dale stephens

Hi! I’m Dale.  I was unschooled from 6th until 12th grade and enrolled at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas following ‘high school.’  I was frustrated with some aspects of my college experience and spent much of my first semester thinking and writing about what could be done to address my concerns.

Over winter break, some unschooled friends and I — namely Rebecca Goldman (attending Dartmouth) and Demetri Sampas (attending Pacific Lutheran) — were conversing about our frustrations with higher education.  We found that we had precisely the same frustrations about college, even though we attend different institutions.

After pondering this conversation I came to the conclusion that our frustrations with higher education stem not from the specific institutions we attend but rather from what we had in common: unschooling. We threw around some ideas via email, and Rebecca suggested “we should just start our own college a la the movie ‘Accepted.’”

I loved the idea.

Unschooling provided an excellent education.  As unschoolers we were free to learn whenever and wherever we pleased.  We researched areas of interest, sought out mentors, and connected with other learners.  We took our knowledge from theory to practice by starting organizations and creating internships.   We learned for the sake of learning — not to pass a test.  We found innovative ways to apply what we learned.  We were forced to think independently and analytically.   We learned how to interact with our peers and function in a classroom setting by taking college courses.   By serving as both teacher (planning our courses) and student (doing the coursework) we practiced goal setting, self-evaluation, and created an unconventional yet vital leadership experience.

I decided that as a former unschooler I could make Rebecca’s homeschooler college a reality.

I launched UnCollege on January 21st, 2011.

how do you define success: the impact you have on others
link from Lisa Nielsen
Brad Opfer: Great video on What makes someone successful? -- David Brooks Interview by Fareed Zakaria on GPS http://t.co/wvL2tyT

the beauty of the internet - we can show what we've done
we can get a college degree w/o having to submit to the system

ackiegerstein: The difference now is that "students" have access to masters"


jackiegerstein: via online


Travis Allen: Facts are now free because of the internet! Universities that are just providing students facts are ripping them off....


Larry A: What the workplace wants, logica or not, is some way to show that we've had some type of higher education training for the needs of today's world

http://blog.skillshare.com/post/4985124715/8-tips-for-new-skillshare-teachers

no destination, that path is life for me

roll of higher ed

is going to college really a maturing place?

core idea for uncollege - it's ok to be different..

learning how to work and interface with institutions is a great learning experience

Moderator (Steve Hargadon): http://uncollege.org/academicdeviance.pdf

so much of the barrier to our success is ourselves..

Lisa Nielsen (The Innovative Educator): Dale should friend Laurie Coulter and Regina Calceterra on Facebook to find out about forever homes for foster kids