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.