I am in awe of education entrepreneurs. They plunge into a highly-regulated sector with huge barriers to entry in an effort to challenge the schooling status quo and expand learning options for families. Inspiring!
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Kerry McDonald
@Kerry_edu
Senior fellow and host of the LiberatED Podcast. Ed policy fellow . Adjunct . Author of Unschooled. Free-market fan.
Kerry McDonald’s Tweets
1. Kerry McDonald
is a prolific writer covering the unschooling and microschooling movement (small community schools cropping up all over the country - think one-room schoolhouses for the 21st century).
She's also the host of the LiberatEd podcast.
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4/ Now, my career goal is to open an outdoor learning center/homeschool/unschool co-op space in my area. Thank you for your [Unschooled] book. It has definitely shaped my thinking and ignited that passion again."
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/3 "My supervisor literally called me the bad egg of my cohort because I had such a hard time conforming to all the rules. I have always had a hard time with the game of 'school' but had passion to make learning BETTER for the next generation.
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2/ "I was so passionate about fostering a true love for learning in my future class, but I was finding that the tight hold curriculum and standards have on teachers makes it almost impossible and far from authentic.
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It's messages I get like this one that make me so hopeful for the future of US education and the bottom-up solutions that are now defining it:
“I’m a ‘state-trained’ educator turned stay at home mom. My college experience in ‘education’ always felt so wrong in my being. 🧵1/
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Some states give parents a right to educate and others don’t. I see increasing migration towards states with greater educational freedom and away from those that do not allow educational freedom.
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Prevented by the state of Iowa from opening a Sudbury-model school in 2021, Nick, a former high school physics teacher, is uprooting his family and moving to another state so that his children can attend a Sudbury school.
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If you’re genuinely interested in this topic, I suggest following to see what’s going on with k-12 education innovation.
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🏫 A main concern about ChatGPT is that students will use it to cheat.
But the root question is: Why do students cheat?
The latest from :
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That’s why it’s not about changing it but about building something better.
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“It is easier to land a man on Mars than to change the schooling system.” — @elonmusk
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Educational freedom means the freedom to choose learning options--but also to build them!
Making it easier for education entrepreneurs to create new schools and learning models by removing regulatory barriers should be a key priority for education leaders and policymakers.
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Listen to today's podcast episode with Nick wherever you get podcasts.
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Educational freedom means the freedom to choose learning options--but also to build them!
Making it easier for education entrepreneurs to create new schools and learning models by removing regulatory barriers should be a key priority for education leaders and policymakers.
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Prevented by the state of Iowa from opening a Sudbury-model school in 2021, Nick, a former high school physics teacher, is uprooting his family and moving to another state so that his children can attend a Sudbury school.
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You can read more about Nick's experience in my recent Forbes article:
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Bringing back penmanship and having students write their essays in class under the watchful eye of the teacher, along with banning ChatGPT, are not the solution. That lies in asking why kids cheat in the first place.
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Rather than blocking new technologies for young people, and surveilling them even more, let’s instead err on the side of freedom.
My latest :
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I'm still shaking my head over this story. Listen or watch today wherever you get your podcasts.
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“ESAs decisively put the parents in charge. The unnecessary and destructive shutdowns of public schools during the pandemic aroused parents as never before when they saw firsthand what was being taught—and not taught.
forbes.com/sites/stevefor
#education #schoolchoice #Learning
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Microschooling is the most exciting thing in K-12 education and people like and are changing lives.
Great interview with Reason's .
reason.org/innovators/nat via
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Prevented by the state from launching his own, Nick is actually leaving Iowa this year to enroll his children in a Sudbury school elsewhere! There are dozens of such schools in the US and globally, modeled after the flagship Sudbury Valley School , founded in 1968.
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I touched on Nick's story in my Forbes piece. These Iowa private school regs long predated any school choice policies, and needlessly restrict options.
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I can't wait for you to hear tomorrow's podcast with Nick Lachen, a former high school physics teacher who tried to open a self-directed Sudbury-model school in Iowa and wasn't allowed to due to state regs. Iowa has among the most restrictive private school laws in the US.
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In Wichita, KS there is a grassroots movement of small private schools being created to better serve families. This is exactly what families have been waiting for. Thank you for supporting this movement! #microschools #ksleg #schoolchoice #edchoice
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Zoning and occupancy laws are highly restrictive to microschool founders. has worked with and on legislation to ease these restrictive burdens.
Read my article to see what the bill does.
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It’s great to see educational freedom expanding at the macro level. Now I hope we will also see it expand at the micro level, with more opportunities for young people to learn in non-coercive, self-directed ways.
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Now available on : The View from Inside by Michael Greenberg. In this book, he explains how #SudburyValley students will "live an examined life that is fulfilling, meaningful, and fun."
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Whoa.
Huge ramifications moving forward. Parental empowerment will cause seismic changes -- for the better -- in this country's education system.
Time to think about which sectors are most prepared and which are least prepared and how each will adapt.
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Families want, and deserve, more education choices.
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At some point these trend lines are going to attract taxpayer attention. twitter.com/ReasonFdn/stat
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Always great speaking with you loved that we had an opportunity to conduct the virtual tour. Thank you for letting U.S. educational entrepreneurs share the great things we are doing for kids! twitter.com/kerry_edu/stat
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It's such an exciting time in education! Families have more choices. Learners have more opportunity to thrive in the best learning model for them. Educators have new and better options. Entrepreneurs are imagining and creating greater educational possibilities. What a moment!
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Or listen wherever you get your podcasts:
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