“I’m ready for the next apocalypse.” That’s what a facilitator told me yesterday as we considered covid and sipped tea (next to the ventilation unit) inside a learning center in New York City. What they meant was that the continued focus on the coronaviruses felt like a distraction from the other apocalypses we face today–climate collapse, racial injustice, economic inequality, democracy and capitalism both falling (globally) before our eyes. I bet you can name at least one other that I missed that gets you hot and bothered when you think about it for longer than the allotted scrolling glance at recommended news article titles that greet you when you open a web browser.

Is the next apocalypse something today’s kids will inherit? Or something that will be resolved before then? I’m not sure, but it does remind me of an argument I’ve heard people make for self-directed education: how can adults actually know what kids need in order to prepare for the world they’re going to grow up in?

This notion is built on thinking that this “future world” is going to be unlike anything present adults have experienced. Maybe apocalyptic thinking around these preparations? It also alludes to kids needing to operate with independence from adults. I do not disagree with this statement, and I also think it highlights a clear and often unrealistic goal people can have of kids in self-directed learning: to be independent of adults.

I imagine it’s helpful for those in nuclear families who need a little space for themselves, kids and adults, to focus on independence and move away from codependence. And also if they’re trying to break patterns and habits of helplessness that much of society assumes of/puts onto kids. However, in all of these self-directed spaces I’ve been to, the kids still have needs they cannot meet alone and so turn to others, often adults, sometimes kids. It is a completely normal part of collaboration and, I believe, equitable relationships for people to be supporting one another to meet their needs, in both directions.

The truth also of the pandemic, the current apocalypse that we face, is that in cities like NYC, the small, independent businesses and organizations that are surviving are those that continue to be agile in organizing with their community and adapting their services or products to better meet the moment’s needs. Independence is an asset, and, in the face of all these apocalypses, I think we’re facing the need to learn and practice interdependence, too.

Just yesterday I watched a small 5 year old kid calling out asking for help to climb a giant stack of mats to sit atop it where some other kids were. This kid had been asking for help during the day with very aspirational things for them like fort building and ironing pearler bead projects, but this seemed like something they physically could not do alone. My philosophy with climbing things is only to help down and not to physically move people into positions they could not reach alone, so I kept that boundary and stayed back to watch. 

Not long after, a much taller, older kid came in excitedly to offer help so the younger one could climb it, though they hadn’t been friends or even knew each other’s names. Interdependence–let me help you meet your needs so I can meet mine, so that we can all finally get to the thing we want to do: play and be free together.

MORE ON INTERDEPENDENCE: In this article, another writer, flying squad and learning community organizer, Antonio Buehler, interviews carla bergman and Eleanor Goldfield, hosts of the podcast Silver Threads: Still Walking, Still Waking. On the podcast they “interview long term organizers and radicals about their watershed moments, what they have learned along the way, and how they maintain their hope on this path; dreaming and building emergent worlds for a present and future that is anchored in justice and freedom for all.” The platform that hosts the podcast, Grounded Futures, is committed to uplifting the voices of youth, women, and nonbinary folks. Listen to or read this insightful conversation about liberation and mutual aid efforts!