LiberatED Podcast
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© 2024
Description
Conversations with the innovators creating education options for parents and learners outside the conventional classroom.
214 Episodes
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Jackie Hill is the founder of Acton Academy Hampton Roads in the southeast part of Virginia. A mom of 5 and a Montessori teacher, Jackie wanted a different educational experience for her own children. In 2008, she created a little Montessori learning pod in her living room that kept growing and growing and eventually evolved into a democratic school and later into three Acton Academy campuses. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Magatte Wade is an entrepreneur and author renowned for her dynamic approach to business and her dedication to fostering economic development in Africa. Born in Senegal, Magatte is the founder and CEO of SkinIsSkin.com, a skincare company providing high-quality, ethically sourced products. Magatte’s entrepreneurial journey began with Adina World Beat Beverages, a company she founded in 2004 that produced drinks inspired by traditional African recipes and emphasized fair trade principles. She is the author of the new book, The Heart of a Cheetah: How We Have Been Lied to About African Poverty, and What That Means for Human Flourishing. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Located on beautiful 400-acre organic farm in Smyrna, Tennessee, about 20 miles outside of Nashville, Bloomsbury Farm School began in 2020 with one teacher, Kaiti Dewhirst Monroe, and five homeschooled children, including farmer Lauren Palmer’s own five-year-old. Today, it is a Reggio Emilia-inspired K-5 farm school, with additional parent-child programming for littler ones, that currently serves 86 children with a growing waitlist. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Founded in 1989 by alternative education advocate Jerry Mintz, the Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO) continues to provide resources, support, and community for parents, teachers, and learners interested in alternatives to traditional schooling. AERO's Peter Berg joins me today to talk about the organization's enduring legacy and its upcoming, annual conference being held in June in Minneapolis. My podcast listeners can click this link to register for the conference at a discounted rate. "I Quit, I Think," by John Taylor Gatto on AERO's website *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Robert Kimble is the founder of Dream Academy in Dubuque, Iowa. A project of the Dubuque Dream Center, an afterschool program that Kimble cofounded in 2013, Dream Academy is opening this August as a faith-based, K-7 private school with plans to grow through high school by 2029. More than 50 students have already enrolled, and all are attending tuition-free thanks to Iowa's new universal school choice program. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Corey DeAngelis is a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children and a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is the author of the new book—out today—entitled: The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Hannah Mackey and Lauren Umlauf are former teachers who cofounded The Dandelion Project, an unschooling community in Philadelphia that offers daytime programming for homeschoolers as well as after school programs and summer camps that emphasize self-directed education. They also do homeschooling evaluations for homeschoolers throughout Pennsylvania through an unschooling lens. 45 Years of Microschools in Philadelphia: Inside the Growing Movement of Child-Centered Schooling Alternatives (The 74) *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Amy Novak is a former teacher who in 2021 launched Acton Academy Red Rock in southern Nevada. Acton Academy Red Rock is part of the fast-growing Acton Academy network of learner-driven microschools that was founded in 2009 and now includes more than 300 schools serving thousands of learners. Amy's program is intentionally inclusive of neurodiverse learners and those with special learning needs including children with autism, dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, and related diagnoses. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Christen Parker-Yarnal is the cofounder of the Miami Sudbury School in Miami, Florida, a fully self-directed, democratic K-12 private school modeled after the flagship Sudbury Valley School that was founded in Massachusetts in 1968. Christen was a conventional school teacher for several years in St. Louis, then moved back to Miami where she grew up, unschooled her 3 children, and launched Miami Sudbury School in 2018. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Anna Graves is the founder of The Field Academy in Denver, Colorado, a traveling high school that this academic year is collaborating with the Aurora Public Schools, the Englewood Public Schools, Stead Charter School, and alternative schools within the Denver metro area to address chronic absenteeism and credit recovery in creative ways. High school students who are not showing up to school, and who have either been referred to the truancy court or are at risk of being referred, are picked up in The Field Academy van each day to learn throughout the community in an immersive, personalized environment. "Confronting Chronic Absenteeism" (The 74) *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Libertas Institute education policy analyst, and former public school teacher turned homeschooling dad, Jon England joins me on the podcast today to talk about removing regulatory barriers for education entrepreneurs. Jon describes new zoning legislation in Utah passed earlier this year to make it easier for microschool founders to launch their programs. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Dominique Paloma Bible was born in Brazil and raised in Brooklyn, eventually dropping out of high school. That experience led Dominique to discover the importance of personal agency and self-determination, as well as the possibility of alternative learning models outside of traditional schooling. Dominique earned a GED and enrolled at Goddard College. After collecting undergraduate and graduate degrees, Dominique launched Off Da Beaten Path Learning in 2020. It provides personalized guidance, encouragement, and mentorship for young people who are looking to take control of their education in creative, authentic ways, often outside of the traditional K-12 system. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Bountiful Microschool is a home-based microschool in Bountiful, Utah created by edtech entrepreneur, David Blake, cofounder and CEO of Degreed, and his wife Mikel, cofounder of Tech-Moms. The couple wanted to bring the innovation and personalization they were seeing in the larger tech sector to the K-12 classroom to benefit their own children and others in their community. "Utah's Emerging Education Ecosystem Is Diverse and Accessible" (Forbes.com) *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
The podcast's very first guest, Jill Perez, joins us today to celeberate our 200th episode! She gives us an update on her journey as the founder of Tranquil Teachings Learning Center, a pandemic pod turned microschool, in New Jersey. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Jenson “Fig” Newton is the founder of Empigo Academy, a faith-based high school focused on career technical education (CTE) that is opening this fall in Des Moines, Iowa. He expects to launch with 50 students, all of whom will attend tuition-free thanks to Iowa's new universal school choice program. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Kanesha Adams is a former public school teacher and founder of The Learning Lounge, a tutoring center and new microschool in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a low-income community outside of Little Rock. In this episode, Kanesha shares her founder story and explains why Arkansas's new universal school choice program propelled her startup decision. In Arkansas, School Choice Is Encouraging Education Entrepreneurship (Forbes.com) *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Angela Watson is an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education and the creator of the new Homeschool Hub at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, providing in-depth data on homeschooling, regulations, and research across the US. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
On the podcast today, Heather DiNino, a former public school teacher and founder of Elements Academy just outside of Boston, talks about the challenges of running a microschool. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Jennifer Kempin taught for more than a decade in public schools in Pennsylvania before launching her home-based, Waldorf-inspired microschool, Fáilte Microschool, earlier this year. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
Jen Granberry is the founder of ARROWS Christian Academy in Phoenix, Arizona that she launched in August 2023. ARROWS is fully-integrated K-8 private school blending neurotypical and neurodiverse students with a focus on individualized learning, meeting each child where they are at academically and developmentally. She currently has 23 students enrolled with 3 teachers and 3 aides with plans for incremental growth. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.
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