It's our job as facilitators to create and tend to the container of the school, and the youth can build on and shape that container. To ensure that we have a safe and effective environment for the youth and staff to thrive, it's very important to lay a strong foundation for the health and longevity of the school. Our goal is to create an environment where our human connections are prioritized. Screens and the content on them is available, for those of us with access to screens, at any time. Our time together at the school is not. We will work to model these values and create systems that support autonomy, community, and prioritizing our real life humanity.

In order for us to be present and to do our jobs we need to remove the accessibility of our “smart” phones. We have decided that all of us, staff and other adults included (we do not believe in separate rules or agreements for adults and kids), will leave our phones in the entry room. Each person with a phone is free to use it in that space at their leisure, but removing it from our persons removes it as an easy distraction in our daily lives together. It also works to eliminate the discrepancy between those who own a smart phone device and those who don’t. As we strive to build a community focused on being present together, we felt it was important to create this container. This is in alignment with changing social and scientific awareness around the impact of phones on our culture and the loneliness epidemic. This is a simple container we have chosen to allow us to focus on each other, our creativity, and our community while we are in the space together. 

No, Our ask is that everyone, including adults visiting the school, leave their phone in the coat area. If you need to use your phone you can use it in that space. This is specific to phones. 

Computers used as tools to create, play, share, and more will be available. And we will not make a distinction between different uses of screens as “educational” or “not educational.” We believe that it's important to have access to technology and it's our job to model and share how to use technology in a safe and intentional way. We will be watching movies, playing games, using the internet, and more to learn and connect with each other. We just want to try something different and leave the phones in the front room. 

We believe that tech and screens can be used in intentional, caring, collaborative, and community-based ways. To support this we will continually have conversations as a community and offerings to discuss and engage around tech use.

To find out more about our nuanced opinions on tech use, and why we made this decision, check out this discussion between Brooklyn and Bria. (link here!)

For more information on screens in Self-Directed Education:

Pop Culture Positive: A Human-Centered and Positive Approach to Screen Time by Brooklyn Wetzel
Unschooling and Video Games by Pam Laricchia
My Child Asked Me to Limit His Screen Time. I Said No. by Iris Chen
Sense and Nonsense about Video Game Addiction by Peter Gray
It’s Complicated The Social Lives of Networked Teens by Danah Boyd
From “Video Game Addict” to Computer Programmer by Hope Wilder
Let’s Talk About Screens; “Screen Time” and SDE by Matthew Gioiaescription