The question is an interesting one, because it doesn't ask who we are supposed to be comparing homeschool students to. I will assume that you are comparing homeschoolers to traditional, public schooled students. I will also assume that by "top universities" you mean the Harvards and Stanfords of the world. I'll also assume that you are comparing homeschoolers with no admissions hooks (e.g., development, legacy, faculty children, recruited athletes) to public schoolers with no admissions hooks. In that case, no, homeschoolers do not have a tougher time getting into top universities. In fact, th ..read more

Youth autonomy is one of the core pillars of the Abrome community. It is not a talking point. All people should be able to choose how they use their time, have control over their bodies and minds, and have their boundaries respected. Children and adolescents are people, too. Some people think that giving kids the choice of which learning app to use, or which character they want to represent on a project is autonomy. Others think it is having students ask the questions that will help structure the learning that they will be guided into next. But that is not autonomy, it is the illusion of choi ..read more

WHEN ASKED "What do we need to learn this for?" any high-school teacher can confidently answer that, regardless of the subject, the knowledge will come in handy once the student hits middle age and starts working crossword puzzles in order to stave off the terrible loneliness. ~ David Sedaris I love this line from David Sedaris.  Not gonna lie, being able to solve the Sunday NYT crossword puzzle is an impressive trick to show off. One does not need to spend 15,000 hours in school to get there though. Simply reading and being engaged in the world is a great, often better alternative. Bu ..read more

Three years ago, today, Abrome broke for spring break not knowing if we would return when spring break was scheduled to end on March 23rd. News of a dangerous novel coronavirus left us debating what our options were given the responsibility we had to support the young people in our learning community, and the duty we had to protect them, their households, and the staff at Abrome. When it became clear that we would not be able to safely come back together, we extended spring break to three weeks. On March 30th we came back together remotely and stayed remote through the end of that first pandac ..read more

There is a belief among too many adults that young people, if given the opportunity to do nothing, will do nothing. It is based on an ageist, anti-youth, and often ableist mindset that children are flawed creatures and must be forced to work to overcome their inborn sloth. It is also untrue. No one is more eager to explore and learn than the youth. A young Abromie facing away from the camera sits curled up on a yellow chair reading a graphic novel she checked out from the library.  First, they are biologically wired to try to engage with the world and learn. The best thing adults can do ..read more

We were just informed of this article titled “Our children are at grave risk of COVID as State puts profit ahead of public health,” written by Irish journalist Tess Finch-Lees at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately it is behind a paywall. Doubly unfortunate is that pleas to protect children in schools continue to be ignored. In it she says: “I’ve been scouring the web to see if any school has managed to prevent outbreaks. I found one – Abrome, in Texas. How did it do it? By ignoring politicians and following the science. “Acknowledging Covid is airborne, mitigations included daily testi ..read more

Families who have the means to do so will choose where to send their kids to school (public or private) based on a variety of factors such as price, proximity to home, average class size, education philosophy, clubs and extracurricular activities, and the colleges the school’s graduates get into. Families rarely get everything they want out of a school because many of their wants cannot coexist in a school setting. So, families are forced to prioritize their wants.   But there is more to the decision process than where various schools land on each of the preferred factors. There is the mo ..read more

The last post talked about the struggle to clean up during and after the making of delectable treats. So on the final day before the holiday, we invited the Abromies into a sugar cookie making offering. But we decided that this offering would need to operate differently. At breakfast (the name for our morning meeting) we noted that two of the Abromies had plans to open a bakery together someday. So we asked, what is necessary for a bakery to succeed? Yes, excellent baking. What else? Sanitary conditions. Yes. And what was needed to make great creations? Preparation. What else? A clean work ar ..read more

Overtly political post here. We need to learn how to navigate the world we live in, but we should also try to live in a way that allows for the creation of a better world. Laws are rarely enacted for ethical or moral reasons. They are most commonly enacted to take or preserve power. That is also why laws are arbitrarily, selectively, and disproportionately enforced; with the impact of that enforcement falling most heavily on the most historically marginalized and oppressed peoples. Some laws need to be broken ..read more

Changing the context By Antonio Buehler “Hello, Kenton,” I said to the eleven-year-old seated across from me on the floor. [1] He sat slouched over, avoiding eye contact, staring at the shoe on his extended leg, a seeming warning not to get too close. I asked him why he was interested in joining our education community. He did not have an answer, but he was eager to share that he had “really bad teachers” at his prior school. “No one took the time to listen to me,” he added.[2]  After a long pause I asked him what he likes to think about. “Robots,” he answered, “I had an idea about why r ..read more