No Cogs

No Cogs


Self Directed Education and Junto with Tomis Parker

August 13, 2020

Why do we train humans to be who they are not?
Listen to Caprice and Tomis talk about self-directed education and the benefits to children and society. Tomis sees self-directed education, building trust-based relationships, and learning to live with all sorts of people are necessary to thrive. He describes schooling as an 18-year hazing process that leads to the society we have today. 
We talk about how trust is the missing element in society and if you weren't trusted as a child, it is difficult to trust your own kids. 
Learn about the Agile Learning Network, ALC Mosaic in Charlotte, NC, and Tomis' new venture Junto. 
Links to Resources Mentioned
ALC Mosaic in Charlotte, NC
Agile Learning Center Network
Junto - a new breed of social media founded to rebalance our relationship with technology.
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Episode Highlights

4:00: Is the world more disingenuous today than it was a decade ago? Where are we headed? Does building a community affect society overall?

8:20: Agile learning centers are places where kids can be themselves.

11:35: Children have the innate ability to know what their needs are and get them met. It should be imperative that people have the opportunity for that level of sovereignty. How do we create a world we want rather than just be beholden to the one that exists?

14:31: One reason that it's hard for people to embrace personal sovereignty we need to ask "Why do we need to train humans out of who they really are?" "What is this world and who does it work for?" "Why do we need people to be standardized and have people's understanding of who they are be taken away from them?"

16:15: When you realize how so many things are set up backwards and see the intentional suppression and oppression that exist in the world. Schooling is the indoctrination station for accepting all of that about ourselves and society.

17:15: Having an entire education system that is based on on-consensual activity is the root of the systems that many people want to change but most people cannot see it.

20:12: Humans are born complete and whole. So much of our lives is about struggling to survive in this world where you have to hustle to just make it work. The whole capitalist economy is based around growth and productivity. The irony is that if children were trusted, they would be more productive.

30:10: Many progressive schools are still all about control.

37:29: The meaning of life is to make your own meaning and if you don't have agency, sovereignty, and time - you cannot do this. It's a tragic story we are all playing out.

38:38: If you weren't trusted as a child, you don't know how to trust your own child. If you were raised with people telling you that you don't know what is best for you, that is often how you will parent.

39:20: There has to be a tipping point where enough people are undoing that story to write a new story.

42:30: The way that we raise and educate children sets the stage for all of the unsustainable things we do on this planet.

47:31: Schooling is about control and with kids being prohibited from wearing pajamas for zoom meetings and being virtually suspended, then you see the control and domination of the existing paradigm fighting back.

51:00: The opportunity that ALC Mosaic offers to children ages 2-16 to experience self-directed learning.

53:07: The Agile Learning Center network offers a self-organizing community of support and tools to help start an ALC.

56:09: Schooling enforces and protects the brokenness of the human condition. Life is an ongoing process of deschooling.

57:00: There are two categories of experience: liberation or oppression.

59:00: Tomis is involved in a new social media platform, Junto, that is offering a human-centered design.