Building My Domain Specific Advisory Team - Are You In?

One area for growth I’m looking at is the ability and inclination to ask for help.  I’m really quite poor at and I’d like to change that.  Ironically I LOVE to be asked for help and so it seems that if I get better at it, not only will my life improve but it will give others in my extended friendship network the implicit permission to ask me (and others too) for help, which means WE ALL WIN!

Here’s my idea.  I’ve always liked the idea of a Personal Board of Advisors but I want to ensure that mine is specific and sustainable.  That means I’m making a list of the types of support I know I might need.  My goal is to have a number of people who agree to be on my team in the area(s) most appropriate for them. 

If you volunteer yourself --or agree to my request-- then you can expect to occasionally hear from me with a very specific “ask” that is designed to take no more than 8 minutes of your time.  I absolutely promise!  Then you choose to offer a response by phone, email or Google Hangout as best suits you.   For those 8 minutes I will be an attentive listener/student and will deeply consider your thoughts on the issue at hand. 

I could (and will) ask people I know who fit these categories but I’m kind of excited by the idea that others in my extended network might have willingness and skills to share with me in ways I’m might not yet know. 

My Domain Specific Advisors

Writing and Publishing:  I have so many friends who have already written and published books.  My requests on this will likely be logistical.  If I know you’ve completed a book I might ask you anyway but if you’re explicitly willing to play with me here, YAY!

Technology:  If you’re generally good at tech and might be able to answer one-pointed questions related to Wordpress, Blogger, Facebook, Google Air and other new technology, all of which I love (but can be a little slow to grok) then super sweet! And thanks in advance!

Social Media Advice: I might throw out a request for ideas, brainstorming or a technical query on utilizing this specific technology area and knowing who feels super strong in this area would be really helpful.

Parenting Advice:  Ideally teenagers and young adults for this one!  My requests will likely be for your thoughts on a particular topic or input on how you would have liked your parents to support you vis a vis the issue at hand. 

Loving and Empathy:  There are special people who really have loving kindness down, or who are in a deep process with it like me.  If this is a special area of skill or interest for you then I might ask for input or thoughts when I’m struggling with a relationship or communication issue or need a reminder for self-empathy.  If you’re someone with NVC training, or other specific tools, wonderful. 

Mindfulness (especially for addressing stress and anxiety):  I know there are others who struggle with this and some of you have found good tools for mitigating stress.  I might ask for a reminder or for suggestions on tools. 

Getting Things Done (GTD):  You’re super organized and have tools you can articulate for those times I get frustrated with chaos related to time, space or things.  I will most likely ask for insight into what you do that works related to a specific challenge.  (Cathy, Tiago, ?)

Accountability Team: When I want someone to hold me accountable to something specific I will send out an email will a specific goal, obstacle or habit I’m trying to complete.  It will be specific and time bound and I will ask you to hold me accountable by checking back with me at a certain time. 

General Cheerleading Advisory:  This one if for friends who really like and believe in me and who are willing to be a voice for those times I get frustrated or discouraged.  I might just sent a request for a happy thought, a funny video, keep-on-keeping-on encouragement or I believe-in-your support.   (Susan)

OTHER: Is there an area of improvement or support that I’ve forgotten about or don’t even know I need and which you’d be willing to support in this way?  I’m open…

If you’re willing to be on my DSA Team then please direct message me on Facebook with your domain(s) and best email or other way to contact you.  And THANK YOU in advance.

Finally, where do you need support?  And why don’t you do this too?  I’ll sign up where I’m able!  Let’s get better together!

UPDATE: After posting this on Facebook, I received so many offers of domain specific support that I felt utter gratitude and deep support.  I'm super grateful and I look forward to utilizing the wisdom offered.  Yet, the offers of support alone have already made an enormous difference.  Thank you, thank you!  It's amazing how actions, small and large can truly change the world, one small piece at a time.  

Old Grove (Maggie and Jimmy) house concert at Alhambra

An Evening of Music With Old Grove

Friday October 18 at 6:30p - 8:30p at "Alhambra"

Join us as Maggie and Jimmy of Old Grove take us on a musical journey.  This indie, folk-inspired duo will be playing mostly original material. The allure of Old Grove's music comes from their unique instrument pairings, creative songwriting, and evocative lyrics.  Check out their website at www.oldgrovemusic.com.

