Our Educational Approach

When arriving at the Macomber Center for the first time, it may appear less like a place where children come to learn and more like a place where they come to enjoy their lives. Afterall, mostly what kids do here, whether they are young or old, is play and socialize. It’s clear to anyone who spends even a short amount of time here that the kids are happy. But are they learning anything? 

The logic of mainstream education is that children’s basic psychological needs for freedom and autonomy, and the pursuit of meaningful, satisfying endeavors, must be deferred so they can apply themselves to school work and other activities designed to prepare them for future success in adult life. Our approach turns this logic on its head. We believe that the best way to prepare children for a happy and fulfilling adult life is to let them create happy and fulfilling lives for themselves right now, and then let them continue to experiment with that as they grow and change. This process involves constant and rigorous learning. But it has nothing to do with learning how to follow instructions from a teacher. 

Macomber Center provides kids the space and time they need to figure out who they are, what they want out of life, and how to create the conditions for their own happiness, all within a community of other people who are also trying to do the same thing. This is extremely demanding work for anyone of any age. But these kids rise to the challenge, day after day, because they know intuitively that their present and future happiness depends on it. They have to figure out how to get along with the kids and adults they’ve been thrown together with; they have to learn how to resolve their own conflicts; they have to learn to persuade others to go along with their games, their projects, their ideas. In short, they have to learn to negotiate their needs with the needs of others within a community of diverse ages and personalities. 

The kids at the Macomber Center know that it’s their life, and it’s up to them to learn how they want to live it. It’s amazing to see how even the littlest kids, 5, 6, and 7 years old, are completely absorbed in this process. They will sometimes come up from the woods with their pockets filled with rocks or acorns, or wielding big sticks. They’ll grab their lunch, and maybe a few things from the art room - tape, string, cardboard - and then run off down the hill into the trees again. The world they are creating together is theirs. It has meaning and value for them because it is their creation, and it is deeper and more complex than any educational activity that could be designed for them by an adult.

As they get older, the kids here continue playing, socializing, and learning more about themselves and the world around them. It looks different for different kids at different ages, but it’s a continuation of the same process. They spend less time building forts, playing with sticks, and constructing imaginary worlds together, and more time exploring big ideas and discussing the culture they are growing up in. They try out different ideas about who they are, what they believe, and what they value. As they get to be teenagers, they become increasingly aware that they will have to figure out how to take this project into the adult world. They will have to find a way to be who they want to be and do the things they want to do in a way that translates into adult life.

It is at this point that many kids at the Center start to think about some form of higher education. It is sometimes assumed that kids who grow up in such an unstructured, self-directed environment would be less likely to take the conventional college path. But young people who have grown up in such an environment are often eager to prove to themselves and others that they can handle college as well as anyone else. Not to mention the fact that, depending on what one is interested in pursuing, college may be an expedient if not necessary way to go. In general, when kids from the Macomber Center decide to enter college, they tend to do very well there, because they have already had plenty of time to explore their interests and determine their own direction in life. If they end up going to college, it’s because they want to be there, not because it’s expected of them, and they usually go into it with a very clear idea of what they want to get out of college. 

As staff members we are here to support and offer help to kids in any way they want as they forge their own path into the adult world. We do not guide kids in any particular direction, that is up to them to determine. But since college is often a part of that path for kids from the Center, I will give a recent example of how some Macomber Center kids approached it. 

Last year, a small group of friends around the age of 14 started talking about trying out a college class together. Our staff member Kerry helped them look into their options. They found a dual enrollment program for highschool aged kids at the local community college. They would have to take a placement test to determine which classes they were able to take. Some of them had never done any academics and were afraid they wouldn’t place into even the most basic math class. So they decided to start studying and see how far they could get in the short time remaining before the test. They met every morning at 10AM with Dan and Kerry who they had asked to help them. The group quickly grew as more kids saw what was going on and decided to try it out. There were often between 10 and 15 kids on any given morning.

For weeks they would meet in the middle of the common room, all bustling around the table, trying to help each other figure out problems, get their questions answered, or show their friends a trick or shortcut they had figured out. They were bringing the same level of energy and engagement to formal academic study they had always brought to outdoor games like capture the flag and ultimate frisbee, the video games they play, or any number of activities they have spent their time mastering. Studying academics was new for most of them, and they were eager to try to master it. 

Finally, it was time to take the placement tests. The core group had grown to 11 kids, ages 12 to 16. When they returned to the Center, they were in high spirits. Many of them had never taken a test before and they couldn’t understand how they had scored so high when they had only spent a few months studying what other kids their age had spent years studying. 

Not a single one of the 11 kids who ended up taking the placement test placed below the grade level for their age, despite the fact that most had never been required to do academics, and many of them had never done any academics at all. Most of them scored higher than their grade level, placing into college level math or writing. And all of this was the product of about three months of preparation which, by the way, they all seemed to enjoy. It wasn’t a chore. It was a fun challenge they took on for themselves. 

Some people might be skeptical, thinking that it would take a rare teenager to be able to place into college math and writing with only a few months of formal academic preparation. But this phenomenon is not uncommon for kids who have grown up in a self-directed education environment. In my almost forty years of experience with this model of education, first as a student and then as a staff member, I have seen it happen hundreds of times. Although most of these kids had not had much if any experience with formal academics until last year, they have had years of experience identifying their own genuine interests, setting their own goals, and developing the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve those goals. 

While not all of our members will choose to go to college, we have always known that a Macomber Center education is not going to close any doors. If kids here want to go to college when they leave, they will. The core group of three kids who started out wanting to take college classes last year just completed a psychology class and are now taking a writing class together. Several others have been taking math classes together at the same college. They all still have a few years left here at the Macomber Center, but they are getting a headstart on the college path. 

Half the kids who took the placement test last year decided to hold off on taking any college classes. For them, it was more about the experience of studying for and taking an academic exam, and the end product was the satisfaction and confidence that came from achieving their goal. They have other things they would rather spend their time doing while they are still at the Center. But they know now that if they choose to pursue higher education, they will have no problem performing at the college level.

