[p2p-research] homeschooling as a commons

[Michel Bauwens]

 Hi Chris,

if no one else volunteers, thanks for publishing this July 7 or after,

Michel
 Family Learning Communities 101Highlight comments in any color - Maria
Droujkova



   1. Family Learning Communities
101<https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaenMfoYXJb3ZGRqa3RocmRfMjg1ZGZ4cTRrZng&hl=en&authkey=COC8mb8B#_What_can_homeschoolers_teach__5522105800871917>
      1. All We Need
Is...<https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaenMfoYXJb3ZGRqa3RocmRfMjg1ZGZ4cTRrZng&hl=en&authkey=COC8mb8B#1_All_We_Need_Is_2457706267277_23818577826273002>
      2. Inclusion and
Exclusion<https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaenMfoYXJb3ZGRqa3RocmRfMjg1ZGZ4cTRrZng&hl=en&authkey=COC8mb8B#2_On_Friendships_and_Interests_21746866840373202>
      3. Online
Communities<https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaenMfoYXJb3ZGRqa3RocmRfMjg1ZGZ4cTRrZng&hl=en&authkey=COC8mb8B#3_Online_Communities_837003280_5774514052778355>
      4. Agile Methods<https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaenMfoYXJb3ZGRqa3RocmRfMjg1ZGZ4cTRrZng&hl=en&authkey=COC8mb8B#4_Agile_Methods_and_Rapid_Prot>
      5. The Commons<https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaenMfoYXJb3ZGRqa3RocmRfMjg1ZGZ4cTRrZng&hl=en&authkey=COC8mb8B#5_The_Commons_5685909568109653>
      6. unConclusion<https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaenMfoYXJb3ZGRqa3RocmRfMjg1ZGZ4cTRrZng&hl=en&authkey=COC8mb8B#unConclusion_3959331477743886>




Groundbreaking books, such as The World is Flat and A New Kind of Mind, have
suggested that a whole new kind of educational system is necessary to
prepare today's students with the 22nd century skills necessary for the
emerging global knowledge economy.  However, even the most innovative
experiments within the public school system--charter schools, virtual school
networks, etc.--are trapped within the antiquated school institutions that
were designed for the 19th century industrial economy.



This essay is an introduction to family education from the perspective of
the commons. I trace values that lead to particular patterns in making and
sharing of resources in communities and networks of family educators. To
guide their changes, many institutions and networks are starting to adapt
these community-building and learning patterns: the know-how of family
educators. I plead to look at the deeper level of values: the know-why.

"I started homeschooling thirteen years ago, and it has evolved tremendously
since then," said Julie Brennan in a recent interview. Julie is the family
educator responsible for the learning of her four children, and the founder
of Living Math <http://livingmath.net/>, a forum of some four thousand
members where parents discuss mathematics they practice in families, coops, and
clubs. In the last two years, more and more institution-based educators have
been joining Julie's group, as there is a growing demand for alternatives
that work. In the last few months, the conversations about public schools in
particular changed qualitatively, toward "a reigning discourse of
despair"<http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/05/12/roseravitchschoolreform.html?tkn=TVLFEQl4mJGbj0e66iUJf21cYOmgtHjLpmeG>.


The goal of this essay is to share family educator know-how to help other
communities who are now willing to listen. For decades, family educators
have been developing powerful communities and networks, eventually making
family learning sustainable and scalable beyond the super-dedicated circle
of "early adopters." One way out of the current desperation about
institutional learning is adopting blended models where multiple families,
institutions, and communities comprise each student's personal learning
network <http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm>. Principles of
family learning I describe can guide building blended learning models.

These principles apply to family educator communities I know and love.
Hopefully, others will speak about different types of communities.
"Imagine..." prompts describe extremes of each idea to promote brainstorming
and discussion. It's not the newness that makes the ideas exciting - most of
them are very old - but the particular ways millions of our contemporaries
reinterpret these ideas in the daily life. I expect a wide variety of
different and even opposite implications imagined by different people from
the same prompt. I am confident the incredibly diverse experiences of family
educators will reflect all the imagined scenarios and more.

All We Need Is...The main trait of family-based learning communities, and
their main difference from institutions, is using love as the main
organizing force. Success and well-being of each student is the matter of
huge personal importance to the family. Thus parental love drives the
natural selection in the ecology of family-centered learning materials and
systems. Of course, it frequently happens that a particular program,
approach, book, curriculum, class, learning partner, or mentor does not work
out for a particular student. Having very few considerations beyond
individual student success, family educators discard what does not work for
their children, and move on until something works well enough.

