Catalyst Learning Network

We are raising funds we need to launch the Catalyst Learning Network, an online self-directed learning community.  (The dream -- how it can work.)

We're adults who were bored and miserable in school -- and we're looking for help with a cause that is misunderstood and often overlooked: helping kids who are struggling to survive school.

While it’s common for students to say “I hate school,” some are really suffering and desperately want out.

They are bored and disengaged for many hours each day, despite the best efforts of their teachers and parents to get them to make the most of school.   Many are depressed, feel a complete lack of control over their lives, and have a very bleak view of the future.

Some of these kids, having Googled the phrase “I hate school,” find their way to School-Survival.net, a support site for kids who hate school.

While School Survival offers a much-needed sense of community and a path out of darkness for many students, this often leads them to want a path to pursuing their interests and life-relevant learning, in contrast to the boredom and stress they experience in school.

Their parents often aren't open to homeschooling, or reluctantly homeschool despite not feeling confident replacing school completely on their own.

Our conversations in education circles led us to an approach that's been very successful in these circumstances: North Star's self-directed learning model for teens who want out of school.  North Star offers an in-person location with experienced educators who support learner's interests.

But, North Star -- and the growing network of programs based on its Liberated Learners model -- are location-based, rather than online.  The students on School Survival are all over the United States and elsewhere around the world, far from options other than school-as-usual.

That led us to conceive of an online learning community that combines the online community model of School Survival, with the North Star model, where self-direction is combined with learning support and parent engagement from experienced educators.

We are running this campaign to raise funds so we can:

1. Develop and launch the Catalyst website, which will include guides and articles to help students and their parents make sense of their struggles and learn about options.

2. Do promotion and research to connect with the larger audience that might find these resources and Catalyst's program, services, and resources helpful.

3. Do a "soft launch" of a pilot of Catalyst with several teens who are unhappy in school and interested a path out of it.  Whether they remain in school or are able to convince their parents to pull them out, we'll work with them to explore their interests and show how this approach can work.

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Why us?

And, why support us, when there are other causes that may seem more urgent?

In short -- very few people are looking at the problems at the level of individual students whose parents leave the problem to schools.  While we believe in public education, the reality is that many students don't feel like anyone in their lives cares about their needs.

We've connected with many allies of unhappy students, and we look through more every day through our Facebook group Dialogue on Education.

But the problem remains.   These students are asking for our help.


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The problem in more detail

"We've been legitimately traumatized by schooling, and there many others out there suffering; school can be much more negative than one might think." - Hansgrohe, 17

The day-in, day-out routine of boredom coupled with absolute powerlessness to control their own lives and improve their situations; the pressure from parents to get grades that seem utterly out of their reach; the pressure from school to give up on their identities and simply comply with their demands... can take a toll on their mental and emotional health.

Psychologist Peter Gray has written and spoken extensively about these problems, among many others -- and they are all common patterns on School Survival.  Sir Ken Robinson has also spoken about the problems of school in his popular TED talks, and describes the plight of the millions of alienated students in the RSA Animate talk, Changing Education Paradigms.

But, many adults have no comfort or sense to offer these young people except for statements like, “Life is hard, and you better learn that now. You can’t always do what you like. Sometimes you have to do what is expected of you.”

We don’t believe it is the role of school to prepare young people for an unfriendly and difficult world...as though slogging through meaningless tasks is somehow good training for their lives. None of us happily works for no reward at all, yet most people seem to think students should simply accept it.

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Our solution

Catalyst Learning Network, working in tandem with a broader community of parents, educators, and others working in education,  will provide daily contact with students, through chats and hangouts. Students will engage in learning experiences of their own choosing. They will develop their learning goals in consultation with Catalyst and their parents.

Catalyst staff will work with students to find the right learning experiences that will advance these goals. These experiences might be online courses, local community college courses, Catalyst-developed seminars and classes organized to meet their needs; and they will be matched with mentors from a list that Catalyst will develop.

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What the money is for

We’re setting the initial goal for this campaign at $2,000.

That will allow:

 - Brendan to set aside the next two months to focus on building the website, and producing the guides

 - Consultation with a designer for the website and parent & student guides

 - Promotion of the site, social media accounts, and surveys to learn about who's out there and find possible participants.

We're starting on this work now, so every dollar will help us get more done more quickly.

If we can raise more than $2,000, we'll work with an advisory committee that we develop (including youth) to provide guidance on how to spend the funds.

Among other things, more funds will allow:

 - Additional consultation time from experienced teachers and mental health professionals for the production of the guides and interaction with parents and students

The next step will be to launch a formal organization.

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Conclusion

We have a vision, and we want to make it work.

We hope some of you will share this dream.  Please open your hearts and minds to the hope that this project means for young people, and express your support.

Thanks!

Brendan Heidenreich
Lisa Cooley


(Image attribution: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fake_eyes/342753239/ -- with modifications.)