The Hive Agile Learning Community

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Great questions to ask ourselves as mentors to self-directed learners! "Who's thinking of the idea?" "Who's owning the process?" "Who's empowered?"

Creating a safe place where all learners can give an enthusiastic yes, an honest no or more time to consider the options, and ensuring there are no hidden or unspoken punishments or consequences for saying no, it honestly changes everything.
This is an integral aspect of how we learn together at The Hive.

We don’t value the right to say no, when it comes to children.

We pretend that we do. We teach them about consent, and that their body is theirs alone.

We read them books and show them films about saying no to adults who tell them not to tell their mum about a secret or who try to lead them away from their family.

Then we tell them that they have no choice about where they spend their time, what they learn and how. We tell them that we know best, and that their job is to respect that. We pressure them into kissing relatives or sitting on Santa’s lap. We punish them by forcing them to stay in rooms by themselves or sitting them on a step ‘until you’ve calmed down’. They don’t consent, but it doesn’t matter.

There are things which children do which can make them unsafe – running across busy roads or hitting other people, for example – and then adults have to step in. But we use this to justify why they can’t be allowed to make choices about anything else. We tell them (and ourselves) that it’s for their own good to do what they are told.

Then along come the children who don’t agree. The ones who continue to refuse. The ones who say Why do you get to tell me what to do, but I don’t get to tell you? The ones who say, Why do I have to do this when I think it’s a waste of my time?

The ones who ask questions that adults find hard to answer.

There are names for children who say No. We call them defiant, wilful, stubborn or resistant. We ask why a child ‘isn’t listening’ when we really mean ‘isn’t doing what I want’. We don’t allow for the fact that they may be listening, and yet disagreeing. We call that ‘naughty’.

Taking away children’s right to refuse has serious implications, because it means that what they think doesn’t need to be central when adults are making their plans. If children refuse school, the answer isn’t to make school better. It’s to punish them and fine their families. If children don’t comply, the answer is to push harder, set firmer boundaries, rather than ask ourselves why.

We don’t value saying no, when it comes to children. And yet it’s the children who refuse to comply who show the rest of us up. It’s them who push us to change systems which aren’t working. It’s their clear-sightedness which leads us to ask whether something really does have to be done this way.

Many of us lost touch with our ability to say No years ago. When our children show us the way, are we listening?

Playfulness and fun are at the centre of everything we do at The Hive and what a fabulously joyous week we have had.

"The critics are missing the point when they ask for play's purpose. Play has no purpose. It is far older and foundational than anything else in human culture. Play is not the purpose, but rather the source of everything that makes us human. In human development, play has always come first" Teacher Tom.

With 4 weeks left of this season, we are are ending the year with a re-commitment to building trust via safety with our Holding Safe Self-Directed Spaces reflection points. Part1/4

Young people should never be responsible for managing the emotions of the adults around them. Ever.

From the Agile Learning Facilitator training:
"Part of holding a safe, self-directed space is making sure that the young people are not responsible for managing the emotions of the adults around them. It's not always easy to do conflict, especially for those of us socialised in conventional ways, but just because the young people have the skills and experiences to work through conflict and uncomfortable feelings in transformative ways, does not mean it is, or should be, their responsibility to show us how- it's our responsibility to practice those skills so that we can hold spaces that serve them."

It's OUR responsibility to practice those skills so that we can hold spaces that serve them.
How are you practicing this week?

This is going to be excellent! Great presenters and such a wealth of knowledge in the world of self-directed learning.

INSPIRE Education Summit: The Pathway to Transformation
Free online event.
18-25th November 2024.

In collaboration with Progressive Education, this event celebrates the launch of our new membership community for start-up and .

12 sessions over six days.

The following speakers will be theming their presentations around the question:

“If you could design a new paradigm of education, how would it look?”

- Yumna Hussen, student and TEDxYouth speaker on reimagining education;
- Iris Chen Untigering, parenting coach, blogger and author of 'Untigering';
- Becky Carlzon, co-author of 'Powering Up Children' and co-creator of Learning Pioneers and Press Play;
- Charlotte Church, singer/song-writer, activist and founder of her own democratic/self-directed learning community, The Awen Project;
- Je'anna Clements, learning community founder and author of several books including ‘Help, My Kid Hates School!’, will be speaking alongside Sifaan Zavahir, a democratic school founder and children’s rights activist.
- Dr James Mannion, TEDx speaker, host of the Rethinking Education podcast and co-author of ‘Fear is the Mind Killer’;
- Dr Naomi Fisher, clinical psychologist and author of several books including, 'Changing Our Minds: How Children Can Take Control of their Own Learning';
- Kate Robinson, co-author of book "Imagine if... Creating a Future for Us All," (which serves as the manifesto for her father Sir Ken Robinson);
- Ellie Costello, director of Square Peg and co-author of ‘Square Pegs’ (which has been recommended to the DfE by the National Children’s Bureau as core reading);
- Dr Gina Riley, educational psychologist, clinical professor and author of several books, including 'Unschooling: Exploring Learning Beyond the Classroom';
- Zoe Neill Readhead, director of A.S.Neill's Summerhill School, daughter of education pioneer, AS Neill.

‘Ask the Expert’ Q&A

The summit will culminate in a live ‘Ask the Expert’ Q&A on Monday 25th November, whereby start-ups will have the opportunity to meet founders of innovative schools and learning communities, so that they can learn from those who have been there and done it. Our panel includes:

- Melissa Kendall, founder of Griffin Club and co-founder of the first Lumiar school in the UK;
- Lucy Stephens, founder of The New School UK, a democratic school in London;
- Sophie Christophy, co-founder of consent-based, self-directed learning communities The Cabin and the Lodge (Herts/Essex border);
- Dr Ian Cunningham, founder of the SML College (Brighton), and author of several books including, ‘Self Managed Learning and the New Educational Paradigm’.

