Cassidy Younghans is a Self-Directed Education advocate and facilitator. She was a public school teacher for 5 years before changing her path to focus on Self-Directed Education. She interned at various Self-Directed Education learning spaces including Houston Sudbury School and North Star before founding EPIC Life Learning Community with an amazing team in September 2019.

Key Takeaways:

2:13 Know about Epic Life Learning Community and their vision.

4:31 Overview on different learning modalities like having a one-to-one democracy

12:58 Self-directed education path as a relief about knowing nothing, starting something new and finding out what works for you.

19:26 Agile Learning tools as a method to liberate our learners in decision-making.

30:44 Strategies in facing the fear of the unknown and difficult conversations with parents.

42:47 Are you a bad parent if you just let your kids take charge of their learning?: Considering the balance between deficiency and advancements of curriculum among learners.

47:39 Developmental Transition as a vehicle to an academic curriculum that supports our learners best.

54:00 Certification approach as a culture among kids for boundaries.

1:04:35 The metaphor that best describes Self-Directed Education.

Quotes:

“Cause I think, you know, living is learning and learning is living,”

“Education is not supposed to be this one path all the time.”

“ And it's all about you wanting to be capable. That's going to continue to make you more capable.”

“We just talk about it as a community. We just share out loud what we think.”

“Trust takes a long time and relationships are hurt and conflict is hard and it's not comfortable. So they're comfortable being uncomfortable because we have hard conversations here. “

“So we just are really clear with the learners or we ask them what they prefer so that when they're making the choice to be a part of the class, they know what they're going to be or walking into. ”

“Living is learning your Epic now you never weren't. And you can like, you know, do anything you want to do. You're extremely capable and amazing. And here are the resources. “

Social Links:

LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassidy-younghans-1b810278/

Personal Website- http://www.cassidyyounghans.com/

Epic Life Learning 

ASDE Article