NOW ACCEPTING REGISTRATIONS
WELCOME
TO LEARNING, REIMAGINED
Our Vision
Picture this: a world where young people's rights are respected, giving them the freedom to shape their education and lives. Imagine children growing up with their curiosity, inner genius, and self-esteem still intact. See what happens when young people are allowed to develop their fullest potential. Witness more communities embracing the power of self-directed learning, and creating generations of bold thinkers and compassionate changemakers.
Our Mission
The Spokane Learning Co-op believes that when children have authority over their own learning, they learn how to learn. We are dedicated to empowering young people to flourish through personal relationships, genuine engagement, and self-directed education. We seek to cultivate truly happy, confident, capable children by respecting the genius of each child in our caring, cooperative self-directed learning community.
Many youth enter adulthood needing to go "find themselves."
What if they were never lost in the first place?
WHO WE ARE & WHO WE SERVE
The Spokane Learning Co-op is Washington's only outdoor Self-Directed Education center. We offer a drop-off program for kids 5-17, with a Parent & Me program for kids 0-4. We have a variety of part-time options for homeschooling families who value flexibility. The Co-op is secular and also welcomes people of all faiths.
What is Self-Directed Education? It means that children are free to play, which is how we naturally learn. Through play, children discover their natural interests and talents. They are free to develop themselves and to become who they really are, and they get to grow up with their creativity, curiosity, and self-esteem intact. There is no curriculum, no homework, no grades, no grade levels... in other words, there is no coercion as in conventional schools.
Our unique program is Therapist-Recommended. Freed from the behavior-modification protocols of conventional schooling, kids learn healthier, more authentic ways of being in community with one another. The children create the rules together, using a governance model called sociocracy. Kids learn academics when they are ready, which means these things are learned deeply, and in context.
Imagine...
Imagine a school that children want to attend.
A place where their voices are valued and their time is respected.
A place where there are no required classes, no grades, no homework, no tests, no detention, no coercion, no manipulation, no micromanagement, and no shaming.
Imagine a school where kids are happy because
they are free to explore and develop their talents and interests
all day long if they wish, and at their own pace,
and, in the process, learn more than they would
at a conventional school.
A place where children learn through action instead of sitting through classes and memorizing facts.
A place where children learn how to communicate effectively, have healthy relationships, and live in tune with their inner genius.
Imagine them growing up in a supportive community
where they feel important and cared for.
Imagine them graduating with real-world skills,
with their mental health still intact.
They wouldn't have to go "find themselves"
because they were never lost.
A school like this would save lives.
Are you frustrated with conventional schooling?
We keep hearing people say, "Things need to change."
Things change when we change them.
That's why we started the Spokane Learning Co-op.
Do you want to help create a learning center for young people, focusing on Collective Liberation, Creativity, Consent, and Community Building?
Come change things with us.
If you are searching for a real alternative to conventional schooling, we think you'll like what you see with the Spokane Learning Co-op.
But first... ask yourself:
What is school for?
THE PROBLEM WE WANT TO SOLVE
Children are not treated well in school.
Our children are not treated well by the school system. The schools do not recognize children as complete human beings. It disrespects them and shames them. The only value it upholds is compliance. It compels children to abandon themselves out of fear of retaliation and loss.
School forces kids to do the wrong things at the wrong time, developmentally speaking.
Dr Naomi Fisher, a clinical psychologist, author, and speaker, pointed out that school is a developmental mismatch for kids. Read what she posted on Facebook on December 18, 2023:
School doesn't allow time for what's important.
In addition, schooling occupies most of a child’s waking hours and prioritizes a curriculum of academics at the expense of helping children to develop their natural genius. School also ignores life skills, social skills, and practical skills.
As a result, children graduate knowing the Pythagorean theorem and that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but not how to maintain healthy relationships, grow their own food, build a house, or start a business.
The consequences last a lifetime.
As a result, children are alienated from their innate genius at a young age. They grow up anxious and depressed. As they grow into adulthood, many feel a deep-seated need to go "find themselves," which is a clear indicator that they lost themselves.
As they get even older, many eventually find themselves needing to do Inner Child work in order to feel whole again, like they did before they started school. Many people continue to live out the same diagrams of fear and shame for the rest of their lives.
But there is power in our numbers.
When we come together with a shared vision, we can co-create a better future for us all.
THE SOLUTION
We solve this with self-directed education.
We recognize that each child has an innate genius and their own unique path; we reject the standardization of children. We believe in consent; we do not believe in coercion.