A Macomber Center education is not something that we as adults deliver to kids. It is something that the kids here design and build for themselves. As adults we provide the optimal conditions for them to carry out this work. Each child’s education is uniquely designed for them, by them. It is the sum of all the experience, knowledge, and skills they have accumulated through the course of following their own curiosity, pursuing their own interests, and developing their own talents and strengths. 

Social Media and Mental Health in a Self-directed Education Community

Photo by Denise Geddes.

Recently I was sitting down at the end of the Macomber Center common room where all the comfortable chairs and couches are. I pulled out my phone so I could respond to an email I had received from a parent. Sitting around me on the couches were seven teenagers who also had their phones out. Suddenly I started to feel self conscious. What if a parent walked in at that very moment? They might think, “It’s bad enough that all these teenagers are staring at their phones, but Ben is a staff member. Doesn’t he have something more important to do?” 

In fact, I was emailing with parents, an essential part of my job. But how would they know that? I probably looked like I was scrolling on social media, just like the teenagers I was sitting with. There is still something about these handheld mobile devices we all carry around with us now which, regardless of what we might be doing on them, make it look like we are being helplessly manipulated by our algorithms. 

Then something occurred to me: if smartphones make everyone look like they are scrolling, maybe my assumption about what the teens were doing on their phones was also wrong. I had assumed that while I was doing something “important” on my phone, they, like most teenagers with smartphones these days, were likely looking at TikTok or Instagram. I decided to do an impromptu survey. I asked each of the seven teenagers, one by one, what they were doing on their phones. 

One was editing music she had created. One was using a stock market simulator which allowed him to gain knowledge and skills needed for investing and trading without the risk of losing real money. Another, a kid who has been obsessed with trains, planes and automobiles since he was little, was using a train simulator to learn about city planning. Next, there was a girl who competes in horse shows and was watching a video of her performance from the day before. She was analyzing it to see what she could do differently next time to achieve a higher score. Then there was a kid who has become very accomplished in Martial arts and was watching tutorials for a particular combination he was trying to master. Finally, the last two girls sheepishly admitted to playing games which they clearly felt were silly but enjoyable nonetheless. One was playing a game where you tend to your virtual farm and the other was playing a game where you tend to your virtual family. Not a single one was scrolling on social media. Instead, they were all pursuing their interests in a way that digital technology has made easier over the last 20 years. 

Now I was even more curious. Had I just happened to catch these kids at the right moment or is social media use among teens at the Macomber Center significantly lower than average? With all the talk these days about kids spending too much time on their smartphones, perhaps it would be worth investigating this further. So I invited anyone who was interested to come and join a discussion about social media and to answer some questions for a blog post I was thinking of writing.

This time the group was slightly larger. It consisted of twelve kids altogether; one thirteen year old, one fourteen year old, six fifteen year olds, three sixteen year olds, and one seventeen year old. Only four out of the twelve said they use social media. When I asked the others why they are not on it, they said things like “don’t need it”, “not interested,” and “don’t really care about it.” We have never restricted or limited social media use at the Center, but I couldn’t help wondering if their parents were imposing limits or restrictions on it from their end.  However, they said the choice to stay off social media was theirs and not their parents, and that they could be on it if they wanted. 

The four kids who do use social media all gave the same answer when asked how much time they spend on it: usually no more than an hour a day, mostly in the morning before their friends arrive at the Center. Once their friends are there, they said, there are many other better things to do. 

Why aren’t they more like other kids their age? A couple of them said they believe that kids in regular school are surrounded by other kids on social media so they feel pressure to be in the know. “So why doesn’t that happen here?" I asked, “Since some of you are on it, why doesn’t it spread to the rest of you?” “I go on Reddit because I enjoy it,” one of them responded. “I can discuss niche interests that I can’t discuss with my friends, but I’m happy for my friends who aren’t on Reddit. People say terrible things on reddit. So I would never try to get a friend to join it.” 

This led them into a conversation about the relative levels of toxicity on various social media platforms, and then into a sophisticated discussion of how negative online social dynamics function. Despite the fact that the majority of them are not on social media, they all seemed to be well-informed about online culture. They are clearly not being sheltered from the digital world they are growing up in. They just seem to have a different relationship to it than other kids their age. 

At this point I felt like someone should be sticking up for social media, so I asked if any of them had anything good to say about it. One of them said they use Instagram to show and sell their jewelry. Another said that he likes to discuss music online because he likes a lot of bands that his friends are not interested in. Someone else said that he plays online games that his friends here don’t play, so he likes to talk about those games with people online who know what he’s talking about. 

Finally, I said, “But what about scrolling? Don’t any of you ever just feel like looking at Instagram reels?” They seemed to feel that scrolling on social media is a pretty benign activity. There is nothing wrong with it, but it is not particularly fulfilling. One of them said that they are not on Instagram or TikTok because they know themselves well enough to know that it wouldn’t be good for them. Another said that if you can do it without getting sucked into it, then it can be a harmless form of entertainment. When I asked those who are on Instagram and TikTok why they don’t get sucked into what they referred to as “doom scrolling”, they said that they just don’t let themselves get sucked in. One said he never goes on social media if there are other people around to talk to or do things with. He said he always prefers to do something “real” with his friends if the option exists. Another said that there is nothing in the world he would rather be doing at any given time than spending time with his friends, which is why he doesn’t use social media when he’s at the Center. But it is also why he plays online games when he is at home, to connect with his friends when he has to be away from them. 

These kids seem to be more aware of themselves and how they respond to the positive and negative aspects of being online than are many adults. This confirmed something that I have always believed about self-directed education generally, namely that trusting children to learn for themselves how to manage danger, whether that be the physical danger of climbing a tree, the social danger of being emotionally hurt, or the online danger of stumbling into a toxic exchange with strangers or wasting an entire day doing something mind numbing, is the best way to help children gain self-knowledge, mastery and confidence. 

