I’m going to take a brief pause from my series on education for human flourishing (part four will release in the next week or so) and share a couple of articles published in other outlets.
You can read “The Other History of Self-Directed Learning in America” over at Education Reimagined. You can also listen to me read it! The blurb: Most people assume that learner-centered education is a new idea and that the industrial model of schooling is simply what education has always looked like. In this piece, Dr. Caleb Collier, Director of The Institute for Self-Directed Learning, traces four often overlooked chapters of American history to show the rich roots learner-centered education has in this country. From the Chautauqua Assembly’s credential-free adult learning movement to Septima Clark’s Citizenship Schools, Dr. Collier suggests the real question isn’t whether learner-centered education works, but why we’re still using a model built for the Industrial age.
I was also honored to guest post in the Restarting School newsletter from the National Hybrid Schools Project (NHSP). In my article, “What Families Are Really Hiring Hybrid Schools To Do,” I look at data from NHSP through the lens the Christensen Institute’s Jobs to Be Done and Self-Directed Learning Theory to try to understand why so many families are choosing alternative school models (like homeschools, microschools, and hybrid schools).
Thanks for reading and following. Stay tuned!


