Compass: D

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Compass: D

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IN THIS ISSUE

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DirectionsWhat Draws Teens to Compass?

By Sarah Vellino

Before Compass I had only ever been in regular school. It was all I ever knew, but it was never quite the right fit for me. For some people stress can be a motivator. It can help them come up with ideas and finish assignments quickly. For me, it is the exact opposite and in school it’s all there was for me. Stress from teachers to get every question right, to get perfect grades, to understand assignments and tests without a proper explanation and worst of all, stress from the inability to ask them questions without feeling like you are stupid and incompetent. Stress from peers to

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Did you know that Compass is part of an international movement in education? Find out more in Ken Danford’s piece “Growth of a Movement.” In addition, we have our usual features in which one of our teens and their parent(s) share the impact Compass has had on their lives as well as our profiled Compass volunteer, art teacher Sean Hyatt.

Compass: The Perfect Fit for Me

By Abby Karos

What draws teens to Compass? Sarah Vellino’s essay explores this in part and a reader might wonder how and why the environment at Compass is so non-judgemental and free from the bullying that occurs in many school environments. Two clues to answer this query can be found in both Sarah’s piece and that of her mother, Brenda Vellino. The first is noncoercion. Coercion and self-direction are antithetical; freedom to choose one’s goals and how to go about achieving them is naturally a hallmark of our model. Other side-effects to this cornerstone of our philosophy may include an environment in which people are, in general, happier and kinder

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to one another. As adults, do we enjoy being in environments where we have limited choice over how we spend our time and where we are allowed to put our bodies? How motivated do we feel to take intellectual risks when all we see before us is a gauntlet of pre-arranged tasks on which our performance is closely measured? Daniel Pink’s work in his bestseller,

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be ‘’pretty’’, to be skinny, to like how they like, to be ‘’normal’’. Right before I left school, my sister had just gotten out of being hospitalised for depression and I was trying to come to terms with the fact that I liked girls – not exactly things that are considered normal in school. All of these factors made it feel impossible to stay there.

Both of my parents have full-time jobs, so homeschooling wasn’t an option, but then we heard about Compass through a friend of my sister’s who went there and I decided to visit.

I was a bit nervous at first, but as soon as I set foot in the room, my nerves disappeared. It felt completely different: I didn’t feel judged; I didn’t feel stressed; I felt safe and welcome to be myself and nobody would care. I spent the rest of the day trying out classes and getting to know the other teens. When I got home, I couldn’t stop smiling. That day was one of the happiest I have ever had and I don’t think I will ever forget it. I tried out classes for the rest of the week and then I became a member.

I am now into my second year at Compass and I am enjoying it so much. I have made

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lots of friendships here that I hope will last even after we have all left Compass. I am learning so many things I never would have gotten to learn in regular school and meeting wonderful new people I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet. I feel so happy and at home here. The volunteers are wonderful – always happy for the teens to ask questions and give feedback. The classes are relaxed, which makes it so much easier to learn. Right now my favourite thing about Compass is when a new teen visits: I always try to be kind and welcoming, to get to know them and their story, to make them feel as at home as I felt when I first visited Compass. I always hope that they will come and visit again. Not all of them do, but I don’t really mind. Compass is definitely not the perfect fit for everyone - nor is regular school or homeschooling. But you know what? It is the perfect fit for me.

Sarah’s enthusiasm for Compass is infectious. She spreads the warmth and joy she feels from being here to potential new members without exception. We know we can always count on Sarah to try her best to make new teens feel at home here. The Monday following March Break, Sarah bounded into our common room, hugged her friends, and then was seen doing cartwheels in art class. Enough said!

Abby Karos

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Drive, reports on the positive correlation between motivation and autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Why do we subject young people to things that we, as adults, not only find unpleasurable but also which reduces our own motivation to succeed?

The second is Brenda’s use of the phrase “refugee from the school system”. Many of

the teens who come to Compass understand the high costs incurred from not fitting in in some way. They are highly invested in keeping Compass a safe, welcoming, and joyful environment.

