THE WHO

Hi, I’m Stephen Caddick.

 

Over the last 13 years, I have been a youth worker, then teacher and now a correctional officer. I have witnessed first-hand, the system we put our youth through, where they go when it isn’t working and where they can end up when it all falls apart. I have seen many things in these roles, the good, the bad and the ugly. I have seen gun athletes and academics achieve amazing things; I have seen kids trying their best and still not meeting “the standard” and thinking themselves failures; I have seen children forgotten, left to comfort themselves in a corner.

 

In my role as a Corrections Officer, I am afforded a lot of time to think and reflect. Over the last 3 years most of that time has been thinking on the education system. The catalyst came when it was time to choose a school for my son. Nothing seemed right, until I bumped into an acquaintance. He put me on a path of my exploration into homeschooling and natural learning.

 

My research led me to many conversations with parents, students and homeschoolers. I visited numerous alternative educations facilities in Australia and the US. I consumed dozens of books and spent countless hours, debating, reflecting and ideation. In that time, an idea has evolved, cultivated and nurtured into what I believe is a way to form an ever-evolving fluid system of education. A free path.

 

In short, Free Path is a way to let our children learn without restrictions to their freedom and creativity. It is a way to give

parents educational autonomy, a way to retain the joy of learning, to create an education that fits your child, not the

other way around. Where their natural curiosity is nurtured.

 

Imagine a world where your child wakes up excited to learn.

Let’s walk that path together.

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