Supporting Teenagers: The Role of Adults at North Star ______________________________________________________ WHEN A FAMILY FIRST JOINS NORTH STAR, often what is most striking is the list of things the staff does not do: decide what the teenage members should study or how they should spend their time, design a required curriculum, enforce compulsory attendance, give grades and diplomas. The absence of these functions may be attractive and even exhilarating to a family just coming out of a difficult school experience, but it can also be disorienting and confusing. If the adults at North Star aren’t engaged in these familiar schoolteacher functions, what are they doing? Another way to think about this question is this: when we remove all those tasks that involve requiring, prescribing, making sure or trying to make sure that something happens, what’s left to fill the space between adult and teenager? Does the adult mostly just step back and leave the kids alone? The idea that leaving kids alone is the only alternative to requiring kids to do things is, we would venture to say, one of the most common misconceptions about the self-directed learning option that North Star offers. In fact, adults at North Star neither coerce teenagers nor leave them entirely alone. Instead, we provide support and involvement in myriad ways. Adults on the North Star staff observe, listen to, think about, plan for, worry over, marvel at, and generally pay attention to our teenage members as they make the fascinating and complicated transition from one kind of life to another. We research opportunities for community involvement, track down the specific book or article or film or piece of music that we think will speak to one of the teens or several, meet regularly with members to problem-solve, brainstorm, encourage, sympathize, challenge, reassure. We mediate conflicts, evaluate and re-evaluate and re-evaluate again how things are going for a particular teen, figure out ways to get over or under or around external and internal obstacles. What this actually looks like in practice and detail with each teen and each family is a huge part of what we look forward to sharing with you over the course of the year.

Role of Adults at North Star

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Here we explain what adults do, with, and for our teen members.

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Supporting Teenagers: The Role of Adults at North Star

______________________________________________________ WHEN A FAMILY FIRST JOINS NORTH STAR, often what is most striking is the list of things the staff does not do: decide what the teenage members should study or how they should spend their time, design a required curriculum, enforce compulsory attendance, give grades and diplomas. The absence of these functions may be attractive and even exhilarating to a family just coming out of a difficult school experience, but it can also be disorienting and confusing. If the adults at North Star aren’t engaged in these familiar schoolteacher functions, what are they doing? Another way to think about this question is this: when we remove all those tasks that involve requiring, prescribing, making sure or trying to make sure that something happens, what’s left to fill the space between adult and teenager? Does the adult mostly just step back and leave the kids alone? The idea that leaving kids alone is the only alternative to requiring kids to do things is, we would venture to say, one of the most common misconceptions about the self-directed learning option that North Star offers. In fact, adults at North Star neither coerce teenagers nor leave them entirely alone. Instead, we provide support and involvement in myriad ways. Adults on the North Star staff observe, listen to, think about, plan for, worry over, marvel at, and generally pay attention to our teenage members as they make the fascinating and complicated transition from one kind of life to another. We research opportunities for community involvement, track down the specific book or article or film or piece of music that we think will speak to one of the teens or several, meet regularly with members to problem-solve, brainstorm, encourage, sympathize, challenge, reassure. We mediate conflicts, evaluate and re-evaluate and re-evaluate again how things are going for a particular teen, figure out ways to get over or under or around external and internal obstacles. What this actually looks like in practice and detail with each teen and each family is a huge part of what we look forward to sharing with you over the course of the year.