This event is by donation and invitation only.  Join us for stories, laughs, and great music!

Please contact Lisa to be added to the guest list with Old Grove in the subject line.  

Sexual Enlightenment: A One-Man Show at our house in Belmont

Sexual Enlightenment: A One-Man Show

Entertaining, Humorous, Bold, Enlightening! Sat, October 26th, 2013  7:00pm – 8:30pm Tickets: $20 ($30 per couple, $45 family) Ticket Booking  Link:  -- HERE -- (click on Belmont show for 1 person, couple or family) You will receive directions to our house closer to the date, if you don't already have them. (Please note that ALL $ goes to the performer) I will have some simple food to share after the show.

About the Show:

In his Sexual Enlightenment one-man show Freddy Zental takes the audience on a truly entertaining and often hilarious journey to sexual enlightenment through his life experiences concerning love, sex and intimacy. The play is packed with story telling, drumming, singing and movement in this tantric theater performance. All are used in service of demystifying those intimate, personally impacting moments that so often go unexamined or trivialized, like your first exposure to sexual energy, your first orgasm or your first true love. This opens the possibility for realizing one’s connection to sacred intimacy and love.

Please go here for Sexual Enlightenment Show – Press Kit

As Zental’s personal story unfolds the audience is reminded, “As you listen to my story think about your own.” The play therefore is a playful invitation for us all to reflect on old feelings and fixed ways of being to make room for getting in touch with our dreams, passions and sacred intimate Self. Zental has been touring the United States performing at community playhouses, conferences, performing arts centers, festivals and private events. Zental intentionally created the play as an introduction to sexual enlightenment that he developed through his extensive study and practice of Tantra, an East Indian tradition conceived over 5000 years ago.

TantraNova is a new (though spiritually quite ancient) approach to connecting and manifesting creativity and joy in our work, play, relationships and life.

For many the concept of Sexual Enlightenment is completely new. The word Tantra itself is misunderstood as a hedonistic practice in the West unfortunately relating only to the sex act or Tantric Sex. Yet TantraNova and its depiction through the Sexual Enlightenment Show is much more encompassing and understands sexual energy as life force energy. They are one and the same – we wouldn’t exist without it! Given this background, sexual enlightenment is considered an awareness that allows for conscious cultivation of this creative life force energy.

Freddy Zental conveys that it is only when we have come to terms fully with our sexual selves and learn practices of consciousness and focus that we are able to come to sexual enlightenment and reach our full human potential.

Through the drama of storytelling, song and rhythm Freddy Zental’s audiences are guided to a deeper appreciation of connecting with this creative life force energy. The use of multi-media and audience participation generates an experience of tapping into a greater consciousness beyond what’s available in the daily routines of life via the linear left brain.

“Two thumbs up! Five stars! In his one-person play, Zental publicly celebrates sexuality with simpleness, gentleness, compassion, and profoundness. His journey becomes a reflection for our own. The play is theater, comedy, and wisdom teaching all in one. TantraNova Man rocks . . . our soul.”

- Kenneth Ray Stubbs, Ph.D., Author “The Essential Tantra”

Mr. Freddy Zental Weaver is a performing artist, accomplished percussionist, stand-up comedian and story teller with a one-man show touring the United States. He is known for taking his audiences on a truly entertaining and often hilarious journey through his life experiences as he learns about intimacy, tantric sex and love.

Freddy Zental is the co-founder and director of the TantraNova Institute in Chicago, a second-generation tantric practitioner and a seasoned Tantra teacher and workshop leader of the transformational TantraNova seminars and theater workshops. He co-produced the best-selling DVD series “Creating Intimacy & Love” and was featured on Showtime’s documentary series “Sexual Healing”, on NBC’s”Starting Over”, in the Chicago Sun-times, and other local and national talk shows and publications. As an accomplished percussionist and a corporate comedy sales trainer he uses humor, music and movement in his presentation and teaching. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in political science and is a Certified Body Worker.

Launch Education and Kids in Mountainview (June 2013)

Purposes:
1) best platform to launch company
2) connecting companies with angel investors

Serving the entrepreneurial community and "[their] own curiosity".  They put a lot of work into curating 30 companies out of 300 initial "applicants" and nominees. Microsoft and Bing are the biggest supporters (space).

