degree I needed to keep getting updates on what was happening. I considered that it might be best to unplug and check in later, so that I could take care of myself, or at least take care of work that needed to get done. It seemed that most all of the “protesters” were allowed to walk out of the Capitol Building after overrunning it, assaulting police officers, and ransacking offices. Many of the politicians who had been stoking the anger of those who overran the Capitol were suddenly denouncing what happened, and were now committing to support a peaceful transition of presidential power. So I figured that it probably was not going to escalate again in the coming hours and unplugged to get some work done.

But as I worked I kept analyzing what had happened in the back of my mind. There was a picture the media circulated of a Trump supporter walking through the Capitol with a lectern that he swiped. The media did not call him a looter. There was a video of a police officer fleeing from the mob. The media did not suggest that the officer should have opened fire because he “feared for his life.” There was video of members of the mob posing with police officers for photos as they left the Capitol. They reminded me of so many similar photos from protests all around the country this past year where Proud Boys and other white nationalists posed with cops after those same cops had assaulted people protesting police brutality and racial injustice. And I kept coming back to politicians and the media refusing to call the mob a bunch of fascists, and instead branding them anarchists.

They said that the attack was an attack on democracy and our way of life. That it was an attack on America. That it did not represent America.

And then I was taken back to the incessant demands of conservatives, moderates, and liberals alike that Colin Kaepernick and other athletes find more appropriate ways to protest, and then the great offense those same groups took to the notion of defunding the police. How they demanded that Black Lives Matter should spend their time lobbying politicians to end injustice in the most polite and non-disruptive ways possible, as opposed to being in the streets. How they could not endorse police killing people, but how they could no longer engage with the issue because a Target got looted. How they said they disapproved of white nationalists rallying in the streets, but how they were more disturbed by the antifascists who went in to protect the streets from being taken over by white nationalists.

I just reflected on the peculiar state of the society we live in. A society where fighting against injustice is seen as more disturbing than ignoring injustice. A society that criminalizes those with mental illness but makes excuses for the scores of millions of people who supported the delusions of a billionaire politician. A society that would rather fight for the freedom to put others at risk of contracting Covid-19 than committing to collective action to end the pandemic. The society we see before us is America.

And we won’t change America by trying to go back to the conditions that allowed us to get to where we are today. Instead, we need to recognize the humanity of all people, especially those who do not hold the reins of power. Especially those who have been most marginalized and oppressed. We need to recognize that oppressive institutions and social hierarchies exist, and we must work against them. We should not conveniently ignore them, and we should never support them just because they may not be directly harming us as individuals, or because they benefit us at the expense of others. Instead of working against those who are working for more liberatory and justice-oriented futures, we should invest our time and energy into doing the same. We should walk away from oppression and toward liberation.

And then I committed to going to sleep so that I could be present for the Abrome community the next day. I unplugged and was asleep by 9:30 p.m.

——

Cover photo: Elvert Barnes from Silver Spring MD, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Day 64 of AY20-21: being remote together and separate, online and off

Morning meeting time

We headed into Tuesday hoping to build on the positive first day of our pandemic-induced, fully remote experience for cycle five (assuming Central Texas doesn’t miraculously begin to take the pandemic seriously in the next couple of days). Facilitator Ariel led the morning meeting. Because we had a larger group he needed to balance the need to make space for people to share while protecting people’s time by not having the meeting stretch into the day too much. He started by asking everyone in the meeting to share an offering they were looking forward to over the course of the week. Half of the responses were diverse, and half were not. The diverse responses included free write, Roblox, nature journaling, yoga, bike project, bike project, a check-in with a Facilitator, and Minecraft. And six people said they were looking forward to playing Among Us, again. Facilitator Ariel then asked if anyone learned anything new yesterday. While there were some interesting responses such as there are 1 quadrillion ants roaming the earth (disputed) and dynamic IP isn’t good for whitelists, most of the learnings revolved around Among Us: Abrome Learners are too ‘big-brained’ to lose, being honest can help you win the game, Marlowe bullies me (said in jest), [Learner] is sneaky. While the goal was to keep the meeting short it started to stretch out as a couple of Learners kept jumping in to ask each other questions, set up meetings with Facilitators, or to try to organize gatherings on Discord. Before things got too out of control Facilitator Ariel adjourned the meeting and encouraged folks to communicate with each other on Discord.

