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To everyone who joined these forums at some point, and got discouraged by the negativity and left after a while (or even got literally scared off): I'm sorry.

I wasn't good enough at encouraging people to be kinder, and removing people who refuse to be kind. Encouraging people is hard, and removing people creates conflict, and I hate conflict... so that's why I wasn't better at it.

I was a very, very sensitive teen. The atmosphere of this forum as it is now, if it had existed in 1996, would probably have upset me far more than it would have helped.

I can handle quite a lot of negativity and even abuse now, but that isn't the point. I want to help people. I want to help the people who need it the most, and I want to help people like the 1996 version of me.

I'm still figuring out the best way to do that, but as it is now, these forums are doing more harm than good, and I can't keep running them.

Thank you to the few people who have tried to understand my point of view so far. I really, really appreciate you guys. You are beautiful people.

Everyone else: If after everything I've said so far, you still don't understand my motivations, I think it's unlikely that you will. We're just too different. Maybe someday in the future it might make sense, but until then, there's no point in arguing about it. I don't have the time or the energy for arguing anymore. I will focus my time and energy on people who support me, and those who need help.

-SoulRiser

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NYC-area alternatives to school: Dida Academy, Agile Learning Center and more
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xcriteria Offline
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NYC-area alternatives to school: Dida Academy, Agile Learning Center and more

For anyone who is in or near New York City, there are several in-person alternatives to school you might want to look into and discuss with your parents if you aren't happy in traditional school or you've already left school and want to get involved in something.

Dida Academy is a new learning center in Brooklyn, focused on learners ages 13-30. They offer workshops and a gap year program. Their next workshop is January 2-13, 2017, and you can learn more and apply here if you're interested.

Agile Learning Center NYC is a private school in Manhattan similar to democratic schools but with a bit different proccess for meetings and decision-making. They're enrolling students ages 7 to 16 and have a sliding scale tuition. This is an actual school with expected daily attendance, but there is no imposed curriculum and students spend the days aside from some very quick daily meetings choosing how they spend their time.

Brooklyn Free School is a free school in Brooklyn.

For those interested in homeschooling/unschooling in NYC, I suggest checking out Amy Milstein's blog, Unschooling NYC

I'll update this post as I get new information, and before too long this and other information will expand into a guide to school alternatives, either on the Alliance for Self-Directed Education's upcoming website or and/or on a separate site I'm working on developing.

Also let me know if anyone has questions about options in the NYC/NJ area or anywhere else for that matter.

Peter Gray & allies launching the Alliance for Self-directed Education

ASDE Newsletters: #1 Announcement | #2 History of ASDE | #6 Education Liberation


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(This post was last modified: 11-25-2016 05:33 AM by xcriteria.)
11-25-2016 05:29 AM
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