People and things to check out:
http://shannonclark.wordpress.com/

Learning tools to check out:
http://www.conceptuamath.com/
http://www.nearpod.com/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/memetales-childrens-picture/id437133315?mt=8&ls=1
(reading apps) by Polish company Chufcha
Lynda.com

For schools:

Edmodo.com
Masteryconnect
Achieve3000
Class Dojo

Companies presenting:

http://www.joytunes.com/
Gamification of music learning
Piano Dustbuster
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/piano-dust-buster-song-game/id502356539?mt=8

Playtell.com
Reading together app with an expanding library (3rd party publishers and authors) and will add video that they can interact on.

Always prepped
(connect with this guy re: independent educators being testers since we are further ahead of schools on using apps).

GatherEducation
Alternative to Collaborate type systems
Innovative; worth a look for Disrupt_Ed.

Penyo Pal
Iphone app available now (from Canada) for learning Chinese

LearnStreet
Teaching coding, ruby,
Looks like a really interesting way to learn to code (interactive, lectures, output, easy user-interface).

Kno
French book on Kno:
https://www.kno.com/account/courseManager

Timbuktu
Creative interactive ideas for parents and kids (explore with Soleil), based on Emilio Regio, imagination.  Solves the problem: "What can I do with my kids tonight".
Interested in meeting customers and testing with kids.

Launchpadtoys.com
Storytelling tool.  "Grow with me"...I like that.  Drops off at 13.  Why?  Too cool?
Monkeygram is a messaging platform which can be sent out by texts.
Check out for Soleil storytelling.

---

Day 2

Edulaunch

Study Egg
Support for studying and organizing content

Eduvant

Eduvant provides user-friendly tools that allow school leaders, administrators, and educators to better leverage data to inform the decisions they make everyday. We make it really simple to get your hands on the right data when you need it.

A school support...leaving feedback to someone interested in that space.

No real application for autodidacts or independent learners

Tipitap
This company is pretty far along compared to many of the other ones.  I'm conflicted...it looks like it's worked

Session 4

SmalLab Learning
-classroom model is antiquated, trying to integrate kinesethic with conceptual.  (Seems not very physically accurate)
-Flow works with Kinect (uses whiteboard), $495 with one year subscription,
-would explore for direct to consumer market
-20 pieces of content, 3rd party, existing companies, $3000 prof dev for schools,

Nearpod
-very interesting, is it applicable for outside of the classroom?
-takes some of the benefits of distance learning to the classroom

DuckieDeck
Polish company

http://www.fingerprintplay.com/
Check out for Soleil, looks interesting
Business model:
Connected mom

---

Brainrush

Session 5

Gradecam
Teacher focused.  Grades tests.

Testive
about 5 questions to adapt to student learning need
Not an impressive demo but worth exploring as a free SAT prep

Testmax/Barmax
Expensive iPhone app to help people prepare for the bar exam

Educreations

Motion Math
-check it out for Soleil (Kaizen's idea is that sometimes learning games just make you good at the learning game and may not be transferable)

Overal Themes
Gamification,

instantedu.com/launchedu
$.50 per minute
Really nice solution to the "community", mentoring, connection issue.  Nice parallel between this and online learning.  Content+Community+Credentially=21st century learning
Also like the on-demand nature which makes it more applicable and relevant.
Taskrabbit for tutoring

ManyLabs
-make the software....to help students look at data and share the data with other schools.
-messaging problem.  need to emphasize citizen science component.

Voxy
-language learning for Spanish and English only

Bloomboard
Teacher professional development and learning
Online coaching and goal setting
Shared best content for teachers to share with each other and track with online platform.

LearningJar
-modularized learning.  Resources from subject matter experts.
Seems to have a signaling component showing competency; has a competency check in place
Online version of Skillshare in the trading of skills element

Demopit Pad
-school focused.

My current High School Independent Learning Crisis

Taking responsibility for my kids' education has been an incredibly exciting and empowering journey.  But, sometimes it's also terrifying.  Doubt seeps in every year or so when I find myself worrying about what I might be missing, and wondering if the kids are getting what they need and developing the life skills --the Meta-skills--I feel sure are critical for the future.

