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The Alliance for Self‑Directed Education

Hello Allies!

Thank you for your interest in the Alliance for Self-Directed Education and for your efforts spreading self-directed education in the world!  It’s been amazing to see such an enthusiastic response from so many of you after announcing the Alliance at the AERO Conference and across social media platforms last week.

In less than two weeks, 1600+ people have demonstrated interest in the Alliance by signing up for this newsletter.  Help us continue that powerful momentum by sharing Self-Directed.org with your friends, family, and networks.

The fact is, more and more parents, educators, and children are choosing to pursue self-directed education (SDE) options every day.  We’ve seen an explosion of interest in unschooling, SDE-based schools and learning centers, as well as adventure playgrounds, self-directed summer camps, and community spaces.

As it should be, there are various flavors and manifestations of self-directed education.  One of the major goals of the Alliance is to create a collaborative space where we can all link arms, learn from and celebrate each other, and collectively amplify the truth that is common in all of our experiences: self-directed education works!

We need to hear from you — the folks directly engaged in self-directed education — so we can better understand what the SDE movement needs in order to thrive, develop and organize useful resources, and catalyze our collective action potential.  To get started, we facilitated a collaborative workshop at the AERO Conference last week.  Check out the some of the ideas that came from the sixty or so people that joined us:

The Alliance for Self-Directed Education could...

• Provide a collective voice to unify Alliance members
• Generate memes and other shareable content
• Organize in-person meetups, get people connected in local communities
• Foster multi-generational interactions and collaborations
• Provide parenting support for those new to SDE
• Collect, showcase, and share personal success stories
• Organize and share legal info for families considering SDE
• Attract big donors who support SDE
• Generate scholarship funds and micro-financing opportunities
• Include & amplify voices of marginalized other people and communities
• Provide professional development for SDE facilitators/educators
• Support & promote self-directed programs that act as a gateway to SDE

Collaborative brainstorming session at the AERO Conference

Our intention is to create a grassroots movement and a collaborative organization that can connect and empower its members to make these, and other great ideas, a reality.  We will be building a forum on our website for Alliance members to interact, support, and collaborate with each other.  As organizers of the Alliance, our aim is to support you all in taking an active role in contributing your gifts to the collective mission.

At this point we are in the gathering stage — looking for feedback and big ideas to inspire the first phase of the Alliance.  Do you have feedback or ideas you want to contribute?  Email us at: info (at) self-directed (dot) org

In solidarity,

Alliance for Self-Directed Education
Organizing Team

Posted in: News on October 17, 2016 @ 11:40 PM

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