We hear a lot lately about how social media is largely to blame for the disturbingly high rates of anxiety and depression among teens. When you walk into the Macomber Center, what you see is a lot of happy, well adjusted, teenagers, and when you learn that their social media use is low to non-existent, you may think that you have just discovered why they are so happy and healthy. But it seems to me to be the other way around: it’s not that they are happy because they don’t use a lot of social media, but that they don’t use a lot of social media because they are happy. One thing I heard expressed over and over, in one form or another, was that these kids love being together at the Center and that they have very full lives here. There are a lot of fun and interesting things they are involved in together and social media does not have much place in that. If anything, it can get in the way. One kid said that he doesn’t go on social media when his friends are around and available to do things together because he is afraid he might miss something. 

My colleague Vanessa Niro told me that since she has been working here her views on allowing kids on social media have changed. As an outdoor educator for over a decade, she used to think that social media was bad for kids. But after seeing how kids regulate their own use of digital technology at the Center, she has come to believe that social media is not inherently bad for kids. When I asked why she believes these kids are better at regulating their social media use than kids in other environments, she explained it this way: In conventional schooling there’s very little time for organic and authentic social connection. Developmentally, kids and especially teenagers need a lot of time to socialize. When that internal need is frustrated, kids are going to reach for social media as a way to fill that void. But that’s not what social media is for. Social media cannot fulfill our basic human needs for community, friendship, and socializing. When it is used by people as a substitute for these basic needs, they will have a hard time self-regulating. The kids at the Macomber Center might use social media as a way to explore various interests and connect with other people who share those same interests. But they are not using it to fill a basic human need because that need is already being met more authentically. 

Kids who grow up in a self-directed education community like the Macomber Center are given the time and space they need to figure out who they are and what is important to them. They are able to delve deeply into their own interests, develop deep and meaningful social connections, and create rich and fulfilling lives together. It is not so surprising that they don't have a lot of interest in or time for social media.

Sadly, many teens today do not have the time or freedom to create meaningful, satisfying lives for themselves. Their lives are designed and managed by adults. It is no wonder why many teens in today's society would want to spend every free moment on their smartphone, where they can have an experience which is not curated, controlled, surveilled and judged by adults. Now of course we hear people calling for no smartphones before high school, no social media before 16 and not allowing phones into schools. It seems cruel to blame teens’ smartphones use for their unhappiness. We should be providing them with the time and space to develop authentic community and self-determination instead.

Learning To Be Self-Directed

I must admit that I have never liked the term self-directed learning. It is not a helpful term for describing the lives of children outside school. For one thing, it leads people to imagine uniquely self motivated children learning under their own steam the things less exceptional children have to be compelled to learn. This is certainly not what we mean when we use the term. On the other hand, it is also common for proponents of self-directed learning to talk about the learning that occurs throughout the course of any child’s ordinary, self chosen activities, as though what is important is not that a child enjoys what they are doing but that it is an engine for learning. 

So how should we describe what kids do at the Macomber Center? Recently, an outdoor educator came to visit our Center as part of his research into more self-directed learning environments. He told me that he had never seen anything quite like this before. He said it looked less like an educational environment and more like a place people come to enjoy themselves. He did not mean this as a criticism. On the contrary, he seemed to find it refreshing and inspiring.

A place where people come to enjoy themselves? Yes, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. The ability to enjoy your life in a community where no one is telling you what to do with yourself or how to engage with others, requires a lot of practice and a whole set of skills that need to be developed over time. This is clear to see when a kid comes from a traditional educational environment, where they have never had to take responsibility for their own time, where their interactions with adults and other kids have been circumscribed by the rigid, artificial structure of school, and where they have never had the time or space to figure out who they are, what is important to them, and how they want to live their lives. It can sometimes take a whole year, or even several years, before they start to get the hang of it. And it can be hard for parents to bear with this process. But consider what is taking place. They are beginning to find out what motivates them, what makes life really worth living for them. This is not something any child can be taught. And it is the foundation of a happy, satisfying life. So rather than saying these kids' primary task is self-directed learning, we could say they are learning to be self-directed. 

This was really brought home to me this past week when a group of former Macomber Center members, who still get together when they are on break from college, decided to stop in for a visit. We were eager to hear how things have been for them since leaving the Center. And they were eager to report on their success! They all reported enjoying the college experience. But several of them voiced frustration with the attitudes of their fellow students. They said that while they felt like they themselves were there to learn, they were often having to work alongside students who were focused on getting through college as quickly and painlessly as possible, often trying to take shortcuts and avoid work while still maintaining good grades, as though they were sick and tired of school but felt forced to stay in the race til the end. In contrast, these former members of ours said that they do not really pay much attention to their grades. What matters to them is that they are able to learn and absorb the material. One of them told us that if he gets a good grade, but does not feel he understands the material deeply enough to satisfy him, he will follow up with his teacher and try to gain a better understanding through in-depth one-on-one conversations. On the other hand, if he gets a bad grade, but feels that he got what he wanted from the class and understands the material enough to feel secure in his knowledge, he does not worry about the grade. 

When we asked them why they thought this was, that they are focused on learning, while many of their peers seem preoccupied with grades, they said it is because going to the Macomber Center gave them the time and space to figure out who they are, what they really want, and how to go about getting it. So entering college they were clear in their own minds about why they were there and what they wanted to get out of it. Instead of going to college because that’s what they were expected to do, college for them was a means of forming a foundation of knowledge and skills that would help them move in the direction they wanted to go in their lives. One of them said that he felt like many of his peers in college were just treading a path plotted for them by someone else, and that their main goal was to make enough money so that it would all be worth it in the end. He said the orientation of most students he met seemed to be less about creating a meaningful life with fulfilling work and more about collecting the academic credentials that would enable them to demand a high salary. 