My husband and I, and now our kids, too, do Freedom really well!  We create many super compelling experiences in our world, we engage in many different thought communities, we take a travel-schooling trip for 2 or 3 months every year (we're currently in France, though not doing much blogging this time around), and we live engaged lives with lots of people around us.  We host couchsurfers and Airbnb guests from all over the world, we've had five au pairs who remain a part of our extended family and we collectively contribute to many different communities in our sweet intellectual bubble that is the bay area.  We have a shared principle of individualization, personal choice, collectivity and community.   

This last panic-round, I became intensely worried about my ability to provide structure, order, time management and discipline.  Now this is especially problematic and discombulating because I spend so much of my time advocating for the freedom available to learners in the coming years and knowing that we all need to learn how to be a learner and how to make projects happen.  I call the first meta-Learning, I call the second output Skills; De Bono calls it Operacy. I believe in self-directed learning and freedom but right now, at least, I was feeling sure my kids don't have any particular goals or desires as far as I can tell.  

When this happens I reach out to the 350+plus families who live nearby and who share in the journey with me.  These are other families who've taken the leap, left or avoided school altogether, and who are customizing learning for their kids.  I especially reach out to those who have older kids and who have gone before me.  There is certainly great usefulness is the encouragement which comes from other sympathetic people but each stage has it's own challenges.  So, while I feel able to advise and consult with those who are beginning the journey of learning outside of institutions, to support those with younger kids, the teenage and "high school"-ish years have thrown me for a bit of a loop.

Some of this could be Life With A Teenager and the development challenges that stage imposes to parents. Now mine is no slouch.  Capable and a super fast learner, he reads voraciously and quickly, he plays the piano, sings, performs in musical theater shows two or three times per year, practices fencing, takes college-level Coursera courses in classes like Model Thinking ("fun", "strong on life skills"), Game Theory ("deep", "packs a lot of content and nuance into a seemingly singular topic") and Machine Learning ("practical", "profound concepts patiently explained") and Functional Programming ("fast-paced", "high work load", "focused on programming skills").  He's also becoming quite conversational in French, is pretty good at math though he doesn't love it and, when he can get over his sometimes-extreme writer's block, is a very capable and humorous writer.  Recreation is memorizing the library of XKCD comics, watching Dr Who and reading some more (mostly science fiction).

During these homeschooling crisis moments, I usually think about sending him to school and in fact, that may be the answer.  Part of independent learning is the opportunity to change things up as needed.  What is right at one time may be wrong at another.  It could be that time in life when another caring adult can be a more effective mentor than can his parents.  Maybe boarding school is the answer so as to take the parental influence completely out of the picture.  Or maybe he should get a job.  Maybe I should ship him to Toronto, my hometown, so he can attend a great little private school with some friends.

Ok, so, now that I've had my two-day panic and have reached out to my friends and network and spent a lot of time online researching boarding schools, progressive schools, democratic schools, leadership organizations and wilderness programs, I feel there are many possible solutions.  

--

Possible Available Options for Continuing Customized Learning

Now that I've mostly come back to my senses, I realize that what we'll do for high school is what we've done for the past eight years.  We will collectively design a learning plan that considers learning needs (the charter's requirements and ours both, as well as what's needed to avoid closing doors), interests, learning style and ZPD (or Zone of Proximal Development ie. that which is appropriately leveled, not too easy or too hard but just right, and therefore, engaging).  

Concurrent College

Many of the young, bright independent learners begin taking college classes anywhere between 12 and 16 years old.  Early entrance (or concurrent enrollment) is a way for students to enroll in postsecondary education before completing high school.  It was suggested by a friend that this can be a great way to start building stronger organization skills and learning the higher ed ropes.  Here's a checklist for Foothill College.  There's a ton of great information for this path here.  

Leadership Programs

National Teen Leadership Program is committed to create positive environments that empower, inspire and educate all teens to discover and maximize their unique leadership potential and embrace the diversity and equal value of everyone.  The focus during the 3 day summer program (in Sacramento or Southern California) is on the positive and on channeling the energy and enthusiasm already inherent in our youth to help them acquire focus and a vision for their future. The program challenges and empowers today’s youth by providing them with the skills and motivation necessary to positively impact their own lives and the lives of those in their communities.

