On Friday we wrapped up our first week outdoors. We are now one week into the first of eleven cycles that will run through mid-July. The week was fun, and had lots of learning experiences embedded in it. Some of the fun:…
read more“Hey can we do somewhere inside today because I don’t wanna sit on wet grass.” That’s the question I saw from a Learner when I checked the Abrome Discord channel in the morning. The first day of the academic year was a…
read moreBringing students, teachers, and staff together inside classrooms and schoolhouses during a pandemic is tyranny. School was already tyranny for children for all the non-pandemic reasons: forced attendance, age segregation, lack of autonomy, sit down and shut up, forced curriculum, testing, homework,…
read moreToday I finished reading Education and the Significance of Life by Jiddu Krishnamurti and I was shocked by the bluntness of two paragraphs directed toward parents. He also had some tough questions for teachers. But for the benefit of those who do…
read moreIt is not easy to grow a Self-Directed Education (SDE) community. Society does not trust children, and Self-Directed Education is rooted in trust. Most adults believe that children must be told what to learn and when to learn it. Many adults find…
read moreSkeptic: What is Abrome? Me: Abrome is a Self-Directed Education community in Austin, TX, that serves young people and their families. Abrome provides Learners with a psychologically safe space that is anti-oppressive and consensus based, where young people have the autonomy to…
read moreYesterday was primary runoff election day in Texas and that got me thinking about politics. One often repeated argument for schooling is that it teaches students to become “active participants in democratic life.” If so, given the state of our democracy, could…
read moreThis week we rolled out a contingency planning document to help Learners and their families envision what Emancipated Learning will look like as we navigate through the challenges of Covid-19. The planning document details practices and protocols that Abrome is implementing that…
read moreWhen Abrome decided to launch an Austin chapter of Flying Squads, we hoped to be joining a fun, liberatory, and supportive community of Flying Squads from across the country (and someday the world!). What we didn’t expect was how seriously they took…
read moreAbrome is a Self-Directed Education (SDE) community in Austin, TX, that is now in its fourth year. As Facilitators (adult staff members), we regularly critique our approach to interacting with Learners and building community, as well as how the culture of Abrome is…
read moreThis afternoon I came across a two-year-old article on “Perfect, Freaky Olympic Bodies.“ One thing that most so-called education experts continue to ignore when they talk about how ‘every child is a genius,’ or ‘every child can succeed (in a simplistic, standardized…
read moreIt is easy for parents to get caught up in the belief that it is their responsibility to identify a pathway for their child to proceed down en route to a successful life, and then direct them down that pathway. Likewise for…
read moreProfessor Peter Gray argues that society can free children from coercive schooling through learning centers that will maximize their ability to educate themselves without depriving them of the rightful joys of childhood. We agree. Abrome is a self-directed learning community that opened…
read more</iframe>”>https://youtu.be/tbjvBtg21kw
read moreAntonio Buehler was invited to the Laura Bush Community Library to speak about alternatives to traditional education. We hope you enjoy this presentation. </iframe>”>https://youtu.be/JnflkNVoHYg
read more