Abrome

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 who 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. First, they are biologically wired to try to engage with the world and learn. Perhaps the best thing adults can do is stop interfering with that natural inclination. Second, young people have less life experience than adults so they are much more likely to find their experiences novel; hence young people are more likely to be excited to engage with the world. Except when adults ruin it by mandating it, gamifying it, or assessing it. Third, to the extent that they do seem to act “lazy” when given the freedom to play and learn, it is more often an inability of the adults to see and understand how young people learn outside of schools settings. Finally, if they are truly slothful and want to do nothing, it is usually because they have expended too many cognitive resources performing for adults. And they need time to recover to fully engage with the world in ways that are meaningful to them. This recovery time, after many years of adult manipulation, is often called deschooling. 

If adults want the young people to grow into grownups who are eager to engage with the world, to be lifelong learners, they would be wise to let the young people be free to play and learn, today.

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 motive behind sending a child to school in the first place. And that motive, for the great majority of people, almost always revolves around, “what school going to do to make my child ‘successful’?” And success as measured by schools means testing and academic performance and sometimes college placement; and by society it generally means the prestige of the colleges and jobs the students end up gaining access to, as well as their potential future earnings.

And because most families are members of dominant society, and are enculturated by it, their motivations and prioritized wants become a response to their own anxieties and notions of scarcity. They think in individual rather than collective terms. They focus on the “best” schools for their kids, choosing security over liberation, and what helps their kids get ahead even if it is at the expense of other kids or society. And the schools give them the assurances they need to keep the kids enrolled. And then, too often, the families bemoan the state of society. The same society their kids will grow old in.

Our recommendation: be different.

Two weeks ago we got hit pretty hard with a freeze that brought down lots of trees, and countless tree limbs, all over Austin. At the Abrome facility we were left without power, water, or internet for a week, and needed to revert to remote for the first time this year. Thank goodness we have a remote option in our pandemic plan!

Fortunately, all the members of Abrome pulled through, although several were left without power and water for up to five days. At Abrome the biggest concern was downed tree limbs damaging the facility. Some very large branches came down, with one landing on the roof, and another landing against the side of the facility, but no major damage. We cut down the larger limbs and branches and lined them up along the road and they should all be cleared away by the end of next week. The second biggest concern was all of the reagents for the LAMP testing being ruined due to the power outage. Fortunately, we were able to get them on ice and insulate them for the first night, and then get them to a working freezer the following day. We verified using a remote sensor that the temperature never rose high enough to compromise the reagents and all testing since then has worked out wonderfully.

The hits keep coming, but we keep dodging and punching back. Which belatedly brings us to the photos. Facilitator Ryan, recognizing the need for the Abromies to move their bodies and release frustration, brought out the boxing equipment post-freeze so that folks could work through it all.

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 testing, mandatory FFP2/3 masks indoors and outdoors in close contact during surges, distancing, remote learning when cases were extremely high, outdoor learning options, and Hepa filtration in every classroom. If CO2 readings exceeded 800, rooms were evacuated and classes continued in sheltered outdoor spaces, also used for eating. Everyone is vaccinated.

“Abrome’s ethos is that of inclusion. A Covid-safe school is accessible to everyone. The sense of collective compassion over mé féinism.

“In the same way I would challenge institutional racism, I won’t participate in a system that discriminates against disabled, clinically vulnerable children and those with clinically vulnerable family.” 

1. we appreciate that some folks recognize that in a landscape where an extremely tiny minority of institutions are protecting people from COVID transmission, that Abrome’s COVID protocols provide an accessible alternative to school for those who are at risk of serious illness from COVID (although it should be noted that everyone is potentially at risk).

2. the sense of collective compassion over mé féinism extends beyond the walls of Abrome. We are members of adjacent and broader communities and we recognize our responsibility to not do harm to those communities.

3. we agree that people should seriously interrogate their participation in oppressive institutions.

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/our-children-are-at-grave-risk-of-covid-as-state-puts-profit-ahead-of-public-health-41893293.html
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So appreciative of reading the responses of folks who were moved by the experiences of young people at Abrome that were shared in the essay Changing the Context in the book “Trust Kids!”

Reposted from :

I am in a really lush place of reading and writing right now.

Writing (finally) my book which I have been dreaming and planning and living for the past three years.

And reading some awesomely inspiring stuff, including ‘Trust Kids’ (ed carla joy bergman) which includes a deeply empowering collection of stories from Antonio Buehler, founder of .

We really need to sort out our attitude towards young people. They are missing out, and so are we.

Grateful to my friends at who are helping me embody a new way of being, and give context to all the words.

Life is good.

(A side effect of all this living and learning is less time and space to post on here. Sorry not sorry about that. I value you, and am grateful for your patience.)