How did we get here?
PopSchools as a project is a couple years in the making. I, @nikema, have been working on creating a community for my unschooled children since they left public school three years ago. Until about two months ago, the plan was to open a physical space in Sacramento. A place where young people could meet and collaborate on projects. I wanted a safe space for self-directed learners to be able to socialize and learn outside of conventional schooling.
Steem changes everything
I joined Steemit in January and started blogging in February. Once I found the communities, (mostly on Discord) my eyes were opened to the possibilities of online interactions. I was able to find the artists, the unschoolers, the coders, and designers. These are the people who create the content I am interested. I heard a beautiful duet sang from two different countries. I sat in on classes were people practiced poetry, foreign languages, and the ways of the Steem community. I was amazed by the kindness and genuine interactions I was having with people all over the world.
It's a beautiful thing to see people come together the way we do here on the Steem blockchain. It's amazing how Steem is changing and improving lives.
I was enjoying the community here, building relationships, and really diving in to the Steem ecosystem. Steemit quickly became the social network of choice for me.
From the park straight to Skype
By Rawpixel
After a park day with homeschooled kids, my son came home and immediately started a Skype conversation with the same friends he had just left. As I observed, a lightbulb went off. If I can enjoy the rich communities that Steem has, why not the kids? That's when I realized I don't need the overhead of a physical space and the PopSchools community can be built online with the Steem blockchain and discord.
These kids are digital natives. They are already accustomed to the tools and ways of communicating online.
What is the problem PopSchools addresses?
PopSchools addresses the lack of access to socializing, collaboration, and funding for self-directed learners aged 9 - 18.
The people who experience this problem are found all over the world. They call themselves unschoolers and self-directed learners. Some are educated outside of school. Some attend microschools, Agile Learning Centers, democratic schools, or free schools. In their local communities they may be few, but as a global community, they are everywhere.
How do I know this is a problem?
My source is my personal experience as a self-directed learner, unschooling mother, and entrepreneur who works to create a solution. The cause of this lack of community could be summed up with the fact that these learners are in the minority. We are operating outside of a long-established, nearly all-encompassing system and tradition of education. In any given neighborhood or city, you just won't find large numbers of people who are accepting of and participating in Self-Directed Education.
The lack of funds is another fundamental part of the problem PopSchools addresses. Many of us in this community, myself included, make compromises with our educational philosophy because we rely on the public funding from our school districts. Accepting charter funds means agreeing to testing and other evaluations that hold no value to us personally. Many can't afford to choose this way of education at all.
The proposed solution + how you can help
I plan to build a Steem blockchain front-end just for the PopSchools community. The website will only display content created on the site but posts can be broadcast to the blockchain. I am intending from the beginning to make a safe space for youth to participate. Parents are also welcome as part of the community and we can learn together how to earn money with this platform. I've already created a discord server ( https://discord.gg/zKG3EnX) and have the popschools.com domain registered ( https://popschools.com ).
Everyone could use more funds to pursue their goals and passions. As a community, we can work together towards financial freedom for all. Not all, but many problems can be solved by getting capital into the hands of those who don't have it.
The plan is to get these students, who for the most part are digital natives and already using these tools, to earn money for the activities they already do online. There's the added benefit of learning from each other and sharing work with a supportive community.
I want this PopSchools account to grow to a point where our upvote can make a difference in funding the education of the youth.
How can you help?
PopSchools is a one-woman show. I would love to have a team to help me build out this platform and community. Any of the following skills would help me out:
- coding
- design
- marketing
- business sense :)
I am completely willing to work on this alone, because I consider it my life's work to create safe and equitable spaces for youth. However, it's slow going alone and working towards these goals with others who care is much more fun.
Contact me!
If anyone is interested in helping out or lending any type of support, find me on Discord. My username is @nikema#3775
My email: [email protected]
The PopSchools discord server: https://discord.gg/zKG3EnX
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook: @popschoolsapp
Friends Shoutout
Some people and communities I want to acknowledge. #dynamicsteemians, @steemcreators, @platforms, #steemcreators, #hypefoundation, upfundme, @steembasicincome, @steemcafe, @elsiekjay, @ntowl, @dynamicgreentk, @everlove (so nice to talk about unschooling with you), @hyperfundit, @partiko, @entrepreneur916, @taskmanager.
I'm sure I will have left someone important off, so if you're reading and I didn't list your name just know I appreciate you!
Hello popschools! Welcome to Steemit! Hope you'll like the community here. As a start, here are 5 tips that we believe will be helpful to you:
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Great initiative here! I'm very excited to hear more and see how it develops. Glad to see this on Steemit. I found you through the #payitforward contest. You were featured by @revisesociology. Congratulations.
Thanks for coming by and reading. I appreciate the support 🙏🏾
Nikema
Welcome to Steemit, popschools! I wish you a very happy journey here on Steemit! Enjoy this journey!
By the way, there are several groups you as a newcomer can join. They will stay with you for your journey, helping and mentoring along the way.
@greetersguild invite link https://discord.gg/AkzNSKx @newbieresteemday invite link https://discord.gg/2ZcAxsU
Thanks for the welcome, @cheneats :)
Good initiatives @popschools we are behind you!
Thanks! You know I'm a platforms fan :)
Welcome to Steem, @popschools!
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Check Out @Popschools, A Decentralized Educational Community!From @nikema :
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Hi @popschools! You have received 1.01 SBD tip from @nikema!You got a 28.57% upvote from @steemcreators courtesy of @nikema!
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Hey @popschools. Welcome to the community!
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STOPI think it is a great idea and wish you much luck!!!