We hope to see you there! Link to register in the comments.

"We can’t keep using tools of oppression and expect to raise free people." - Akilah S. Richards

Unschooling is so much more than education, it is a lifestyle and intentional choice to break cycles of oppression and root our whole life deeply in consent & respect.

"The practice brings forth a necessary chaos, a shedding of the power-over dynamic from adults toward children. The result is often deep social justice work that evolves into freedom in action for children and communities."

Raising Free People We can’t keep using tools of oppression and expect to raise free people - we must examine privilege and power in our relationships with our children, the world’s most vulnerable citizens and embrace chaos in efforts to allow trust-based practices to emerge. We can do this through liberation work...

We have had some very serious fun this week 👻

Ooof, this is POWERFUL!

“I want you to build a tower,” I say.

You agree, and you stand up to go get the bucket of blocks off the shelf.

I shake my head sternly. “No. Did I tell you you could get up? Sit down. Build a tower.”

You look confused. You point over at the bucket of blocks. It’s five feet away and on a reachable shelf, but you don’t have it in front of you now.

I sigh at your limited comprehension abilities. I take out a piece of paper to help me make a visual, and I draw you a little stick figure chart. “Look. First, make a tower. Then, stand up and walk. See? You have to make the tower first.”

You gesture at me about the absurdity of the situation you’re in. Pointing your hands downward like, “make a tower out of what???”

I point at the visual chart again, slowing my voice down like you’re a baby. “First, tower. Then, get up.”

You sit there and stare at me, waiting for me to figure out that you literally can’t.

I take out some stickers. “Come on. Make a tower and I’ll put a smiley face on your chart for the day! Don’t you want a smiley face?”

You DO want a smiley face but you literally don’t have the tools for the job! You have nothing with which to make a tower. You start to get angry.

I point at all of the others in the room. They all have a bucket of blocks right in front of them, and they’re all making a tower. “All your friends expect you to make a tower. You are behaving in an unexpected way and it’s making us uncomfortable.”

Weighing your options, you finally decide to stand up anyway and make a mad dash for the shelf. Maybe you can grab the bucket of blocks before I catch you? Maybe you can cobble together a tower in the few seconds you’ll have? Maybe that will help me understand?

But once you’re on your feet I’m yelling at you. Then I’m holding you down. Then I’m fighting you, hurting you, punishing you, calling you pathological and aggressive and defiant. I write in my report that I did all the right things and you did all the wrong ones.

The next day, I ask you to make a tower.

You still don’t have any blocks.

***

Constantly, CONSTANTLY, adults in positions of power over children (school, home, extracurricular activities) demand that children do things that they’re told to do, and use as a bribe or take away as a punishment the very resource that the child would actually need in order to do the thing that they’re told to do.

This was written specifically about the fact that Autistic children’s special interests are often used as a bribe, or with a first/then system, like, “first do this work, then you can play with your cars for three minutes,” or, “first do what I’m telling you, then you can have a ‘sensory break’.” What this ignores is that those are LITERALLY the vehicle by which their brain BECOMES able to do the work. The special interest is joy, delight, interest — neurologically speaking, it’s dopamine. And dopamine is actually, physically required in order to be able to initiate a task, and in order to be able to access the higher thinking resources required to do the task. Or the sensory tool is LITERALLY meeting the sensory need and requirement in the human being’s body that needs to be met in order for them to be able to access the higher thinking skills required to focus and attend to what they’re trying to do. But these things get taken and used by therapists or “therapists” or teachers or parents as if they are a reward, a bribe, an afterthought.

The special interest or the sensory tool are the “standing up and walking” over to the blocks, in the analogy story above. But the adult keeps getting mad that the child is trying to stand up and walk.

The child is doing whatever it takes to move toward dopamine or toward having their sensory needs met. And the adult is getting mad about the thing they’re doing to move in that direction.

That’s what this post was written about, but the analogy carries over into lots of other realms, too. Teachers take away recess — physical body movement — to punish kids for moving their bodies too much. They police children’s ability to talk to one another, the human innate social need to bounce ideas around with peers.

People are naturally, instinctually, really good at meeting their sensory needs. If they have a little extra energy or need a little extra proprioception in their legs and feet, they’ll bounce while they’re walking. If they are trying to keep their brain awake and moving in a slow-moving environment when they can feel themselves fading, they’ll reach out and fidget with something that’s in front of them. But watch a group of kids try to wiggle a little while they walk down a hallway or reach out and brush fingertips against something they’re walking past and as likely as not you’ll see an adult “correct” them (incorrectly, since telling them “stop it” does nothing to teach them how to channel it, only to suppress it til it explodes somewhere else).

The brain can’t even do the thing you’re asking it to do, without the resources it needs to do the thing. But kids start seeking out the resources, and get in trouble, and get hurt, and get punished, and the adults think, “I have done all the right things, and you have done all the wrong ones.”

The next day, the adult asks the child to get up and do it again.

And they still don’t have any “blocks”.

***
[Image description:
A brightly coloured red, yellow, pink, blue, and green cartoony block tower, with words on it that read in bold all-caps font, “I want you to build a tower”. End description.]

We are joining in the fun this Halloween, so if you are dressing up and heading out Trick-or-Treating in Roma on Thursday, call past 28 Queen St 👻🍭🍬🍫