Landmark Forum For Teens is challenging and exciting. It's an interactive experience, more like coaching than teaching. A Landmark Forum leader leads teens through a series of discussions geared toward dealing with issues that are important to them.  The Landmark Forum for Teens is for 13- to 17-year-olds who participate with the permission of their parents.

Jim Wiltens is a Redwood City resident who offers a variety of leadership, writing and science programs which are interactive, practical and fun.   

Nature Studies

The Riekes Center exists for the enhancement of the individual student. Mission is to provide each student with the best possible opportunity to define and accomplish individual goals, build character and learn transferable life skills through Creative Arts, Athletic Fitness and Nature Awareness, in an environment of non-judgment and mutual respect.

Anake Outdoor School features 9 months of in-depth training in nature awareness and wilderness survival skills.  Participants develop a deep and intimate relationship with the natural world grounded in a powerful, community-oriented philosophy of learning. Your year is informed by the legacy of indigenous cultures from around the world. Each experience is crafted around a cutting-edge understanding of our natural heritage as human beings.

Unschool Adventures with Blake Boles offers a month long writing retreat 

Life Skills

Speech and Debate options:

Communication Academy also offers public speaking and debate.

Bay Area Speech and Debate Academy offers programs designed for individuals of all levels and experiences in Public Forum, LincolnDouglas, Congressional Debate, and Extemporaneous Speech. 

Bay Area Public Speaking conducts basic and advanced courses, certification in Public Speaking and Debates. The classes are held all over the Bay area for children in the age group of 8 - 14yrs.The goal of these classes is to improve confidence, public speaking, and communication skills of the kids keeping in mind kids get motivated if the class is FUN!

Consulting

Wes Beach
Barbara Bettle

Stay tuned...

A La Carte Classes and Learning

School for Independent Learners (Mountainview, CA) is a new kind of high school, an open invitation to learn your way. We create custom programs for students in grades 6 to 12 who seek intellectual freedom, flexible scheduling, and a chance to learn without the threat of failure. 

A La Carte Classes and Learning (Online)

My Social Justice Course is a UC-approved, college preparatory class explores both the ideas of social justice and the impact of social entrepreneurship.  Social justice is an enriching topic of study. But we think it also makes for great inspiration. When people start to organize and take action towards social justice, it’s called social entrepreneurship. 

The Big History Project takes students on a 13.7 billion year journey, from the Big Bang to modern day and ultimately the future. It is designed as a yearlong, interdisciplinary course targeting 9th and 10th graders. It weaves evidence and insights from many scientific and historical disciplines into a single, accessible historical narrative.  Big history links different areas of knowledge into one unified story. It’s a framework for learning about anything and everything. This unified story provides students with a deeper awareness of our past, hopefully better preparing them to help shape the future of our fragile planet.  Samples.

What we might not do this year but could do in the future

Just so the time was not altogether wasted I'm compiled the possibilities here for the next time, or for others who want a little more structure but not the traditional learning path.

Other Possibilities for independent learners

USA

The Woolman Semester School (Nevada City, CA) is a progressive academic school for young people who want to make a difference in the world.  Students in their junior, senior, or gap year come for a "semester away" to take charge of their education and study the issues that matter most to them.  Woolman students earn transferable high school credits while taking an active role in their learning experience through community work, organic gardening and cooking, permaculture, art, wilderness exploration, service work, and by doing advocacy and activism work with real issues of peace, justice and sustainability in the world.

Conserve School (Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin) inspires young people, primarily high school juniors, to environmental stewardship through academics and engagement with the forests, lakes, and wildlife of Lowenwood.  Each Conserve School semester immerses students in environmental history, nature literature, and the science of conservation. Innovative hands-on courses capture students’ imaginations while making the most of Conserve School’s 1200-acre wilderness campus. The school’s strikingly beautiful Northwoods location sets the stage for an exceptional educational experience; at Conserve School, forests, lakes, and wildlife become students’ inspiration, their course materials, and their laboratory. At the same time, Conserve School’s program advances students’ skills in standard high school subjects.

