Week 2 2024-2025 in Review
Dear TCC Families,
We've wrapped up our second week together and what magic we are weaving! As facilitators, we're reflecting on the group processing and consensus decision-making we navigated this week and the word "structure" comes to mind - we're giving our time together shape and negotiating structures. This is such an interesting word and we invite you to unpack it with us! An oft-cited critique of Self-Directed Education is that it's simply not structured enough. But what do folks tend to mean when they say that? In our experience, they tend to be suggesting that what's missing is more adult-directed, top-down elements; more adult-determined experiences & scheduling of all kinds.
If you had been a fly on the wall in our community this week, you would have witnessed the negotiation of an incredible degree of structure. We explored questions like: how do we sit in the tension of being a consent-based community AND acknowledge that sometimes, we have meetings that the community needs everyone to attend? How do we begin to plan a timeline for offerings, holding the both/and that no one offering is more "valuable" than another, AND that some offerings may make more sense to prioritize at the start of the learning year than others? How do we acknowledge that part of the role of the adult facilitator is to nurture and protect young peoples' autonomy, AND that sometimes as the space-holders we have to make decisions quickly and without group process? How do we establish norms for cleaning up that take care of the space, one another, and our varying needs? How do we DO community? We have no guidebook, by design. We have been granted the gift of writing the guide together.
How do we do community?
What we established this week and last are what author and youth rights advocate Alex Khost refers to as "community-built structures" in his piece on The Misuse of Words when discussing Self-Directed Education.These are structures and ways of being most of us have never had the opportunity to create in community, let alone experience and practice. Most of us are accustomed to a top-down structure as this is what's typical - whether it be in our families of origin, in conventional school, the workplace - or all of the above. The broader culture typically points us to authority to tell us what and how to do. Creating ways of being with one another without rules or mandates or being told what to do - it's beautiful and empowering and also hard as hell. Especially for us adults, who have had so many more years of doing things a certain way. Imagining what is essentially an entirely new world comes more readily to young people but can often feel out of reach for grown-ups. It requires that we persistently engage in deschooling work so that we can reclaim our power and agency and develop the confident autonomy that is our right - and support young people in doing the same. Akilah Richards defines deschooling as, "Shedding the programming and habits that resulted from other people’s agency over your time, body, thoughts, or actions. Designing and practicing beliefs that align with your desire to thrive, be happy, and succeed." It is a process of shedding the old and creating anew. This work can feel slow in a dominant culture that demands urgency. It is often messy and clunky and challenging, stretching us in new directions. It is actually not easier than the status quo. But we find it to be more meaningful, more connective, and certainly more empowering. We actually have all the time we need to do the work we want and need to do. We have all the time we need. If you felt something at those words, say them again, as many times as you need.
We have all the time we need.
These conversations and processes are not distractions from more "important" work or learning - this process work is much of the learning we do here. Relationship-centered work is the work that creates the conditions for other types of learning to take place, because this work builds trust and a sense of safety. We actually cannot learn and retain information if we do not feel safe (feeling safe is not the same as feeling comfortable). This work reinforces for each of us that we have the power to share in the creation of how this community operates day to day. If something isn't working, any of us can change it.
We nestled these "structure" conversations between intentional blocks of pure play again this week - you can see from the photos the various forms play can take. Is what you see Self-Directed Education? You likely will not be able to tell from pictures alone, but we love Akilah Richards' two-question system for determining that!
We cannot see what the future holds for our children. We do not know precisely what challenges they will face or what problems they will be invited to solve. We do predict that the challenges and problems will be many, as we are navigating a polycrisis in the present. These skills of practicing being in community in deeply caretaking ways - centering consent, accepting and resolving conflict, connecting with ourselves and others (including the land), taking action against oppression - will unequivocally be ones they will need and use. They will be grateful to carry these tools and skills no matter what unfolds. This is the power of Self-Directed Education - the structures it grants us in the now and in the future alike to know ourselves and to know how to do community.
With care,
Emily, Sarah, and Zoey