A light breeze blows across the shaded playground Tuesday afternoon at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lawrence.
Kids of all ages zigzag across the grass and over playground equipment, trying to solve a mystery. A baby sleeps on his mother nearby, while other parents chat at tables. Inside, tweens and teens sit in a circle playing Jenga.
This represents a typical busy Tuesday during the school year for families in the alternative education group, Phoenix Collective.
The Phoenix Collective is made up of Lawrence-area families educating their children in a form other than the all-day, traditional brick and mortar school building.
Now in its third year, the group was founded by Rudi Monson and Lydia Leon. Since its launch during the 2022-23 school year, registration has grown from 10 families with 18 children to currently 24 families with 50 children.
A few families recently started educating their children at home; others have done so for years. Some attribute the COVID-19 pandemic for necessitating home or virtual schooling; others have longed to raise their children in an environment like this.
The reasons and the educational curricula vary for each of the 24 unique families in the Phoenix Collective, yet together they’ve found community and support from one another.
Leon, director of the group’s board, has home-schooled her children for eight years. Before that, she led the Lawrence resource center El Centro Hispano. Her family has long participated in get-togethers with other home-schoolers both informally and via numerous arts and education opportunities.
When the pandemic arrived, however, people stopped meeting regularly in groups. Leon’s children craved something more than going to a park and not knowing who might or might not show up.
Leon did, too, so she and Monson went to work on a way to support families pursuing alternative education that might also spark curiosity and provide a sense of belonging for children and adults. The pair envisioned a collaborative environment where educators could share tips and challenges and bounce ideas off one another.
When it was time to name the group, Leon says, the inspirational significance was threefold, starting with the immortal phoenix rising from the ruins of Lawrence, which was attacked by proslavery forces during Quantrill’s raid in 1863. “Rising from the ashes of COVID” and rebuilding community splintered by the pandemic also played a part, Leon says.
The third component was “this idea of really composting the idea of traditional education” and transforming it through regeneration. The phoenix helps distinguish that difference, Leon says.
“Building something new and different that focuses on community, multi-age learning that focuses on children’s interests rather than a prescribed set of skills and topics that all the kids have to learn at the same time,” she says.
The group welcomes those from all backgrounds, genders and ethnicities, Leon says. She describes the collective as nonsecular.
“Meaning that we are not approaching our collective through a lens of one specific faith, one specific religion, or that you have to have a certain perspective to participate in our group,” Leon says. “So we are open to families from all different religious backgrounds.”
Phoenix Collective meets Tuesdays, or exploration days, at space leased from Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lawrence, 1263 North 1100 Road.
Mornings typically focus on a groupwide workshop topic led by an expert. Afternoons include a picnic lunch, circle time, free play and interest-led activities such as book club, science experiments, art projects, theatrical productions and more.
During lunchtime Tuesday, four youth build a tower with Jenga blocks. They pause to talk about the collective and its significance in their lives.
For Dylan Ingham, 15, meeting new people and culinary club rank highest. Photography, art and yearbook also garner rave reviews among the young people, including Leon’s daughter, Maya, age 12.
Logan Carter, 15, looks forward to Thursdays, also known as adventure days, when the group typically takes field and nature trips together. Recently they visited the National Weather Service in Topeka.
Frankie Slough, 12, says the pandemic prompted the transition from traditional school to home-schooling. The change was rough at first, but Phoenix Collective has helped turn it into a better experience.
“I think it was really hard for me because I really missed the social interaction,” Frankie says.
Phoenix Collective hosts weekly social gatherings for middle and high schoolers, and they’re open to all students who participate in alternative education. Participants don’t have to belong to the collective. Leon says opening up the hangouts gives young people “a way for them to build their community.”
Lilly Mason, a Lawrence mother of four, has home-schooled her youngest child, Flora, since kindergarten. The collective provides Flora, 7, a more well-rounded experience and much-needed socialization, Mason says.
“Another thing that’s really, really neat about this is that we have kids of all ages here, so they’re not just working with the other 7-year-olds,” Mason says.
“Right now that group that’s over there, someone has written names on the playground equipment, and they’re all trying to figure out who did it. And they’ve got this whole mystery going, and they’ve got, you know, kids from 5 up to 13 are all working together to try to figure out what the mystery is.”
Written in pencil, the names are barely noticeable on the dark equipment, but the experience provides a teachable moment.
During community circle time, Mason gives participants a gentle reminder they shouldn’t write on walls or others’ belongings and asks if anyone thinks they should remove the names.
“OK, raise your hand if you’re likely to forget that we should not draw on the wall,” Mason says.
No hands come up.
It’s not too late to register for Phoenix Collective’s fall semester. For more information, email Phoenix Collective at hello@phoenixcollectiveks.com. You can also learn more on their website, phoenixcollectiveks.com, on Facebook at this link or on Instagram, @phoenixcollectiveks.
Registration dues are currently $230 a semester and help cover the collective’s costs such as insurance, lease, presenter fees and supplies, Leon says. Each family typically covers its own field trip costs such as admission fees and transportation. Registrants can also participate in regular meetups for educators.
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Tricia Masenthin (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at tmasenthin (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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