*Imagine educators helping students to quickly quit unfit learning systems,
curricula, and classes, and move on. How would this shift of focus from
student retention to student mobility change educational materials?*

A part of the overall caring structure is the requirement of care in
learning groups, communities, and networks. For example, learning group
leaders are expected to pay personal attention to every student and to be
reasonably passionate about all topics they offer - or, failing that, find
someone else who is. The main consequence is depth and breadth of engagement
of group leaders with the material, contagiously spreading among students.

*Imagine teachers personally liking every topic they currently teach. What
systemic changes will this cause over time?*

Decision-making in family learning is a combination of wishes of children
and parents, what their communities and networks deem important, resource
constraints, and local schooling regulations. The last item is based on
centralized, institutional structures, and as such frequently conflicts with
philosophies and practices of individual family educators. They see it as a
problem and take a variety of steps to minimize its impact, while the
balance between child, parent, and community power in each family determines
day-to-day learning. Some parents, notably
unschoolers<http://www.unschooling.com/>,
guarantee their children full "veto rights" on any learning materials or
activities the child does not like, while others may force curricula on
children. But one thing unites all homeschooling parents: they don't use
materials or activities *they* don't like.

*Imagine educators never participating in "curriculum wars" about what is
best for everybody. Imagine curriculum planning so
disintermediated<http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/05/disintermediation-risks-trends.html>that
each educator simply chooses for her students what
she likes the best out of everything available. What will it imply for
policies?*

Decentralized decision-making and individual choices support the rapid
development of multiple niches in education. Each viable curriculum,
teaching style, and community grows and develops based on direct wishes and
contributions of its loving users. This widespread care means a strong push
toward finding and building more and more custom-tailored ways of learning
that increase individual meaning and significance: "Loving one another in
the context <http://www.shirky.com/herecomeseverybody/>." To continue the
biological analogy, the ecological pressures produce a wide variety of
species. No system of education or set of curricular materials can hope for
more than a tiny fraction of this varied and mobile target audience.
*
Imagine describing the overall curricular philosophy in terms like "Curriculum
of Love <http://www.skylarksings.com/>" or "Delight Directed
Learning<http://www.design-your-homeschool.com/Delightdirected.html>."
How does it shape daily learning experiences and long-term curricular
decisions?*

Inclusion and Exclusion
Connections among family educators working together are close and personal.
There may be no divisions between times and locations for family, playing
with friends, academics, and work. Many people invite to group activities
only those they would invite home. Collaborations spark friendships or at
least tighter personal relationships, as families plan and work together.
Because children must be welcome to every meeting place, only such
environments are considered for conducting any sort of group business.

*Imagine workplaces and academic spaces always welcoming children. How does
it change the organization of space and people dynamics? How does it change
the ways children are socialized?*

To address a frequently asked question, family-educated children do go to
local open events, take online classes, and otherwise engage with people who
are initially complete strangers. However, the planning and sharing of these
events happens in the context of family and friends, and new people are seen
through the lens of family-and-friend networks. After a book discussion
about "Signing Their Lives Away," the
authors<http://www.joedenise.com/Home.html>commented that they always
get lively and deep questions from homeschool
groups. A kid replied, "It is easier to ask questions when I know I can
discuss them later with my friends who were there, too."

*Imagine children in every class being sons and daughters of teachers,
teachers' friends, or friends of friends. What does it imply for conduct,
behavior, decision-making, management?*

The word "homeschooling" applies most directly to very young kids, as their
activities typically include parents and largely happen in small
"Nakama<http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Nakama>"
groups with tight friends-and-family relationships, meeting at homes. There
are larger local networks of several dozen to several hundred families from
which small groups are formed. These family learning networks are defined by
compatible visions: some may require a particular religious affiliation,
some follow a philosophy of learning, some grow on the basis of other
decentralized
networks of peers <http://www.starfishandspider.com/>, such as La Leche
League <http://www.llli.org/> and Holistic Moms<http://www.holisticmoms.org/>.
A typical network has an email group, a site to share documents and to
schedule events, and regular meetings open to new people, usually by
invitation from members. Families also form larger coops where members take
turns organizing activities based on their interests. Coops hold regular
meetings in member homes, libraries, churches, or community centers. For
example, my family belongs to the local network Cary
Homeschoolers<http://www.caryhomeschoolers.org/>,
and two coops, Career Explore <http://careerexplorationcoop.org/> and Learning
Arbor <https://learningarbor.wikispaces.com/>.

