Centre For Self-Directed Education

For many kids, particularly Indigenous kids, the regular K-12 education system isn’t working. Current solutions offer more of the same. More homework, more testing, more tutoring, more after school ‘enrichment’. We don’t need more of what’s already failing and we don’t need an “Indigenized” version of the regular system, we need different. Radically different. Redesigning education – away from conformity and towards curiosity. We are proposing an entirely different model of learning in a pilot school, located in Toronto, Ontario. It will be designed for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students to attend together. Children from 4 to 19, led by their innate curiosity, will take charge of their own learning path in an experiential, land-oriented, democratically run system. They will play together, work together and grow together in an environment of mutual respect and exploration. This self-directed environment is both aligned with traditional ways of learning and proven effective in this complex digital age. Youth will leave this school prepared to be productive, self-reliant adults in an ever more quickly changing world.