By Stephanie Vaccaro, Staff Writer
Don’t like school? You’ve got options.
This slogan adorns one of the Princeton Learning Cooperative’s cards designed to catch the eyes of teenagers by suggesting that they have an alternative to school.
Membership in the cooperative allows participants the freedom to pursue their interests at their own pace with the support of professional educators and volunteers from the community. They meet four days per week at the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, but attendance is not mandatory. On Wednesdays, they’re encouraged to participate in service activities in the community.
Though the cooperative is open to a range of learners, it is primarily hoping to attract self-directed, independent thinkers.
”It’s an option for kids looking for something different,” said Joel Hammon, president of the cooperative.
For Benjamin Esposti, 14, the program could not have been better designed, his mother Linda Esposti said. “Traditional schooling was not inspiring him or motivating him, and the homework was agonizing at times and often felt like busy work,” she said.
”Ben has a keen interest in computers, electronics and robotics, and our local public school system, Hamilton Township public schools, was not fostering this interest,” Ms. Esposti said. Now, as a member of the cooperative, Ben is working on programming and robotics together with Paul Scutt, the executive director and full-time instructor.
The cooperative was born out of friendship formed by Mr. Scutt and Mr. Hammon, both teachers who also worked at Snipes Farm Educational Center, an organic teaching farm in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, Mr. Scutt said. Despite Mr. Hammon’s work as the treasurer and Mr. Scutt’s as the beekeeper, their paths did not cross until one of the farm’s owners suggested they meet after listening to each express his concerns about education.
From there, other like-minded people were brought in and over a number of discussions and discovering a similar program in Massachusetts, North Star, the Princeton Learning Cooperative was born. Requests from several parents anxious to enroll their kids pushed up their original start date from September 2011 to September 2010, Mr. Scutt said.
Mr. Hammon, who will work for the cooperative students on a full-time basis next year, is concerned about the students who are clearly bright but struggle in the environment a traditional classroom provides because they equate their negative school experience with learning. And he wants to help them rediscover their love of learning. Somewhere along the line, he said, that gets lost.
”To me, that’s the need — giving kids an option for learning that is outside of the one-size-fits-all approach that a lot of schools have,” Mr. Hammon said.
”If you take away a lot of those things that they don’t like about school, they can rediscover that natural inclination of learning that I think all people have when they’re born,” Mr. Hammon said. “If kids are able to pursue things that they’re interested in or are passionate about, amazing things can happen that don’t necessarily happen in a more structured environment.”
For some, the option is invaluable.
”Ben is happier than he has ever been, and in the few months since he has been attending it is amazing to see the difference in his demeanor and self confidence,” Ms. Esposti said. “He has also become more responsible and more self-aware. Gone are the stress and anxiety he was experiencing in public school year. Middle school was the worst! PLC has a very safe and comfortable atmosphere where everyone is treated the same and work together in a non-competitive way.”
This pilot year has given the educators a chance to begin testing their ideas in action. The freedom has allowed some members to pursue more hands-on learning. One student will travel to Peru to study Spanish, and another interested in business will travel to Germany to study a new Volkswagen factory, Mr. Scutt said.
Four months in, Mr. Scutt observed that the students require a bit more help directing their energies than he had originally expected.
”The subtitle of our center is the self-directed learning center for teens,” Mr. Hammon said. “We don’t expect kids to show up self-directed, because if you’ve gone through 10 years of school where essentially you’ve been told what you need to do, it’s unreasonable to expect them to come out and say ‘Oh yeah, I know exactly how to organize my time and my life.’ I see us almost as a way to bridge that gap to a self-directed life where we are helping them develop those skills, and hopefully by the time they leave us they’ve gotten there. So, it does take a lot of effort.”
There’s a lot of individual attention built into the model, Mr. Hammon said of the bi-weekly individual meetings the members will have with the staff. At the meetings they can look at the plan they developed, evaluate how it’s going and figure out how to get the necessary resources to meet their goals.
Mr. Hammon volunteers on Saturdays with one of the students, studying American history. Afterwards, they work on music. The student’s interest has led to a project on the history of popular music. They’re rehearsing and recording those songs. The student, he said, has become much more open and relaxed. When you don’t have the pressures and not liking something you’re doing every day really changes people’s outlook, Mr. Hammon said.
Now, he’s proposing all of these other things he’s interested in doing — nutrition and physiology. Schools like MIT and Berkley are taking their introductory classes and putting them online, he said.
The educators chose Princeton because of the sheer number of cultural and educational resources in the community within walking distance for the kids, Mr. Hammon said.
Ideally, Mr. Hammon would love to see every community have such alternatives, but for now they’re working to get this program off the ground, tending to such details as finalizing its nonprofit status. For the 2011-2012 school year, the target is to have approximately 20 members, Mr. Scutt said. Tuition this year is $8,000 and will be $12,000 next year, said Mr. Scutt.
The cooperative is an independent organization. Interested families should check with their local district regarding requirements for home schooling.
For more information about the cooperative, there will be an open house at 2:30 on Saturday, Jan. 29, at the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts building. Also, to learn more visit www.princetonlearningcooperative.org.