These kids are prime examples of self-directed learning. All five of them went on to higher education because they had clear ideas of what they wanted to pursue, not because they thought they should. College was a necessary and important part of this path for each of them. They are not passively going through the motions but actively constructing their education as part of actively constructing their lives. And yet, while they were at the Center much of what they spent their time doing looked more like goofing off than learning. They played a lot of capture the flag, football, tag and other outdoor games. And of course, they spent a lot of time hanging out, talking and joking around. But while it may not have been evident to an observer who has more conventional ideas about how kids should be spending their time, they were learning to take responsibility for their own lives. They were experimenting with who they wanted to be, how they wanted to relate to others, how to spend their time, and how to derive meaning and satisfaction from life. Ultimately, they absorbed and internalized the messages from the adults in their lives that they are responsible for their own happiness. It’s their life and they are learning how to take charge of it. What better outcome could we wish for our members?

Empowered Kids, Liberated Parents

The following is an excerpt from Empowered Kids, Liberated Parents, by Cassi Clausen and Aaron Browder, posted with permission from the authors. You can purchase the book in paperback or digital version here.

Autonomy means children are in control of their own educations. They are free to design their own educational paths and decide which activities to spend time on, even activities that are deemed useless by educational authorities.

As we mentioned in the previous section, autonomy enables children to listen to their hearts, identify their own needs, and decide to do what’s best for themselves. This power extends to the realm of education and learning too. Children are innately curious; they want to learn about the world and develop skills. Autonomous children spontaneously explore, experiment, investigate, question, and create. You might say that children are learning all the time, even—no, especially—when playing.

Children also strive to attain mastery. You can see this drive most clearly when you see a child playing a video game level over and over again, failing and retrying until he finally succeeds. One young student at The Open School wanted to get good at drawing human eyes, so she practiced drawing them day after day. Nothing could be more natural than a child working hard to achieve something—no coercion is necessary.

Autonomy is important in education because children only learn what they’re curious about, and we can’t control what a person is curious about. Learning happens when a question appears in a person’s head and they find an answer. We can’t control this process because we can’t know what questions are in a child’s head unless they ask them.

Many people, when they hear that autonomous children are always exploring, experimenting, and questioning, assume this means that autonomous children will always choose to study everything on the conventional curriculum—all the science, math, history, literature, music, and so on, that we wish they would learn. This is a mistaken picture. Not everyone is interested in all of these subjects, and that’s okay. Embracing autonomy in education requires us to rethink the meanings of the words “education” and “learning,” so that they are not just about what’s on the conventional curriculum, but encompass the full spectrum of human knowledge and skill. “Education” includes, for instance, learning how to get along with others, how to design things, how to solve problems creatively, how to cope with failure, how to set and achieve goals, how to sell ideas, how to troubleshoot tech problems, how to find information online, and how to manage money. Of course some autonomous children learn chemistry, calculus, Shakespeare, classical music, or other things on the conventional curriculum. It depends on their interest. But for each of these subjects, probably only a minority of kids will choose to pursue it.

Everyone is different. We all have different passions and talents. That’s why children should be in full control of what they study and when they study—and even whether they study. You might feel that a certain activity is educational or not educational, but you might be wrong. You might think that a child chatting with her friends isn’t an educational activity—but she’s actually developing her communication skills, learning about relationships, and learning how to resolve disputes. Or you might think that trading Pokemon cards isn’t an educational activity—but the child is actually learning about argumentation, negotiation, business, and economics. Let children follow their passions and you might be surprised at what they discover and achieve.

Macomber Center Writing from 2015-16

Three years into this Macomber Center community of kids and adults, the staff decided to write a blog each week for the website - a blog detailing some aspect about this venture from each of our unique perspectives. What follows is a selection of these writings, revived as we enter our eleventh year together. Hopefully you will find them interesting and even informative, providing some insight into this awesome company of staff and children who spend their weeks interacting together on this lovely spot in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Teaching Classes at Macomber Center

James Style

Since I began working at Macomber Center in the fall, my responsibilities (in addition to heading up the Frisbee department, overseeing the Lego collection, and assisting in domino design) have largely been devoted to teaching a series of classes. This has been fun and challenging both personally (learning to teach kids of different ages in a unique, self-directed learning environment), and institutionally (working in concert with other staff to provide a framework for these semi-formal classes to take place in a way that respects the often informal nature of the center). With the year having just ended I have been in a more reflective mood, trying to figure out what worked and what did not, and trying to articulate everything I have learned.

Like any true insight in life this has mostly involved the long, tedious process of realizing the blindingly obvious. A good example of this was realizing that the definition of a class is not as obvious as it may seem, and that each kid often has their own idea about what a class is. How long is a class? How often does a class meet? Is there homework for a class? How does a class actually function? For kids who may never have been in a class before, and who are expected to take an active and independent role in their own learning, their ideas of what a class is and how it is supposed to take place may be highly idiosyncratic, not clear to others, and yet the subject of strong feelings. Failure to realize this can lead to confusion.

Of course, like the students, I have my own assumptions about what a class is. When these clash with student’s ideas novel situations can arise. Early on I realized that my own idea of a class - where a teacher writes on a whiteboard while students calmly and passively listen - was quite absurd. During class I was often either joined by several students happily writing next to me on the whiteboard or, in one case, asked to hand over the marker so the student could write on the whiteboard while I spoke. This was a little disconcerting as the whiteboard helps me focus and organize what I want to say, and yet it also makes perfect sense as it helps the students focus and organize what they are hearing.

Disagreement about the nature of a class can also lead to confusion. Earlier in the year, for instance, I noticed sometimes that what I was offering and had prepared was not what the class was expecting or wanted. When working one-on-one, these differences are easier to overcome because the class can be readily adapted to the specific interests of the individual kid (I can, for instance, relinquish the whiteboard to the student). In group settings, however, these differences can be trickier to overcome because not only is there the confusion between myself and the kid, but also between the kids themselves (maybe, for example, one kid is distracted by multiple people writing on the whiteboard). This is particularly true when leading classes with kids of different ages. Not only might each kid desire something different from the class or understand the material in different ways but their fundamental assumptions about how a class should work can be different. Of course, no one person is more right than any other.