Sea Education Association is an internationally recognized leader in undergraduate ocean education which also offers high school level summer programs, a 3-week oceanography program. For 40 years and more than one million nautical miles, we have educated students about the world’s oceans through our fully accredited study abroad program, SEA Semester. SEA is based on Cape Cod in the oceanographic research community of Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The High School program sails from SF on the same tall ship a friend, Christa C. sailed in the Gyre, with shore studies on Catalina Island. 

International

The Ecole d’Humanité is a progressive, international boarding school situated in the heart of the Swiss Alps. 150 Students and 50 teachers from some 25 different countries live together in a dynamic community that fosters the discovery and development of individual talents – academic, artistic, practical, athletic, and social – in an atmosphere that encourages self-determination, innovation, and tolerance.  Whether modeling projectile motion in a calculus based physics class or performing in the annual Shakespeare play, summiting a 4000 meter peak or hammering red hot iron on a giant anvil, Ecole students actively pursue their passions in a setting that is both challenging and liberating.

Distance High School Programs

Global Village School (Ojai, CA) offers a progressive, accredited, customizable K-12 homeschooling program via online and text-based curriculum, complete with individualized teacher services. Our high school homeschool diploma courses integrate peace, justice, and diversity studies with the core subjects. We are an international distance learning school; we welcome homeschooling students from around the globe.  Creative flexible approach, our emphasis on peace, justice, diversity and sustainability.  Here's a sample homeschool high school plan.

Other semester and service learning programs

Semester in Ghana

Semester or Year-long school in France

1 week summer service trip in Guadeloupe

3-week service learning trip to India (with Tibetan culture)

Care and community service in Nepal (2 weeks post 16th bd)

2-week August service trip to French-speakin Senegal (supposed to be 16)

$2395

Non-local Alternative or Progressive High Schools

Diablo Valley School (Concord) - Democratic/Sudbury School

Wilderness Awareness School is a national not-for-profit environmental education organization established in 1983 and based in Duvall, Washington. We are dedicated to caring for the earth and our children by fostering understanding and appreciation of nature, community and self.

High Mowing School is the first Waldorf high school to be founded in North America and the only one to offer a boarding program.  Here on Abbot Hill there is a rich educational and social community that, over the last nearly seven decades, has developed, changed and adjusted to meet the needs of the students, offering teenagers a unique combination of Waldorf education and community living. 

At Catalyst High School, the student is in control of key decisions such as building a logical and balanced schedule and for calling regarding an absence. Being in control is empowering, and genuinely builds self esteem.  Our team helps students develop positive attitudes and productive actions by cultivating constructive use of time, commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and a positive identity. Catalyst High School is built on solid research that shows that teens who engage in these types of activities become happier, healthier, and more resistant, and become more successful adults. At Catalyst High School, the student assumes responsibility of his or her educational experience. This includes attendance, what to study, and when to take a class. The school schedule is not a 7:30-3:00 seven-period day, rather it is more like a college schedule, with free time built in.

Casco Bay High School for Expeditionary Learning (CBHS) is a small and rigorous public high school that reflects the increasing diversity of Portland, Maine.  Founded in 2005, CBHS is a school of choice for about 275 students.  At Casco Bay, we challenge and support our students to become college-ready through our 3Rs: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships.  The academic program includes Learning Expeditions, college prep, Character Building and an Ethic of Service, Portfolios, Adventure and Fitness, and Fieldwork.

The Graham School has a particular mission to urban students in Central Ohio preparing them for lifelong learning and informed citizenship through real-world experiences and rigorous academics. Fostering ownership and responsibility for their education prepares our students to be successful in college, the workplace, and other endeavors they undertake upon leaving Graham.

Summer Travel Programs and Camps:

Abbey Road’s study abroad summer programs continue to deliver excellence. Our mission is to provide quality academic summer programs that facilitate cross-cultural understanding, personal growth and academic enrichment. Abbey Road was created through a collaboration of the best young professionals and educators from top schools and esteemed institutions. Our curriculum developers and staff come from places such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Duke, Cambridge, La Sorbonne, the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Parliament and the State Department  …..  just to name a few.

The Experiment in International Living has been offering extraordinary immersive cross-cultural summer exchanges, fun and thought-provoking adventures, and experiential learning programs since 1932. Today, The Experiment offers three-, four-, and five-week summer programs for high school students in more than 20 countries around the world.