Both the mother and daughter Vellinos write of the transformation in Sarah as a result. This is why so many Compass teens – either explicitly or implicitly – will welcome new teen members to Compass. Welcome, they’ll say. Welcome to where we feel at home.

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By Brenda Vellino

Our family found Compass out of necessity. For all the years (JK – Gr 6) that our daughter Sarah had been in the public school system, she struggled with feel-ing anxious, frustrated, and overwhelmed. Getting evening homework done was often a painful exercise marked by meltdowns, tears, bribery, and negotia-tion. Preparing for poster presentations was even worse. I frequently found myself questioning and lamenting fill in the blank rote learning assignments and the basic lack of imagination in approaches to teaching. This is not to say that this was true of every teacher or of every teacher all of the time. Teachers often meant well and did what they could to make learning – or at least the school environment – fun.

I think the school also did what it could with IEPs (individualized education programs) and accom-modations. As the daughter of three generations of school teachers and as a believer in the social good of universal public education, I remain somewhat protective of the system even if evidence tells me that a “one size fits all” approach means it is a broken system for some, and possibly quite a few, youth. Our family’s breaking point was the transition to grade seven. Going to a new and larger school and moving from the comfort of a small school where familiar teachers, friends and environment cushioned the hard daily battle to endure proved to be too much. Sarah’s anxieties shot up and she just couldn’t push herself to go anymore. After a few one day tries

at a few different schools, we heard about Compass through our older daughter’s friends, several of who were homeschooling and going to Compass. We couldn’t believe the transformation in Sarah after just a few days: from hating and dreading school, we saw her loving to go to Compass. At the end of the December holi-days this year, she said, “I can’t wait for Mon-day to come when I get to see all my Compass friends.” She refers to Compass as another home. Incidentally, when I sometimes refer to Compass as part of the “unschooling” move-ment, she rejects this idea absolutely. “Com-pass is the meaning of what school should be,” she says. The first thing that impressed her at Com-pass was that all the other youth – for their own reasons – were refugees from the public school system. Finally, she met other youth who didn’t fit into the system and were not only able to talk about it, but also offer each other understanding and support.

The second thing that impressed her was there was no forced learning: no mandatory subjects, no performance pressure, no man-datory assignments and no exams. She im-mediately plugged into all the science related classes like Cognitive Science, Animal Behav-iour, and Criminal Psychology taught by some talented volunteers.

Interestingly, she sat in on visual arts classes for a year, watching and admiring the other youth draw and feeling worried about her imagined lack of ability in art. Finally she responded to gentle encouragement and now visual arts is her favourite class to participate

Reluctantly Enthusiastic

We couldn’t believe the transformation in Sarah after just a few days: from hating and dreading school, we saw her loving to go to Compass.

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I get the message that I need to be patient and that the motivation will come when the need is there, but my experience as a university teacher seems to suggest that some types of skills need repetition and reinforcement in multiple forums. I have watched our other daughter (who also struggles with school and who is saved from the boredom of mandatory classes by being able to attend an arts high school) turn out to be an amazing writer partly because so many of her classes have compelled her to write journals, reviews, reports etc. As Sarah’s brain matures and as she continues to find learning fun will she be motivated to pursue what it takes to get her to where she wants to be in life? Will my worries be unfounded? The jury is out, but for now I am working from the truth that “teens have the right to be happy” and grateful that Compass is a wonderful, healthy, supportive environment for exploratory learning that will get Sarah through these awkward early teen years.

We also witnessed her taking a big step out of her comfort zone to actually speak in front of strangers at a panel presentation at an alternative schooling con-ference. That was a wow moment for us. Sarah says this is because she is so comfortable when she’s with Compass people that she can do things that would ordinarily cause her stress.

In short, I am a somewhat reluctant but enthusiastic supporter of Compass. I am glad Compass is there for Sarah and all the other teen refugees from the public school system. I am grateful to Abby and Andre for their vision in creating Compass.

in. Not only that, but she is currently inter-ested in costume design for film and spends time drawing costumes and collecting an online scrapbook of costumes. Sarah has also flourished in the GLBT positive environment of Compass, where everyone is encouraged to be who they feel they are. I have to confess to my early worried skepti-cism and my ongoing – now lessening – hesi-tation about Sarah being out of mainstream education while simultaneously feeling so happy to see our daughter happy, content, and at home at Compass.