How should we deal with this? Learning (and this includes teaching) at Macomber means being entirely open-minded about what a class is and how a class should function. It is not my role to tell the kids what a class is or how a class should function. More and more, however, I do view it as my role to challenge kids to be clearer about what they want a class to be and how they want a class to work. A class at Macomber is not a fixed thing either in my mind or in the kids’ minds; everyone involved has to take an active role in shaping it. Some kids can be very specific about what they want; others less so. In addition to asking important nuts-and-bolts-type questions such as “how long do you want to meet for?” and “how often do you want to meet?”, I want the kids to think about things like “what are the goals of the class?” and “how will we know those goals are being met?”. As the kids gain more experience with classes I want them to reflect more on what they want and how they can get it both individually and as a group. It is not as simple as getting feedback from kids about how I am doing as a teacher or how the class is going for them (though this is important too) but it is important for everyone to think about how we are doing as a class and we can improve.

It Takes All Kinds

Ben Draper

“What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.”

- Henry David Thoreau

Kids come in many different varieties. It’s remarkable how different even two siblings can be from one another. This is certainly the case with my own two kids. They vary widely in everything from their personalities and temperaments, to their likes and dislikes, to their individual talents and strengths. On the whole, we celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of children. It is the wonder and joy of having kids that we get to watch them grow and develop in surprising and unexpected ways. But once kids reach school age, parents and teachers often go to great lengths to help them adjust and adapt to life in the classroom, where every child is expected to do exactly the same work in exactly the same way for years on end.

The other day I was talking to one of the parents here at the Macomber Center. He told me that he and his wife came to a point with their kids when they could see that traditional school was not working. They decided they needed to make a change. This is what finally brought them to the Macomber Center. Referring to his son, he said, “We wanted to set him free to become his own person.” This really struck me. Not only does it go to the heart of what the Macomber Center is about, it is also the reason I love having my own son here. I never know on any given day who he will gravitate to, what he will be interested in, what he will take away from the experience, and where it will lead him next. This is what education should be about, giving kids the freedom and support they need to discover the world for themselves and begin to shape themselves as they move through it.

Traditional education is based on the opposite approach: it takes kids of every different stripe, with widely varying temperaments, interests, and approaches to learning, and subjects them all to exactly the same set of procedures, measuring them every step of the way, with the end goal of producing a uniform, standardized product. As people in the world of self-directed education like to point out, our schools were originally created for the purpose of supplying the industrial economy with workers who were already used to falling in line, taking orders from above, staying at one station for long periods of time, and focusing on the same tedious work, day after day. But these schools have long outlived their purpose, so it is no surprise that many parents in the 21st-century are feeling that traditional school is out of step with what they want for their kids. Schools were never designed to help foster those unique qualities that make one child stand out from another. In fact, school suppresses children’s unique talents and gifts in favor of strict adherence to a one-size-fits-all curriculum, and it promotes only those strengths and abilities that can be measured by standardized tests.

Allowing kids to be themselves not only makes for happier kids, it also happens to be the best way to prepare them for the future. I recently read a terrific new book called “The Gardener and the Carpenter” which reinforced this idea from an angle that I had never considered. The book is by Allison Gopnick, a leading evolutionary psychologist. In the book, she argues that the high degree of variability among individual children is a product of our evolutionary history and serves a very important purpose. Throughout our evolution, she claims, humans have had to face unexpected changes in climate, physical environment, and social structure, and so we have evolved to vary widely in our abilities and temperaments in order to be flexible and adaptable in the face of unpredictability and change.

“By varying what individual children are like, how they think and develop, and what they learn from others, all those children stand a better chance of survival when things change. As a result, we can expect a great deal of apparently random variability in the temperament and development of children and in the behavior of adults... From the point of view of evolution, trying to consciously shape how your children will turn out is both futile and self-defeating. Even if we humans could precisely shape our children's behavior to suit our own goals and ideals, it would be counterproductive to do it. We can’t know beforehand what unprecedented challenges the children of the future will face. Shaping them in our own image or in the image of our current ideals might actually keep them from adapting to changes in the future.”

If the diversity and uniqueness of children is an asset, particularly in today’s fast changing and unpredictable world, if it is something to be fostered rather than suppressed, shouldn’t it be a primary focus of education? It would stand to reason that the best sort of educational environment is one where kids are exposed to as many different adult models, as many different varieties of information, and as many different experiences as possible, in order to support the variety and variability of each child’s developmental course. In an age-mixed, interest-mixed community like the Macomber Center, kids are exposed to a much wider variety of possibilities then they would ever be exposed to in a traditional classroom where everybody is focused on the same material. Between the six staff, who all have vastly different interests, backgrounds, and personalities, and the kids, who range in age from five to seventeen years old, all pursuing their own various interests, the Macomber Center contains a tremendous variety of activity.

Just take this past week, for example. Mark helped some kids film a new episode of Space Thieves, taught some other kids how to play one of their favorite songs together on different instruments, and led a large group of kids in his wildly popular acting and improv class. James led a reading group, tutored in Latin, and played hours of gaga ball and back-and-forth tag. Amy gave Ben Rubel and me some voice coaching to help us in our barbershop quartet and she also hosted a Skype meeting for the whole community with an engineer from SpaceX. Dan helped one kid learn how to use a soldering iron for some projects he’s planning, helped someone else build a robot, and tutored some older kids for the SAT.

The Macomber Center is based on an idea that predates the industrial model of education, an idea that is as relevant today as it ever was in the past: The great potential within each of us lies not in our capacity to conform to an external standard but to discover our own unique set of talents and strengths and develop those as much as we can and learn to engage the world on the basis of those talents and strengths.

The Heart of Macomber

Sandra Dickie (Founding Parent)

I would like to address the idea that I hear expressed from time to time that there is no point in sending your kids to a place like the Macomber Center if all they're going to do is play video games all day, which is something that they can just do at home. For me, this misses the heart of what Macomber offers.