It was you! You were the VIP that I forgot to mention. Thank you, Marianne. I'm really glad we met. I'm sure we'll cross paths again.
This is a great idea but would need a lot of monitoring. There are a lot of dangers on the internet and not all the discord channels are child-friendly. So there would need to be a lot of monitoring or a way to keep them from other chat rooms. Plus you state:
"The plan is to get these students, who for the most part are digital natives and already using these tools, to earn money for the activities they already do online. "
You state the students are 9-18. The legal tax issues of this are complicated depending on where you live. In most of the states of the United States, if the child is under a certain age the money has to be put into a trust until they reach a certain age. The money could not be used to further the education platform. I love the idea and these are a few points that would need to be clarified.
I am a previous homeschooler and would love to do it again. However, my state is not a supporter of homeschooling so there is no funding for it. Seeing as we do not have the $7000 to go to an online public school to meet the requirements without searching out our own program, we are opting for traditional schooling. This would be great to help parents who do not wish to use the public school system or have no options.
This is helpful feedback. Thank you for taking the time to respond. It's given me a lot to think about.
I'm in California which is one of the better states for homeschooling rights. I am trying to think of this from a worldwide perspective. Here school is compulsory and "free" but in other places education is a privilege and comes at a cost.
A possible solution to the discord security issue could be to create a custom site or app that will allow for socializing as well as content creation. It could be that the parents own the account and have the option of adding children on.
You brought me back to reality by talking about legality and compliance while working with children. It's true that it's more complicated to deal with minors and that's probably why there aren't many alternatives to the traditional way of education.
I'm sure it can be done though. There are sites like ROBLOX, Animal Jam, and Prodigy Math that allow children access and collect money for items in game. There are also already social classroom platforms like JAM.com and Outschool for that age group. I think it's a matter of getting the correct legal advice.
Funding is the Answer
I believe the number one issue affecting equity in education is that people just don't have enough money. That's why I am concurrently developing the @steemfunder platform. It's also why I am rooting for the success of #steembasicincome and @mannacurrency. Many problems lead back to the root problem of poverty and we have the means to address this with STEEM.
Even here in the United States where we all are relatively rich compared to much of the world, standardized testing is a better test of economic status than intelligence (I know that's a loaded word). And in this resource rich country, our lower income citizens still don't have access to sufficient healthcare and drinkable water (Hello, Flint).
Keeping Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in mind, we need to get more people secured in their basic human needs before we can really talk about education as a solution to poverty. Many abuses of humanity happen to those who are just trying to survive on those lower levels of the pyramid.
Thank You
Thank you again for taking the time to respond. If you'd like to talk more or in private, you can email me [email protected] or DM on discord nikema#3775.
nikema on steemit
Your welcome. It is a big project for here just in the US, then when you talk globally it becomes gigantic. However, you seem to have a lot of knowledge and drive to see it done. I wish you all the luck.
Thank you! I need luck and more people crazy enough to believe we can make this work. It’s my life’s work to do this. I’m not giving up!
https://steemitimages.com/100x100/https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmQVf9zfgreCNvQ5NBDJf1WhvwYATrZe2Xm8UYg1tKyySa @nikema
Éxito, saludos desde Venezuela.
This looks like a nice project, have you considered SMTs as a way forward?
I have, but I need to do some research on them. I’m not entirely sure how SMTs are supposed to work.
—@nikema
I guess that involves reading the SMT white paper... something I haven't done yet.
Not exactly on the 'fun day' list that little task.
curation post for the Py It Forward Curation Contest.@revisesociology featured you in their
This is a very ambitious project and wish you the best of luck with it. There are so many parts of the world that school just isn't a real options for kids as costs are far to high compared to the incomes of the lower income households. This creates a cycle that can't be broken easily.
Thank you. It will take many of us working together towards a common goal. I’m convinced that poverty is the problem. I live in the United States. I see that poverty prevents people here from being truly free. It limits choice. It puts families in survival mode.
I’m relatively privileged. I’d argue that anyone who is able to remove their kids from public school to homeschool is. It took some reality checks to see that you can’t “just fix school” while ignoring the real barrier that poverty creates.
That’s why I’m so excited about STEEM. It’s a source of income plus a platform for sharing value. Besides the broken sign up process, there are few barriers to entry here. It’s already improving lives.
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STOPWonderful work you're doing @nikema. I know many that would benefit from a program such as this. I wish you luck :)
Thank you for commenting. I'll take the luck :)
Nikema
--@nikema, @steemfunder, @popschools
Steemit and Steemiens are amazing me everyday..A great brain and good initiative...
All the success for this...
Thank you so much!
my fundition campaign | popschools discord@nikema#3775, @steemfunder, @popschools
Hi @nikema, I am very interested to hear about your PopSchools project.
I host a radio show every Friday on MSP Waves called The Alternative Lifestyle Show. The show covers homesteading, prepping, homeschooling, unschooling, tiny houses, renewable energy etc.
I wondered if you would like to come on the show as a guest sometime to talk about the PopSchools project?
If you check my profile you will see links to recordings of previous shows if you would like to listen to one.
Host of the My Life in 8 Songs and The Alternative Lifestyle Show radio shows on MSP Waves.
Editor of the Weekly Schedule of Steem Radio Shows.
Founder of the A Dollar A Day charitable giving project.
Yes! I'm interested in coming on the show. Thanks for the invite.
Nikema
-- @nikema#3775, @steemfunder, @popschools
That would be great. I will contact you on Discord.
Host of the My Life in 8 Songs and The Alternative Lifestyle Show radio shows on MSP Waves.
Editor of the Weekly Schedule of Steem Radio Shows.
Founder of the A Dollar A Day charitable giving project.