Letting go of any mandatory curriculum or structured assignments has been hard for me. In the first week of meeting Abby and Andre, I said I feel like I am being asked to let go of everything I have understood schooling to be about, and yet I am not sure I have agreed with a lot of what school has been for both of our girls. I am worried that with no framework that challenges or pushes Sarah that she won’t be motivated to improve her basic writing or math abilities (which I see as life skills), as much as her brain is being challenged in her science classes and her artistic side is being nourished in art classes.

I feel like I am being asked to let go of everything I have understood schooling to be about, and yet I am not sure I have agreed with a lot of what school has been for both of our girls.

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Sean presides over one of Compass’ most well-attended and well-liked class. Art class drives our Mondays and gets our week started off on a truly groovy note. Thank you Sean for sharing your love of your craft with our teens.

By Sean Hyatt When I think back on my schooling, I definitely have mixed feelings. Early on, then later though high school and university, there wasn’t a semester that went by that didn’t include an observation about my constant doodling and sketching while the teacher spoke. While my grades were never an issue, the assumption in most cases was that I was a daydreamer who wasn’t paying attention. The truth, after some testing and confusing conversations, revealed the opposite to be the case. Doodling was a way I could recall and apply the information, making it mine. The less hands-on the lesson, the more doodling.

Fortunately, doing art is naturally hands-on. Teaching at Compass has allowed me to incorporate my experience and beliefs into my classes. I support the teens in taking risks, testing their limits, and posing questions and answers they aren’t certain are correct. While I encourage teens to set their own goals, I have a few simple rules for my class that underscore my beliefs.

The first rule is that everyone does something. Our hands and eyes are active while we talk and laugh throughout the class. This is the most important rule for me because taking that first step is usually the most difficult. The second one seems scary at first:

Volunteer Profile

“Rule #2: We Don’t Use Erasers”

we don’t use erasers. This practice is liberating once you get accustomed to the idea of making mistakes. I find it to be a wonderful learning tool. The third is to respect each other and try not to disrupt others.

I prefer class sizes around or fewer than 10 kids – mainly so I can assign everyone totally different things based on where I think they need to be working towards individually. I will challenge teens by asking them not to use a certain colour or paint a certain thing this time around. They can paint or sketch blindfolded or upside down and make a mess if necessary. It’s through taking risks and making mistakes that we learn best. Sometimes the most exciting art can come out of our doodles.

Sometimes the most exciting art can come out of our doodles.

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By Ken Danford

As I shook the hand of North Star’s new landlord this week, I told him, with a bit of a twinkle in my eye, that he was now hosting the headquarters for an international movement! He was reasonably amused to learn of this new role in his life. Of course, he is not alone. Most of North Star’s member families and alumni have at best a minor realization of being part of a larger movement. Compass Co-Director Abby Karos reports that most people in the Compass community also don’t fully realize that they are part of a network of sister cen-ters spread across North America, and she has invited to me to provide a clear update on the history and current state of our network. The punch line is that we are clearly more than the sum of our parts and we are active participants in a major cultural trend.

Some HistoryWhen Joshua Hornick and I founded North Star in 1996 (then called Pathfinder), we dreamed that someday there might be a centre like ours in every community making school optional for any interested teen. During the first decade

of our efforts, we learned two main lessons. The first is that the way in which we were providing support for teens to pursue self-directed learning was both essential and sufficient to make this life-changing ap-proach available to any family in our community. That is, we knew we had a really good idea that we were implementing successfully on our own terms. Sec-ond, we discovered that we could not pay ourselves the salaries we desired, and that we had a long way to grow in order to establish a functional, replicable model for others.

North Star (established in 2002) began to gradually raise its membership fees and take fundraising more seriously. These changes define the second decade of our existence, and our current Board of Directors led by Gary Bernhard now oversees a budget that has ap-proximately tripled during this time.