Whether it be music, art, cooking, science classes, walks in the woods, games of tag or four square or video games/screen time, the Center offers a chance to come together with others and experience different perspectives and share new ideas. An artist friend of mine (who works in a completely different field for a living) rented some studio space a few years ago. She did this, rather than set up space in her own home, so that she could be near other artists and gain insight, encouragement and companionship from them. At lunchtime at a homeschool program at a farm, everyone comes together and you either share a dish or wash dishes. By sharing a meal with a diverse group of adults and children, you are exposed to new foods, or foods prepared in ways you have not previously experienced. The same thing happens cooking or eating lunch at Macomber – it is simply lunch, but it is an amazing learning experience.

Board games, outdoor games and video games all have rules. But when playing with people outside of your family, outside of your immediate circle of close friends, you may learn new interpretations of those rules. Or you may be inspired to combine different interpretations and make a whole new game. Collaboration and inspiration are at the heart of most music and art – seeing and hearing new patterns, new ways of doing the same thing or perhaps something completely different. In short, playing around with ideas. And play, as most of us at Macomber agree, is key to all learning.

I really feel that the magic of Macomber lies in the fact that it is so much more than the sum of its parts. Any single person attending the Center could probably do what they are doing there at home. But the experience becomes so much more when it is shared in a supportive, open environment where there is no wrong answer and play and experimentation are encouraged.

This semester at the local university where I work there was a teach-in about a topic that has been in the news all year. Professors reported that up to one third of their students were unaware of the issue. These students tended to be from small schools, came to the university with a group of friends, shared the same interests and likes as their friends and because of the way news and ideas are spread on the internet, have never had to look at anything outside of their interests and perspective. This topic was simply not on their radar, so they were completely oblivious about it. In this age of Internet and screen time, there is more need than ever to get together in person and share experiences and knowledge. Macomber provides this and I feel fortunate to have it in our life.

CPR/First Aid Class

James Style

Sometimes I think of the Macomber Center as a version of a one-room schoolhouse, only updated for the 21st century. The shared open space has advantages and disadvantages. It can feel a bit crowded in the winter or on a rainy day with no quiet spot to escape to and no strict divisions between ages and temperaments, but it also draws everyone together, allows a real community to be built, and creates unique situations.

A CPR/First Aid class this week illustrated the positive aspects of our limited space. Fifteen members had officially enrolled in the class so we pulled back the chairs and tables in the main room to clear a large enough area for the class to take place. It was a beautiful day and at first the kids not taking part in the class were running around happily outside; however, as soon as we began moving the furniture around, it became clear to them that something far more interesting was happening inside. As the class began, I was amused to see that the “official” class was surrounded by an “unofficial” class, an audience of mostly younger kids genuinely fascinated by the spectacle taking place before them. In hindsight, it was not hard to see the source of their fascination. The instructor brought her own cool toys (CPR dummies, toy epinephrine pens, and an automated, talking defibrillator) and had set up a large monitor on which she played demonstration videos. In addition to listening to the information, the younger kids got to watch the older kids bopping along, 100 beats per minute, as they practiced their chest compressions and wheezing into the mouths of the bright plastic dummies. Fortunately, our instructor took it in stride, easily adapting to the setting, and happily answering questions and accepting answers to her own questions from anyone - “official” or “unofficial” - whoever wanted to take part was welcomed into the process.

I was nervous at first that the kids wouldn’t accept the boundaries of the class but I soon realized how absurd my worries were: of course the kids didn’t accept the boundaries of the class! But there was also no need for the class to be constituted by boundaries. They respected the attention of the other kids and they were genuinely interested in the material-- that was enough. It is difficult to describe how learning works in such an informal setting but it is also recognizable to anyone who has attended a successful seminar or meeting in a university or workplace. At such moments a lack of formality does not undermine the process but fundamentally strengthens it. Everyone is at ease. No one fears being called upon or asking questions. Laughter is not the product of the inattention but demonstrates understanding and comfort with the material and the setting. It is just a remarkable, healthy environment to be in. In our case distinctions between teacher and student, adult and child, “official” and “unofficial” student easily broke down. A group of people from the ages of 6- 62 all sat down on a beautiful day and learned the lessons of life and death together. It was actually fun.

The Macomber Center Rules

Ben Draper

When we started, almost five years ago, we didn’t have any rules at all. At our first few community meetings, we began to lay down some basic community norms--hang up your coat when you first walk in the door, put your lunch away when you’re done eating, don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink, no offensive language or aggressive physical contact, etc. All of these rules have one purpose: to promote the idea of a harmonious community where everyone feels respected. For the most part, this community runs pretty smoothly. Conflicts do arise-- as they do in any community-- but what’s unusual about the Macomber Center community is that it is up to the kids as well as the adults to find solutions.

In response to conflict we sometimes create new rules but try not to if we can help it. The few rules we have are not hard and fast, but more like community norms that we all more or less agree with in principle. These norms are flexible and open to interpretation, and there is a good reason for this. They are essentially social norms - don’t leave a mess for someone else to clean up, don’t offend others, don’t annoy or harass others, don’t be too loud or disruptive - and social norms are not clear cut, they are not hard and fast rules. Because they are social norms they are fluid and always shifting depending on the context. What is appropriate behavior in one moment, with one person or group of people, may not be appropriate in the next moment, when the people and context has shifted. While the community generally agrees with these norms in principle, there can be disagreement about how these norms work in practice. Resolving these issues through discussion is one of the primary functions of the community meeting and forms the basis of the community we have created here.

Another unusual aspect of our community is that there is no system of punishment for the breaking of rules and thus there are no “consequences” to deter people from doing what they are not supposed to do. So how do we “enforce” these rules? Well, we don’t. We want the members here to learn to adhere to the shared norms of the community, not for fear of punishment, but because they are important to the other members of the community and therefore important for each individual’s role in the community.

Learning to navigate this complex and subtle social terrain created by these norms is a vital part of being an individual here and one of the more important lessons of life for kids at Macomber.

Outside

Denise Geddes

Macomber Center - our building is for sure the center of our community. Games, conversations, cooking, meetings, lego constructions, writing, art work, classes, building with blocks, playing music, video games, meals, reading, computer work, making messes, cleaning up - all are part of our daily lives together. However, the vast outside that we have the great good fortune to be centered in is as much of who we are and what we do as the man-made physical structure that contains us.

