In this episode, Tennessee-based edupreneur, Sonia LeBlanc, brings us personal insights along with solid statistics about the southern United State’s school classifications and exemptions. She talks about how to Start a School in Nashville, Tennessee, specifically a Sudbury Valley School (a democracy-focused Self-Directed Education center) in Nashville.
We learn how in Maryland, for example, people looking to start their own schools begin by forming their own church, then opening up a school under that church’s legal umbrella. In Tennessee, it’s much more than that. Sonia explains the process and how it differs from other states.
Sonia, a White woman who was born and raised in Dominican Republic, and her husband—a Black man from Puerto Rico (who was raised in St. Croix and in Dominica where his family is from)—are raising two brown girls in the American South, and wants to be part of the change in relationships among people in the world by raising more self-aware, socially just, liberation-minded children. #POCinSDE