Meanwhile, our daily happiness with our teens and our program grew as well, and we knew with more certainty than ever that we had an idea to share, even if we didn’t have a full organizational model to match it.

The First Replication Workshop; Enter Joel HammonBy 2007, my co-director Joshua and I felt ready to host our first replication workshop. Joel Hammon, from outside of Philadelphia, was among the partici-pants. We had lots to tell these folks about working with teens and parents, but mostly just optimism about how to make membership fees and fundraising fulfill a budget. The moment was a success, and I be-gan taking this information on the road to the AERO conference (http://www.educationrevolution.org) and other meetings. Our message at the time was “Start Right Now!” We suggested that people interested in replicating our model start by coaching one or two teens to embark on homeschooling/unschooling and see how they felt about coaching this process. Joel

In the Field

Liberated Learners: Growth of a Movement

In each edition of our newsletter, we like to feature someone who is working to further self-directed learning in some aspect. Ken Danford, North Star’s co-founder, writes about how centres like Compass are part of larger movement in North America that is growing fast.

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left our conference energized and in 2010, Joel and co-founder Paul Scutt started The Princeton Learning Cooperative (PLC) and became the first program to deliberately do “North Star” elsewhere.

The success of PLC has been inspiring! We have held annual conferences each summer since 2011, with more and more participants. The next wave of pro-grams included Compass in Ottawa, ON and Beacon in New Haven, CT. The following year brought Open Road in Portland, OR and Open Doors in Grand Rap-ids, MI. Last year generated Bay State Learning in Dedham, MA, Deep Root Center in Canton, NY, and Bucks County Learning Cooperative in Langhorne, PA – an offshoot of PLC. This year we have several new locations in development, including W. Hartford, CT, Holyoke, MA, New Hampshire and, the second centre of this kind in Canada, Halifax, NS.

In 2013, we felt that managing this network merited its own organization, rather than being subsumed as a program within North Star. We (namely Joel!) created Liberated Learners, Inc. (http://www.liberatedlearn-ersinc.org), which is growing rapidly. We maintain a map that identifies the spread of the conversation about our model: http://www.liberatedlearnersinc.org/consultee-map/. We hope that this map will allow for newcomers to our model to discover others near them who share this interest and experience.

The growth of Liberated Learners coincides with a worldwide growth in homeschooling and self-directed

learning. Independently of our efforts, many students, parents, and educators around the world are questioning the assumed need for schooling and its resulting diploma as the best or required method for learning. We believe that this trend will continue to grow exponen-tially, but that the world needs programs such as ours to make the approach feel usable for most families. North Star was the trailblazer for this model and can now point to hundreds of successful alumni who have gone on to lead fulfilling lives and who credit North Star for being the catalyst that allowed them to “start living right now” (http://northstarteens.org/alumni-updates/).

We hope that Liberated Learners can sup-port the development of programs, provide a support network for those running these programs, and begin to provide some shared services for everyone involved. Liberated Learners, Inc is a non-profit organization, as are its members, and we believe that attract-ing funding and attention to the entire net-work holds enormous potential.

It’s taken us nearly twenty years to get to this moment. I feel gratified and energized to have collected such impressive colleagues into this process, and I am as eager as all of you to see what we can do in our next twenty years.

We just received the news that an interview Ken Danford and Joel Hammon gave to Sir Ken Robinson made it into his latest book “Creative Schools – The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Educa-tion”! Inclusion in a book by Ken Robinson will greatly raise the stature of Liberated Learners – and this model in general.

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COMPASS NEWS

Compass Teens on Exhibit at Fritzi Gallery The Fritzi Gallery and Compass invite you to an art opening and silent auction on Thursday, June 4th from 6-8 pm at 1233 Wellington Street West (in the GCTC).

We are collaborating on an exhibition featuring art from two of our teen members, Leah Cosman and Maia Weintrager (see below).

The exhibit will run from June 2 - 27.

Open House Dates 2015April 30 May 28

Parents are welcome from 12-1; teens can RSVP to join us for the day.

Compass Centre for Self-Directed Learning Bronson Centre 211 Bronson Ave #210 Ottawa, ON K1R 6H5 (613) 916-6303

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