A great deal of what happens each day takes place outside. These activities are almost too numerous to name, and certainly the learning that happens outside is far too deep and valuable and personal and far-reaching to quantify.

One expected category of activity might fall under the general "sports" label: four square, basketball, soccer, ultimate frisbee, fr'olf (frisbee golf, in case you are not familiar with that term) - all are played at some point by everyone at the Center. Certain ones, like four square, are played with passion and intensity every single day. Here might also be included the skateboards, bikes, rip-sticks, unicycles, and roller skates that all share space outside, and are used by experts and novices alike.

Stepping a bit away from this category, we get to the larger, looser one of "games" played outside by as many kids as can be persuaded to join in. This includes everything from capture the-flag and back-and-forth tag to knock-out and dodge ball. Events that traditionally take place inside migrate to outside when the weather is fine - math lessons, French horn duets, movie making, Tae Kwon Do, story reading, painting, chess games, flute and guitar playing, even card games, happen in the grass, under the blue sky above.

Then there are outside happenings that engage more of the physical surroundings, perhaps, than noted so far. The "secret place" and the "new secret place" are both lovely examples of this sort of engagement - wild spots on our campus discovered and explored, claimed and named by various aged kids. Places indeed unknown to anyone before them - places to spend whole days learning about how to invent and manage a community of your own imagining, figuring out what is important in the physical setting you have before you, trying out different ways to bring order to your space with the resources at hand. Thick old vines make wonderful swinging chairs, branches higher up in a tree are excellent perches on which to enjoy a picnic lunch, logs rolled into place become sitting benches.

Our outside space is bountiful. We have harvested quantities of Concord grapes growing wild in the places close to our building, making delicious jam from this largesse. Farther afield, a stand of old maple trees has given up gallons of sap to us for two seasons now, sap which has been boiled down to syrup over fires built with wood collected from the forest around us, and stored the previous autumn for that purpose.

Venturing further into the woods surrounding our building opens up another vast expanse of outside: rock climbing, tire swings, a trail cleared and marked by Eagle Scouts, ending at a fire pit great for a s'mores-making adventure - all there to be experienced and enjoyed. Many paths leading through gorgeous pine forest meet the edge of the Ashland Town Forest, another 570 wild acres to be explored if that is your passion. There, remnants of the Witch Caves inhabited by survivors of the Salem Witch trials of the 17th century can be searched for, or the more modern remnants of a Bel Air car of the 1950's era, discovered by some of our teens while exploring during our first year, may be rediscovered.

Outside is shared, of course, by a wide variety of wildlife, some more visible to us than others - we have been aware of many deer, too many Canada geese, a flock of wild turkeys, a fisher cat, groundhogs by the entrance gate, one awesome bald eagle in flight, many red-tailed hawks, a pair of red foxes, ticks, dragon flies large and small, bees, birds too numerous to name but in evidence all the day through by their songs, ladybugs, stink-bugs, toads, and one bumpy tree frog, to name a few who have shown themselves to us on various occasions. And to go along with the wildlife are the seasons - not much except for the very coldest of winter days stops outside from being used as a major part of life at the Center. Rain and wind, sun and mud and snow all become part of the vibrant, vigorous life of our members. I venture to suggest that this is a relatively unique privilege for kids today - to have the space and the time to freely explore the natural world in which we live, and to come to terms with information personally gained from spending countless hours outside.

Facing Difficulty

Ben Draper

As a staff member here at the Macomber Center and a parent of two young children, I often find myself getting into conversations about education with other parents outside the Center. I’m always puzzled by people who say that they didn’t pay attention in school, that they never learned anything useful there, and that the most important things they have learned in life were learned outside of school. What seems strange to me is not that these parents report having been bored and unengaged in school but that they always seem to follow it up by saying that school, despite all its failings, is a necessary evil and ultimately good for kids.

But perhaps this is not as much of a contradiction as I used to think. For many kids, school is often boring, difficult, stressful and even anxiety producing. And this seems to be precisely why parents feel it is so important. After all, what parent wants their kid to be sheltered from the tough realities of life? Life is difficult, it presents constant challenges, and we all want our kids to be able to thrive amidst the trials and tribulations out in the real world. This may also be why homeschooling has negative connotations for some people; they imagine that it means sheltering kids from the sometimes harsh social realities that lie beyond the security of the home.

In any case, all of this seems to be an acknowledgement that what kids really learn in school is not the specific subject matter that is being taught, but rather how to function within a rigid and unforgiving institutional structure. And this is why school is supposed to be good for them. But while this environment may be very difficult and challenging for many kids, it does not necessarily follow that it is therefore good for them. Not everything that hurts makes you stronger. If our real concern is that our kids learn to face difficulty on their own without a protecting parent standing by to mediate their experience and manage every difficult challenge, we need only think for a minute about what actual lessons kids learn in school to see that it is a false kind of preparation for real life. What the institutional structure of school encourages, above all, is obedience, compliance, and conformity. Kids learn to accept arbitrary authority and to passively and uncritically consume a pre-packaged curriculum without ever questioning the material or the way in which it’s delivered. They learn to depend on others to tell them what is important in life and to tell them what they need to learn and how to learn it.

There is a stark contradiction, then, between what we say is good for kids and what we say we value in adults. Increasingly, we hear about the importance of critical thinking, imaginative and creative problem solving, communication and collaboration, and self-motivation and initiative. School, as we know it today, is not designed to enable kids to exercise and strengthen these capacities. Quite the opposite. So, I think we need to be more specific when we say that we want our kids to be challenged and to learn to face difficulties. I would argue that what's important for kids, and certainly what I want for my own kids, is to learn how to function effectively within an unpredictable and fluid social environment, because this is the kind of environment where kids develop the skills they will need in an increasingly unpredictable and fast-changing world.

