I write about development, learning, and what becomes possible when the conditions fit the child.My background in educational publishing gave me enough structural understanding of how the system worked to know early on that it would not serve my children's constitutional natures. Even the informal cooperative settings that felt like alternatives carried the same assumptions: age-batching, standardized expectations, the bias toward compliance and measurable output dressed in softer language. I was not responding to failure. I was observing clearly enough, early enough, to design something different before the damage accumulated.The best education I know of has two parts. Core skills delivered individually, relationally, paced to the child in front of you. Everything else encountered through family, community, nature, and place. This is not a new idea. It is the oldest model of education that exists, and it is available to any family willing to design it.I write, consult, and speak from inside that experience.
The Developmental Ecologist, my Substack publication on development, learning, and the design of private independent education, is now available.Get in touch: [email protected]
A note on this page. This has taken a long time to write. Not because the work is complicated, but because what we built as a family was lived before it was understood. I am still composing it. This page reflects where I am now.
Kathleen Donchak, PhD., 2026