After the morning meeting I had offered to tinker around with the Rubik’s cube with Learners who found it fun while we were in person, but with us being remote it just did not move anyone to want to participate. So after waiting around for five minutes I decided to do some easy administrative tasks and prepared for the 7-minute workout. I was pleased to see three folks show up for the workout, and it looks like we will have the same folks showing up each day, with hopefully some Learners dropping in from time to time. We are just holding space for the Learners and inviting them in if they choose.

Coffee and read

Facilitator Ariel followed up the 7-minute workout with a coffee and read offering, where we all grabbed some coffee and sat down to read. Much like my free write offerings the turnout for these offerings are not expected to be very large, and the only people who joined were me and Abrome’s oldest Learner. After getting a tour of all the bikes that Facilitator Ariel has in his apartment (among three people) while we brewed our coffee, we settled down to read. I was reading Curious by Ian Leslie for my Education Conversations book group conversation later in the week, the 18-year-old Abrome Learner was reading These Truths by Jill Lapore, and Facilitator Ariel was reading the Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature. The hour flew by but each of us came away quite pleased with the offering. Even though we were not directly interacting during the offering it was nice to feel as though we were in the same room, drinking our coffee, reading good books.

At noon I decided to join the Among Us offering that was so popular the day before. I joined the Learner who was hosting the offering as well as two other adolescent learners. They had to wait for me to figure out how to download the app on my tablet which had previously only been used to fly the drone, and they waited quite some time before I realized the tablet was so old that it was not able to download the app without a system update. Frustrated they asked if I could just put it on my phone, which I did. We then got to playing. While the Learners all find Among Us to be a fun game I was quite confused. I did not get the point of the game and ended up just running around trying to avoid getting killed. I realized that I could call a meeting so that we could vote to decide who the imposter was and that that was my best hope of winning any rounds. Yet I did not. I’ll give it another go in the future.

The American woodcock

Facilitator Lauren held a nature journaling offering at 1:00 p.m., and an older Learner decided to join her for it. Facilitator Lauren went on a hike just before the offering and saw an American woodcock among some prickly pear cacti, and decided to sketch the bird and share her observations in her journal.

Facilitator Lauren also had two one-on-one check-ins with Learners on Tuesday. Because we are entirely remote one of the Facilitators requests at least one check-in with each Learner each week just to touch base. Some Learners are often around and communicate, while some are only around for the morning and afternoon roundups. We also have two Learners who simply do not like being remote and do not regularly show up for meetings, either. So these one-on-one check-ins are really valuable for many of the Learners, and most certainly for the community, as we try to bridge this remote period during the uncontrolled community spread of Covid-19 in Central Texas.

At 2:00 p.m. I hosted a free write offering and was thrilled that two Learners showed up. The 13-year-old Learner who often shows up for free write during remote periods attended, as did the 18-year-old who was making the most of the offerings that day. The 13-year-old Learner chose to work on a new book that she had hoped to get published, the 18-year-old Learner did some stream of consciousness writing in her journal, and I worked on a blog post about how the problem is not so much remote schooling as it is the pandemic. After the free write was over I looked at the clock and saw that I had just enough time to rush off to a nearby park for my monthly jump in the water as part of my polar bear plunge commitment to the 13-year-old Learner. It was 70 degrees and based on weather forecasts this was as good as it was going to get. It was a cold dip in the water, but I am quite grateful to be in Austin during the winter as opposed to most other parts of the country. February is going to be rough though. I then rushed back to Abrome for the afternoon roundup.

Facilitator Lauren was leading the afternoon roundup and with one fewer attendee than the morning she decided to offer up three prompts. She asked the Learners what offerings they participated in, what the best thing they ate was, and what the best part of their day was. Because many of the Learners did not show up for any offerings they did not have an answer for the first question. But for those who did, the favorite was Among Us, with coffee and read coming in second. Nature journaling, free write, and the 7-minute workout all got a single vote, as well. As for food it ran from the healthy to the unhealthy: leek soup, bananas, dates, eggs, broth, chicken with rice, grilled cheese with turkey, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chocolate chips, ice cream, apple cinnamon Cheerios, Dino Nuggets, and Monster. The favorite part of the everyone’s day unsurprisingly included gaming for many: playing Rogue Lineage, playing Minecraft, playing Fall Guys, hanging with friends online, and playing with friends online. But there was also non-gaming favorites, as well: nature journaling, shaving all the hair off of their head, writing the first part of their new book, journaling, one-on-one with Facilitator Lauren, breathing, doing art, and visiting the greenbelt with a guardian.