Along with the difficulties and challenges associated with learning how to negotiate and navigate within an unstructured social environment, kids in a self-directed learning community such as the Macomber Center have to learn how to confront the inevitable experiences of boredom, frustration, and anxiety. These difficult, fundamental human experiences can either be productive opportunities for positive development or they can be deadening, depending on whether one has the freedom and agency to respond creatively to them or whether one is limited and restricted by external forces, as in traditional school.

The experience, for example, of boredom and frustration can be one of life’s primary catalysts for growth. The expression, “If you are bored then you are boring” implies that boredom is an inevitable and fundamental experience that we all need to learn how to push through for ourselves. Furthermore, this pushing through will often tell us something essential about ourselves--who we are and where we might find fulfillment in life. But the kind of boredom that many children experience in school is not like this; it is the kind of difficult, unpleasant experience that is imposed from the outside, and which they are powerless to change. It is difficult without being challenging. A challenge is something that you can rise to and overcome if you are determined and resourceful. The only thing you can learn from the kind of boredom and frustration that school presents is how to endure unpleasant conditions imposed on you against your will. This may be a useful skill for kids to learn if we want to prepare them for a life in which they will spend long periods of time in environments which are stifling and soul-crushing.

Developing endurance can certainly be a good thing. When we set goals for ourselves, we often have to endure a lot of ups and downs, and sometimes long periods of difficult struggle, to see our goals through to the end. But learning to endure the status quo because we have no choice is different. A friend of mine, years ago, told me that if she had kids, she would definitely send them to traditional school even though she hated school as a kid. The reason she gave was that she wanted her kid to be able to tolerate the monotony of meaningless, tedious, busy work that school requires from kids. This way, the monotony of adult work would not come as a shock or a disappointment. Aside from being overly cynical, this kind of thinking can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

At the Macomber Center, kids encounter difficult and challenging experiences every single day. They have to learn how to make choices for themselves, how to battle boredom and frustration, how to deal with situations they find difficult, and how to resolve conflicts. Most importantly, they learn to challenge themselves and overcome their own internal obstacles. The adults at the Center help to create and maintain a stable, healthy environment for kids. When kids feel safe and secure, they are able and even eager to challenge themselves. They’re more likely to take risks emotionally, socially, and intellectually. They’re more comfortable outside their comfort zone, so to speak.

Anxiety, too, is an inevitable and necessary part of life. In a safe and supportive community like the Macomber Center, it is a natural part of development; it is a part of expanding beyond one’s familiar and comfortable habits of operating in the world and taking on challenges. As we know all too well, though, excess anxiety is a real problem for many kids in traditional school. Instead of helping to propel them to new heights, this anxiety very often becomes debilitating. It hinders performance rather than enhancing it.

At the Macomber Center, children are constantly playing games in groups of different ages and different skill levels. The role of adults is not to manage these complex, precarious dynamics, but to contribute to the game. They have no more power or influence in the games than any other players. Kids have to learn how to deal with all the other players, from the adults to the little kids. They have to learn how to play with kids who may older and more intellectually, emotionally, and physically more powerful than they are. Sometimes these situations involve difficult, conflicting personalities. But there is tremendous motivation to overcome the difficulties that get in the way because of the investment that each kid has in the game. Without genuine collaboration and the requisite skills of communication, problem-solving, fairness, and emotional resilience, these games would not be possible. Since the adults do not manage these interactions, when a child is playing unfairly or is bullying one of the younger kids, or is unwilling to put up with all the compromising and negotiating required, the game is over. The motivation and drive for these kids to play these games is so strong that they end up developing a remarkable level of patience and diplomacy--even self-sacrifice--in order to ensure that the game can go on.

If we really want our kids to be able to face difficulty, learn to challenge themselves, and to overcome obstacles, we need to let them take the lead in their own lives. When we talk about self-directed learning, we usually talk about kids being able to choose what they want to learn about and pursuing learning in their own style. Of course, this is an important part of self- directed learning. But the real heart of self-directed learning, more important than the particular interests the child is pursuing at any given time, is the growth, development, and thriving that begin to occur as a direct result of the freedom to direct one’;s own life.

Who Said Anything about "Innovation"?

Ben Draper

Several weeks ago, two PhD students came to visit Macomber Center. They were researching innovative practices in education and wanted to talk to me about our approach. Though I was happy to speak with them, I told them that there is nothing innovative going on here. These kids are doing what kids have always done; at least, that is, until the relatively recent invention of compulsory schooling. They are playing together, inventing games, exploring, and discovering new things. It is a beautiful and rare thing. But there is nothing new or innovative about it.

These days, there is a lot of excitement and interest in innovative educational programs. We hear a lot about how traditional school hampers motivation, curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking - all the traits that experts believe young people will need to thrive in an innovation-based economy. Some argue that the best way for kids to develop the essential "21st century skills" - collaboration, communication, and creative problem solving - is through free play and self directed learning. There may be truth to all this. But the reason we set Macomber Center up the way we did, where kids choose how to spend their own time, was not merely to train them for a future economy; rather, we wanted to create a rich, inspiring community, free of coercion and manipulation, where kids thrive in the present. For all the talk of "reimagining education for the 21st century" and preparing kids for the "innovation era", the importance of a happy childhood always seems to be missing from the conversation.

If there is anything innovative in what we are doing it has to do with the homeschool resource center model itself. It is flexible and adaptable. It has allowed us to grow and evolve according to the needs of the community rather than being restricted by rigid adherence to an educational model. This process took time; we have grown steadily and gradually, adapting to the needs of the community. As a result, the environment that we have created here is more interesting, dynamic, and vibrant than anything any group of educators, no matter how innovative, could have designed. This is reflected in many of the staff’s blog posts from this year which chronicle the day-to-day life at the Center.

When people talk about an innovative educational program, they usually mean that it has a unique way of shaping the lives of the kids who pass through it. What is innovative about Macomber Center is that it is shaped by the unique individuals who make it up. This is not to say that the kids at the Macomber Center are not shaped by their experience, they are. But it is not a one-way street. It is the kids as much as the adults who are creating the culture, and it is continually evolving to reflect the values, the interests, and the individual personalities that make it up.