Not Back to School Summer Camp

-Lisa

Acknowledgements:

Thank you so much to my friends and community members who contributed support and many of the specific suggestions on this list.  I'm grateful to Jennifer D, Shelly C, Felicia G, Elaine L, Krista C, Caryn C, Debbie S, Jon Z, Sharon B, Candace P, Suki W, Kirsten N, Marlow S, Anna C, Amy T, Min L, Andrew, Kris K and Kevin K. as well as those I may have missed.  

"Homeschooling" is a Misnomer

May 4, 2013

Even as homeschooling becomes increasingly common and public awareness of the practice is growing, an ever increasing number of people I know are looking for different words to describe what we do.

School-at-Home: Ideal Picture or Nightmare Image?

After all, for many of us "homeschooling" is a total misnomer.  Sure, there are people who do the stereotypical School-At-Home-sitting-at-the-kitchen-table-with-a-math-textbook, but most of the people I know who have chosen to take their kids out of school do not recreate School-at-Home.  Why would we?  We've gone another route for good reason.

Hell, many of us are not even home very often. Instead we spend our time out in the world, at museums, playing and learning with friends, supporting mentorships for ourselves, our families or our children, learning through travel, creating things at Maker-spaces, volunteering...the list goes on...and on.

And some critics of homeschooling, thinking that school-at-home is the work of over-bearing helicopter parents, might imagine it more like this:

These days many people I know are increasingly using alternative terminology like Independent Learners (my personal favorite), Autodidacts, Custom-Schoolers, Custom-Learners, Unschoolers or Free-Range families.

Just how many Homeschoolers are there?

It's very difficult to know for sure how many families homeschool.  

Why?  Some states, like California, while independent learning is easy to do there's no official way to count non-schoolers.  Other states don't require homeschoolers to register in any way and homeschoolers are often independent types who aren't inclined to volunteer that information. *


"There were an estimated 1,700,000 to 2,100,000 children (grades K-12) home educated during 2002-2003 in the United States. Homeschooling appears to still be the fastest-growing form of education." – Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.,Facts on Homeschoooling 

Home education has constantly grown over the last two decades. The growth rate is 7% to 15% per year, according to Dr. Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute (Worldwide Guide to Homeschooling).

How many high school (grades 9-12) students are being homeschooled?

An estimated 250,000 to 340,000 high school (grades 9-12) students homeschooled during the 2000-2001 conventional school year.  In 2007, the number of homeschooled students was about 1.5 million, an increase from 850,000 in 1999 and 1.1 million in 2003. The percentage of the school-age population that was homeschooled increased from 1.7 percent in 1999 to 2.9 percent in 2007. The increase in the percentage of homeschooled students from 1999 to 2007 represents a 74 percent relative increase over the 8-year period and a 36 percent relative increase since 2003 (National center)

Three percent of American students -- about 1.5 million children --  are homeschooled, according to the 2012 Statistical Abstract recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

A compilation of stats compiled by Masters In Education puts that number at over 2 million and identifies independent learning as the fastest growing from of education in the country with an annual growth rate of 7% per year.   

While public perception still imagines that religious reasons are the primary determining factor for choosing to homeschool, in fact 58% of people homeschool for reasons like concerns about social environment and negative socialization in schools (21%), dissatisfaction with the academic offerings in schools (17%), unique family situations (14%) and desire for a non-traditional approach to learning.  

Probably impacting the fast rise in homeschooling numbers is that it works.  The efficacy of homeschooling is increasingly known as more statistics continue to report that on average homeschoolers rank in the 87th percentile on standardized tests (not that I personally care about standardized tests, but some do).  

Independent Learners already know that homeschooling is a great choice on the basis of cost, freedom, academic efficacy and future opportunities.  Current statistics which underline these points and clear up the misconceptions is resulting in more people taking the risk to go independent and/or community-based for their family's learning needs and desires.  

Notes:

* In California the two options for homeschooling are a) registering as part of a public charter school which serves homeschoolers.  In this case, the students are officially registered as public school students or b) for families to sign a PSA or Private School Affidavit registering the family as a "private school".  In both case, students are registered as either public school or private school students.


Sources:

What the US Census Says about Homeschooled Families

National Center for Educational Statistics

Top Masters In Education

A to Z Home's Cool

HSLDA

Karl Bundy: Learn in Freedom