We believe that play is learning and learning is play. We do not hinder natural learning. We do not segregate by age. We do not give homework. We create classes together. We do not give letter grades. We offer standardized tests for those families who are interested, but we do not require them.
The research shows that learning happens naturally and incidentally when children are free to follow their own interests, at their own pace, for as long as they wish.
We know that this will enable them to grow up with their curiosity intact so that they may begin adulthood capable of being who they were born to be.
We solve this by providing children opportunities for natural learning in a natural setting.
We know that children do not actually learn from sitting at a desk under artificial lighting doing de-contextualized abstracted problems on a worksheet.
Instead, they learn the same way children have learned since Time Immemorial, from observation and from doing real things that are interesting and meaningful.
We solve this by giving children time and space for real socialization.
We recognize that for healthy development, children need ample opportunities with other children, both older and younger, to converse, discuss, debate, and negotiate.
We know that real socialization leads to children growing up articulate, able to make themselves understood, able to get along with people who are not like themselves, and able to affect real change in healthy ways.
We solve this by learning in community.
We learn how to have healthy relationships. We recognize that most of us did not grow up learning in-depth relational skills centered around peace and collaboration. To that end, we intentionally and regularly participate in courses, workshops, circles, internships, community outreach, and field trips designed to help us dismantle internalized bias.
We seek continuous improvement of ourselves for the sake of our own ability to get along well with each other, as well as for the sake of modeling healthy relationships for the children.
We solve this by working actively towards collective liberation, and against oppression.
We believe in collective liberation, and that the path towards that is through being actively against oppression. Our rights, liberation, and freedom are intertwined with one another, and we cannot be free while another is oppressed. We steer towards this by working to dismantle obstacles like adultism, sexism, racism, classism, and ableism, while holding space for young people’s embodiment of liberation through play and curiosity as much as possible in the here and now. Community is both a practice and a path in this work.
Many adults may find it difficult to imagine what learning could look like without the usual trappings of school. A big part of our work includes helping adults to deschool themselves, that is, to undo the years of conditioning that made them accept the ideas of being controlled, under constant surveillance and judgment, micromanaged, rendered helpless to affect change, shamed in front of one’s peers, having no control over how one spends their time, not being able to take care of their bodily needs as needed, and having one’s natural ways of learning interrupted and overridden. As such, many adults grew up believing that it is normal to treat children this way. This is adultism.
Adultism is a bias or prejudice against children or youth. It has been defined as “the power adults have over children”, “prejudice and accompanying systematic discrimination against young people”, and “bias towards adults... and the social addiction to adults, including their ideas, activities, and attitudes.” -- Wikipedia
It's not your fault. It's likely the same thing was done to you.
We recognize adultism as a prevalent form of oppression, and we actively work to dismantle it. Our rights, liberation, and freedom are intertwined with one another, and we cannot be free while another is oppressed.
Introducing...
THE SPOKANE LEARNING CO-OP
A NEW ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL FOR SPOKANE
The Spokane Learning Co-op offers personalized, flexible learning opportunities for kids and teens in a supportive community.
We believe our work will have an incalculable impact on the mental health of rising generations, which affects all of us in our shared future. We see this as our greatest contribution to creating peace on Earth.
At the Spokane Learning Co-op we:
+ see young people as full human beings
+ believe that education should be consensual
+ offer classes, workshops, and field trips on a consensual, voluntary basis
+ nurture an environment of freedom of expression within the member-decided rules of the Co-op insofar as it does not interfere with anyone else's freedom
+ do not mandate age segregation or mandatory groupings of young people
+ do not subject members to evaluations, judgment, or grading, except in the case where families opt-in to standardized tests
We welcome young people who want to choose how, when, and what they learn. We will also offer adult classes and workshops.
The Co-op is inspired by a number of alternative education models, including unschooling, Sudbury Schools, Circle Schools, Scouting, and the Purple Thistle Centre in Vancouver, BC.
We strive to maintain a strong parent community that provides an environment to ask questions, get support, and build community.
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LEARN ABOUT NEXT?
OUR MISSION, VISION, BELIEFS, & VALUES
We believe our work will have an incalculable impact on the mental health of rising generations. We see this as our greatest contribution to creating peace on Earth.
OUR SELF-DIRECTED EDUCATION CENTER
The Spokane Learning Co-op
is ideal for any student or families interested in cultivating truly happy, confident, self-directed young adults.
OUR INNOVATIVE APPROACH
We collaborate with members to create educational experiences that follow their interests while also satisfying Washington State requirements that all schools, public, private, and homeschools, are required to uphold.