At BSLC, teens are given a lot of freedom. A BSLC member can choose to not attend any classes or activities, if they want to. So what motivates Bay Staters to be active participants in their community? Autonomy alone will not educate a young person, but at BSLC we think it is a prerequisite for any good outcome, be it social, emotional, or educational. And the improvement we often see in the emotional state of new BSLC members seems to illustrate this idea.
Defined as the right or condition of self-government, autonomy is the thing teens crave the most. At the same time, teens are typically given very little, if any, real freedom or responsibility. Though they might not put it in those words, they are acutely aware of how little control they have over their lives. When they arrive at BSLC and are given autonomy like they have never had before, the rush of exuberant energy is transformative, and many young people "come back to life".
Autonomy doesn't mean doing "whatever you want, whenever you want"; it means having the opportunity to seriously reflect on your goals, and to then begin to pursue those goals. We often meet teens who have set challenging goals for themselves, and who will go above and beyond--even on days when they don't "feel like it"--to continue making progress towards them. At BSLC, mentoring plays an important role in this process. A teen's mentor gets to know them, builds trust, and then prompts them to seriously reflect on where they want to go and how they can get there.
Because of the level of freedom we offer our members, BSLC is not for everyone. In particular, BSLC is not a good fit for someone who is a danger to themselves or others when left unsupervised. But the vast majority of teens are not in that situation, and can blossom when offered the freedom to become who they truly want to be. As one BSLC parent put it to us, when describing her teen's trajectory at BSLC:
"It's like, because no one is forcing him to, he's suddenly able to discover it in his own time and way."
Another parent, reflecting on her teen's experience at BSLC, told us:
"It feels like, 'let's make sure that you're coming from a place of integrity that feels good for you, that you're doing things that you're engaged with' and then like, just watch 'em go!"
We don't want to make it sound like our program is pure magic, and sometimes it takes teens a few weeks--or months--to learn how to navigate their newfound freedom. But that time spent learning the art of self-governance, with support from a compassionate mentor and a fun community, is itself time well-spent.
Here's a short video in which I discuss the value of freedom in education: