~an excerpt from the Medium article Putting the DeFi horse before the DeCentralized Learning cart of k12 DAO Schools

The second winning contractor, Bill, disappeared for a while. He was not seen for months, which made Ed very happy since he had no competition. Ed was making all the money. Instead of buying two buckets to compete with Ed, Bill had written a business plan, created a corporation, found four investors, employed a president to do the work, and returned six months later with a construction crew.

Within a year his team had built a large volume stainless steel pipeline, which connected the village to the lake… (the story continues)

~ This story has been percolating in my mind for a while. I resonate with both characters. On one hand, I am Ed wanting to bring an immediate, though not sustainable, solution to the ills of education. In 2016 the idea was sparked to create my own independent, DeCentralized, Self Directed Learning network of schools. I knew these kinds of learning communities had 5 main areas of opportunity:

Diversity, Funding, Awareness, Documentation, Accessibility

At first, I was Ed; eagerly hosting awareness interest meetings, training people to direct and facilitate my schools. I spun up an app to solve the documentation problem. I looked for who was missing from the discussion and invited them to join us. I mean, I was hustlin’ and slingn’ freedom, authenticity and autonomy like Ed with buckets of water! But I was also just as ineffective as Ed, drippin with frustration and sloshing disappointment everywhere! Kids, Parents and Facilitators were excited about the Possibility I created, but without a real sustainable solution for funding, the dream was unattainable!

While I was hella effective at inspiring people to be free to be themselves in school, I put the cart before the horse, neglecting the main component that makes it work.

Funding.

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