*Imagine parents having to find and organize other interested families for
the majority of their children's group activities. What networking skills
will they develop after a few years of participation? *

The democratic ideal of the public
school<http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/05/12/roseravitchschoolreform.html?%20tkn=TVLFEQl4mJGbj0e66iUJf21cYOmgtHjLpmeG&cmp=clp-edweek>as
a place open to everybody seems to contradict the premises of family
learning communities. What about democracy there? Some larger family
learning communities and networks occasionally use democratic processes
within, such as electing a board or voting on group rules. Others are
autocratic, attracting people who agree to the leader's vision or a
pre-determined doctrine. Smaller groups typically seek consensus of all
members in their daily operations, or follow rules and directives from their
founders. Groups and communities rarely try to accommodate, or welcome,
absolutely everybody. Yet the democracy works at the inter-group level.
Everybody can start a group, a community, or a network. Moreover, different
groups participate together in large open events, and support one another
this way. For example, a fundamentalist religious coop can require members
to sign a statement of faith and to bring a recommendation from their priest
to join. However, when this coop organizes a curriculum swap or a science
fair, they may open it to all local family educator groups.
*
Imagine an abundance of diverse, autonomous learning groups, each supporting
a strong and focused agenda. If the resource and administrative cost of
starting a group is close to zero, what possibilities does it open for the
democracy in education? What limitations does it place on demographics with
limited group-building capabilities?*

Online Communities
Online and blended activities of family educators can serve as a more
accessible gateway for institutional educators. After all, joining these
activities requires relatively minor structural changes within school
children's families and organizations, as The School of
One<http://schools.nyc.gov/community/innovation/SchoolofOne/default.htm>shows.
Very few face-to-face school classes open their doors to family
educators, or are suitable for many of them, but lot of online classes do
and are. At the giant Florida Virtual School, homeschoolers from outside of
the state are directed to the same sign-up
form<http://www.flvs.net/students/pages/homeschoolers.aspx>as other
out-of-state students, with only one line to be entered differently,
though in-state students have to do more paperwork. Likewise, the Virtual
Homeschool Group <http://www.virtualhomeschoolgroup.com/> welcomes many
students from schools. Open and widely-attended professional development and
education policy webinars at Classroom 2.0
<http://www.classroom20.com/>typically attract a mix of school
teachers, administrators, and family
educators.

*Imagine global online courses open to anyone who can do the work. Which
ones would you and your children take? Which would you offer?*

Because family educators are engaged in higher-order tasks of creating or
evaluating curricula and
activities<http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Digital+Taxonomy>,
most participate in support networks devoted to these tasks in ways from
authoring books and creating review databases, to recommending a site to a
friend. The relatively small number of local recruits limits the development
of too many niche communities. Global online networks can develop much
stronger flavors in learning philosophies as tiny minorities find one
another, exchange and aggregate ideas, build extended vocabularies and media
to talk about their approaches, grow into large and strong groups, and then
branch out more. The group's vocabulary usually starts with the
identification label, often a charismatic person's name, such as Charlotte
Mason <http://charlottemasoneducation.yuku.com/> or Thomas
Jefferson<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MentoringOurOwn/>;
the name of the books that catalyzed the gathering, such as Math on the
Level <http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mathonthelevel/>; or the name of
the approach, such as radical unschooling <http://familyrun.ning.com/>. The
rarer the shared interests, the stronger is the resulting feeling of
connectedness. Members of these networks are passionate about their niche
educational philosophies and loyal to other members. They also find group's
whuffie <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie> very rewarding for a strong
intrinsic reason: any contribution of content already adapted to the group's
philosophy saves everybody a lot of creating and evaluating effort.
*
Imagine a support network of hundreds of dedicated, active parents with a
strong motive alignment<http://irevolution.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/towards-a-model-for-successful-crowdsourcing/>.
What sharing, collaboration, and community
actions<http://www.shirky.com/herecomeseverybody/>become possible?
*

Online family educators use a myriad of "tags" to index learning materials
and activities. Analyzing these folksonomies of learning materials reveals
curious patterns in family choices. The type of activity, such as project,
game, or workbook, strongly defines preferences. Alignment with a learning
style, such as hands-on, visual, or storytelling, is important as well. Some
families want only activities developed by particular philosophical,
curricular, or religious groups. Others focus on complex, connected, and
intense work, for example, those identifying their children as highly gifted
children. Families may tag materials by accommodations for a specific
problem such as dyslexia; scripted vs. open materials; paper-based or
computer-based; the amount of group work or mentor involvement;
opportunities for service and volunteering; patriotic or global approaches;
liberal arts or technical values; problem-solving; and many more features.

