What parent wouldn’t want their child to be able to play all day today, as long as it didn’t set them back tomorrow? There is no doubt that the kids at the Macomber Center are enjoying life to its fullest. But how is it preparing them for the future?

At the Macomber Center, it is up to each child to choose how they spend their time every day, whether they are 5 years old or 18 years old. Each one has 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 incredibly demanding work for anyone of any age. But we believe that the best way to prepare children for a meaningful, satisfying adult life is to let them create meaningful, satisfying lives for themselves right now, and then continue to experiment with that as they grow and change.

Even the youngest kids at the Center take this responsibility seriously. They 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 the little 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 educational activities designed by adults.

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. Over the course of my life in different self-directed education environments I have seen kids transition into adult life in myriad ways. There is no one way to do it. When I was going through this process, my mother, a product of the radical educational thought of the 60s and early 70s, used to tell me not to bother with college. She’d tell me there were so many better ways to spend those four years. She liked to talk about my father, and other examples of people who had found their way into doing work that they loved without going through college. But as someone who grew up in a radically alternative setting, I was ready to try the conventional route.

Young people who have grown up in this kind of environment often want 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 area of work one is interested in, college may be an expedient if not necessary way to get there. Over the years, plenty of kids have gone on to college from the Center. Usually they start putting together their own transcript, including things they have done at or outside the Center, and studying for the SAT’s, either on their own, with a staff or with the help of a tutor. 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, 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 started meeting together 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 too.

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 forty years of experience with this model of education, 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 being in charge of their own lives and their own education.

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 small group of kids who started out wanting to take college classes last year just started a psychology class together at the local community college. Another started a math class at the same college. They still have a few years left here at the Macomber Center, but they are getting a headstart on the college path.

Most of 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.

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