Why Self-Directed Learning?

by Tay Arrow, Open School TV staff
March 28, 2020

Why would kids want to have a say in what they’re learning?

Why would they want to define their own learning style?

Why would they want to have input into the rules of their school?

Why would they want to be a part of a restorative justice system that upholds those rules?

Why would kids want to choose the environment they’re learning in?

Why would it matter if they could spend time outside when they wanted?

Why would it matter if their school gave them access to natural green space?

Why would they ever choose to climb trees, or look under a mossy rock?

Why would they see how much higher they can climb today?

Why would they want open access to a multilingual library containing books for a wide variety of reading levels?

Why would kids want to be able to rest if they get tired?

Why would they want to have open access to art supplies, tools, and musical instruments?

Why would they play board games and card games?

Why would they care about a place that respected their rights and their decisions?

Would they take care of materials that they had done fundraising to acquire?

Would they speak up for themselves, in a place where they can make real change?

In a dynamic community of individuals with different agendas, would they develop their ability to communicate?

Would they learn how to debate their ideas?

Would they ever change their minds when presented with new information?

Would they learn to persuade others in their community to see their point of view?

Would they try to be fair?

Why would kids plan a school trip to see the migration of the monarchs, or the Grand Canyon?

Why would they try snowboarding for the first time, even though they were afraid?

Why would they build a blanket fort?

Why would they make a costume?

Why would they take photographs of plump hummingbird-hawk moths landing briefly in the branches of a flowering indigo bush in the desert?

Why would they quietly take a book someone said “might be too boring for kids” and find a cozy corner near a window and open the book and begin to read?

Why would they wait for another child every morning, and when that other child arrives, tell them a plan for a project they thought of the night before?

Why would they draw pictures with their fingers in mud, or snow, or paint?

Why would they start a business selling bracelets they made to their friends?

Why would they keep score?

Why would they decide to practice a second language every day?

Why would they learn a new skateboard trick, or how to ride a bike, or how to balance on a slackline?

Why would they learn to code video games?

Why would they write stories, make movies, or bake cookies?

Why would they wake up in the morning excited to go to school?

Why would they come home on a Friday, already excited for the next Monday?

What kind of a child does that kind of thing?