Matching an activity to a student along these multiple dimensions is
incredibly labor-intensive, especially for beginner family educators. To
limit research and trial-and-error, family educators value, emphasize, and
develop activities that can grow with the student, supporting multiple
levels of learning. Once such an activity proves successful in the family,
parents can return to it again and again with the same child, or invite
several friend with matching learning styles. Likewise, local coops and
clubs appreciate multi-level activities that can accommodate their diverse
members.


*Imagine communities of educators using ultra-customized ways of learning
that may have narrow validity, but are beautifully
relevant<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/magazine/02self-measurement-t.html>to
each student. What materials and computer tools are needed to help
these
communities?*
Agile Methods
For the vast majority of parents, failure or suffering of their children is
not acceptable. Only 100% rate of success of their children works for
parents, whereas the current US average for public school
graduation<http://diyubook.com/>is 70%, for public undergraduate
institutions 50%, and for some community
colleges as low as 10%. Definitions of "success" differ widely from family
to family, but the fact that falling through the cracks is not an option is
rather universal. In practice, this means making relatively rapid changes
whenever things do not work. Families experiment on all the variables
described in the previous sections - activity types, learning style
approaches, involvement of others in the work and so on - until a
satisfactory solution is found. They may also skip a sticky topic to go to
more advanced ones<http://www.livingmath.net/MemorizingMathFacts/tabid/306/Default.aspx>,
follow child's interests wherever they
lead<http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201004/kids-learn-math-easily-when-they-control-their-own-learning>,
or pause in a particular skill instruction for months or
years<http://www.homeschool.com/articles/bookexcerpt/default.asp>
.

*Imagine educators who have the ability to change everything - subject
areas, levels, curricula, activities - on the fly. What will it do for the
students?*

Agility <http://agilemanifesto.org/> of educational choices vary from family
to family, depending on many factors from beliefs to available resources.
Group, community, and network activities allow a peek at several agility
metrics, as they emerge from the wisdom of multiple participating
families<http://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Crowds-James-Surowiecki/product-reviews/0385721706/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending>.
For example, the length of group classes tends to be from four to twelve
weeks. The same teacher may run a series of such classes, but students will
join and leave after each shorter session, as their personal schedules,
interests, and learning goals change this frequently. Formal gatekeeping
measures for group entry, such as standardized tests, are hardly ever used,
because students join groups for vastly different reasons. Some want the
first light exposure to the topic, others in-depth work; some seek elements
relevant to a personal project, or follow a friend or a beloved mentor.
Learning centers and individuals offering homeschool classes quickly learn
they need to invite students for sample lessons before anyone would commit.
Jim Mueller, offering homeschool classes online and live as "Science
Jim<http://sciencejim.com/>,"
describes low costs and low barriers of entry valued by his audience: "I
never know until the second week of class who will be in the class. Some
people (not many) come once and not again, and many appear on the second
week."

What about agility in age or grade levels? We may learn that a family likes
and consistently uses a set of sequential writing books indexed by
grades<http://www.sonlight.com/curriculum.html>.
We can assume they will use Grade 7 after Grade 6, but what we can't assume
is much more telling. We can't assume that any of the children in the family
are close to the average age of sixth graders in their country, or that they
will use materials labeled with Grade 6 for any of their other subjects.
Classes, events, activities are unbundled <http://diyubook.com/> from one
another. Family educators often exchange help in planning of learning
activities. They usually start by sharing lists of samples from the last
month or two of their children's work, or stories of several recent tasks.
Planning advice won't be based on the age or the grade level of children,
but on level of the work they have done so far. Ages and grade levels tag
activities, but they don't tag people or groups. Parents, siblings and
friends of all ages frequently join children's activities as fellow
learners. Cases where a nine-year-old is working on calculus or a
fourteen-year-old on multiplication become familiar, accepted, and
appropriately supported.
*
Imagine removing all administrative barriers in educational decision-making,
and reducing cognitive and emotional costs of agility by community support.
What will it imply for management of group events?*

