{"id":96138,"date":"2025-07-14T14:42:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T18:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=96138"},"modified":"2025-07-14T14:42:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T18:42:54","slug":"to-bullied-and-bored-teens-north-star-offers-unschooling-and-a-cup-of-ramen-toppo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2025\/07\/14\/to-bullied-and-bored-teens-north-star-offers-unschooling-and-a-cup-of-ramen-toppo\/","title":{"rendered":"To Bullied and Bored Teens, North Star Offers \u2018Unschooling\u2019 \u2014 and a Cup of Ramen [Toppo]"},"content":{"rendered":"

To Bullied and Bored Teens, North Star Offers \u2018Unschooling\u2019 \u2014 and a Cup of Ramen<\/strong><\/a> — from the74million.org by Greg Toppo
\n‘We tend not to get your football player, cheerleader, sports team kids,’ says the school\u2019s founder. ‘But we get all the kids they pick on.’<\/em><\/p>\n

For 29 years, the private, non-profit center \u2014 don\u2019t call it a school \u2014 has been a refuge for kids who chafe at the stress, loneliness or bullying of school. They spend a few months or a few years here, catching their breath as they prepare for life after graduation.<\/p>\n

With an enrollment of 65, it offers rigorous, one-on-one tutoring; small, personalized classes in history, math, writing and the arts, and extracurriculars like weekly hiking club excursions. This year, young people designed and taught three courses on Dungeons & Dragons.<\/p>\n

“You’re accountable to yourself. Is this the life you want?”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Kenneth Danford<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While most mainstream educators would say letting young people \u201cdo nothing\u201d for a year is out of the question, he sees it differently: In the unschooling world, he said, \u201cthere\u2019s no such thing as \u2018doing nothing.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To Bullied and Bored Teens, North Star Offers \u2018Unschooling\u2019 \u2014 and a Cup of Ramen — from the74million.org by Greg Toppo ‘We tend not to get your football player, cheerleader, sports team kids,’ says the school\u2019s founder. ‘But we get all the kids they pick on.’ For 29 years, the private, non-profit center \u2014 don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[842,343,347,419,46,7,838,199,560,66,212,321],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alternatives","category-education","category-education-reform","category-ideas-teaching","category-k-12-related","category-learning-ecosystem","category-learning-experience-design","category-more-voice-more-choice-more-control","category-parents-guardians","category-student-related","category-surviving","category-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96139,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96138\/revisions\/96139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}