People who teach at or design learning materials for institutions have to
follow powerful, centrally-made decisions on content, timing, and classroom
management. If you wonder what long-term role these constraints play, look
at stories of family educators who don't have these constraints. A telling
phenomenon is a transitional period after removing the constraints, called "
deschooling<http://www.amazon.com/Deschooling-Society-Open-Forum-Illich/review/product/0714508799/ref=ntt_at_ep_cm>"
after the book. The common rule of thumb is that deschooling takes a month
for every year<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=deschooling+%22for+every+year%22>the
student's education was managed by institutions. Deschooling may feel
very rough as children and parents establish their new autonomy, ascend the
steep learning curves of educational decision-making, and find their places
in family-centered communities of practice <http://www.ewenger.com/theory/>.
Apprenticeship and autodidact learning models support newbies as they
observe veteran family educators in action: at family events, group
activities, "curriculum planning parties," scheduled local meet-ups, online
forums, and myriad other close and personal network encounters. The advice
on how to remix learning materials, find a mentor for a kid's research
project, or juggle schedules of kids with widely different needs can come
within hours from online think tanks with thousands of members, or within
minutes from a phone call to a local contact. Moreover, there are no
administrative barriers to implementing all the proposed changes that make
sense, there and then.

Are there official leaders of family educators? The short answer is "No" -
the very nature of the endeavor is antithetical to professionalization and
centralization<http://books.google.com/books?id=be_4LRyepS8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+starfish+and+the+spider>.
Note the conspicuous absence of certifications for homeschool consultants or
central governing bodies. Instead, to use the term coined by one homeschool
dad, there are linchpins<http://www.amazon.com/Linchpin-Are-Indispensable-Seth-Godin/product-reviews/1591843162/>.
Locals who like to organize a lot of events become network nodes in their
towns. Parents who end up repeating their advice a lot because their methods
are especially interesting, or because peer mentoring is their calling,
often end up writing curricula <http://mathonthelevel.com/>, creating online
communities <http://www.bravewriter.com/forums/?az=show_topics&forum=105>,
or publishing "how-to" books <http://www.sandradodd.com/> and stories
that "lift
your spirits and warm your heart <http://www.skylarksings.com/>" or speaking
at conventions. These and other active community roles and people filling
them emerge from day-to-day life of family educator networks.

*Imagine the unstoppable force of the leaderless network of family educators
meeting the immovable object of the institutional education hierarchy. Will
family educators professionalize, institutions deschool, or both?*

The Commons
When women predominate in a community, its economy frequently focuses
on collaborative
methods<http://www.amazon.com/Womens-Ways-Knowing-Development-Anniversary/product-reviews/0465090990/>.
The majority of family educators have one parent who brings money home and
another, usually mother, who engages in coops, barters, gifting, and other
community ways of organizing work. Much like the global trouble with
educational institutions brings examples of working alternatives to the
limelight, the global trouble with currency-based economies calls attention
to the blended methods<http://prezi.com/ijiokjbrolwo/metacurrency-introduction/>,
including those developed by family educators. Let us trace how family
education economy works through a day in the life of "Matt," a
semi-hypothetical child educated in family learning communities.

In the morning, Matt's mom carpools with three other kids to an art class.
Another mother sends a freshly baked pie for the carpool members' breakfast,
and an idea for the lively discussion during the ride. The car, the gas,
clothes, the breakfast ingredients come from the monetary economy: two of
the kids' fathers have full-time money-based jobs, one works out of the
house on his business, and two mothers work as part-time consultants. The
regular "carschooling <http://www.carschooling.com/>" discussion, an ongoing
mini-seminar of sorts, is free. One of the parents co-teaches the art class
without charging, while the art teacher is paid. One family barters their
kids' art class attendance for the mother doing rosters and announcements,
and another for the mother doing bookkeeping at the art teacher's studio.

After the class, kids run around and decompress discussing the YouTube video
the art teacher shared, and the writing club two of them attend, while
mothers picking them up plan next week's meetings. The writing club is run
weekly by Matt's friend at their house, and is free other than one "how-to"
book. Matt and a friend whose mom works that afternoon ride to Matt's house,
where they have a working lunch, sent over by the friend's mother. They
discuss geometry homework with Matt's mom, using OERs, free Open Educational
Resources such as Khan Academy videos or GeoGebra software. Then they attend
their weekly online geometry class, provided free through an online
homeschool coop. The virtual room for running the class, a commercial
product called Elluminate, is given to the coop by the company. The only
expense is a used paper textbook.

The friend is picked up, her mom answering Matt's questions about the class
she teaches at tomorrow's coop, and Matt starts on the homework. A couple of
dozen mothers co-teach at the coop, offering classes and seminars based on
their talents and interests. Before each season, students vote on the
proposed schedule, using "happiness optimization" software designed by a
member and provided to the coop for free. Matt is working on a report about
education utopias for the "Current Events" class, and then reading about
Ellis Island for the "Talking Walls" seminar. Both classes heavily use OERs.
The coop involves a small fee that goes toward paying for the space at a
church, and some class materials. Most materials are gifted or temporarily
shared by coop members; one of the typical types of email going through
local groups is a request to share materials, such as safety glasses, a
whiteboard, a projector, or a microscope. The bulk of class preparation,
setup, coordination and management work is organized and exchanged by
participating families as a mutual service, with a fair schedule for major
tasks organized by the coop leader.

As Matt's mom is heading out the door to run a free math club for young kids
whose parents she met at the coop, Matt is starting a chat with her grandpa,
using free videoconferencing tool Skype. They take turns reading a book they
found in an online library, in Grandpa's native language Matt also speaks,
and discussing anything that comes up, from history to grammar. Needless to
say, these hours of intensive personal tutoring are free.

In the evening, dad takes Matt to a self-defense class, provided for a fee.
Matt comes home excited: the big Anime festival gave free tickets to
families of students participating in a Ninjutsu demonstration. The level of
excitement only grows in the next hour, because it's time for a webinar at
LearnCentral, where one of Matt's favorite authors talks about his new
book<http://www.learncentral.org/event/71871>,
and there's an opportunity to ask him questions or chat up a storm with
other active, engaged attendees from all over the world. Matt is looking
forward to attending the
meet-up<http://www.meetup.com/Linchpins-are-everywhere-raise-the-flag/>,
announced at the webinar, and continuing the discussion with other locals
who find the book meaningful - sponsored, hosted and thus made free by
several local companies. After the webinar, Matt is inspired to write a blog
post, while discussing the day, continuing an ongoing literary roleplay, and
planning the writer club in three separate text chat windows. Platforms for
blogging (Wordpress) and chatting (Google) are free. The family winds down,
reading aloud a few pages of "Faust" from an online library, before everyone
heads to bed.

*Imagine a community with the mature, working economy supporting
co-production of highly personalized learning experiences. What economic
behaviors and patterns will emerge?*

You could see some of the patterns in the story above. All administrative
work in coops is shared among family educators, and kept to the sustainable
minimum people are willing to volunteer. A lot of hours go into activity
planning and preparation, frequently done in pairs, small groups, or regular
open discussions within local coops and communities, as well as online.
Money do not enter these planning activities at all. During the ongoing
preparation events, beginners receive much support: an undergraduate
degree's worth of educator training, provided to them by the community.
Helping nearby kids with homework or sharing a neat online tool with them
comes from the same family care mindset as sharing food and carpooling. The
community is willing to pay money to support the livelihood of someone
highly specialized, who is working "longer than fair" hours, for example,
leading multiple classes or publishing their homemade curriculum as a set of
edited books. Money is paid for objects produced outside of the community,
such as paper, lab equipment or software. Hand-me-downs, curriculum swaps,
and informal exchanges of all physical materials are very common. Once an
item is purchased, it is likely to become a community resource shared in
many ways. Buying coops <http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/> give
decentralized networks of families the purchasing power of large
institutions. While family educators on the average are poorer, as measured
in money income, than families with the same education level who educate
kids in institutions, their communities frequently grow much wealth of many
other kinds.

unConclusion
Just like the prefix i- is used to form mobile, and e- internet flavors of
existing concepts, un- is attached to a wide range of words claimed by
family educators <http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/UnschoolingUndefined.html>.
This un-approach precedes edupunk <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edupunk>,
but shares some of its spirit of DIY <http://diyubook.com/> and constant
reinvention. In the same spirit, I trust that communities can figure out the
"how" of implementing particular ideas, as they go along: "All you need to
know is that it’s possible <http://www.aldha.org/ltweight.htm>." As a way of
un-conclusion, I want to invite readers to comment, share their "Imagine..."
scenarios, and otherwise take this story to the next level in reinventing
education.
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