Self-Directed Scholar is a youth who owns the responsibility for her studies as if it were a professional commitment, like an office job. Indeed, a contract between the mentor and the scholar is one of the defining features of this Sub-Phase, and will enable the Self-Directed Scholar to enjoy the rights and responsibilities of adulthood while yet in the stable nurture of a home with (a) parent(s) to oversee the necessities of life. It's a simulation for responsibility in the real world.

There are three great obstacles to success in Self-Directed Scholar.

1. The youth is not really prepared by success in the preceding phases. If this is the case, go back to the beginning.

No achievement or timeline will compensate for missing the important lessons of Core and Love of Learning. And the process of recapturing them isn't wasted time. Indeed, it avoids the roadblocks and dysfunction that inevitably await when the recapture is not achieved. Don't avoid this!! It doesn't take nearly as long to renegotiate lost lessons as it did to mess them up, for whatever reason--undiagnosed trauma, poor health, abuse, neglect, family crisis, unknown factors; the results of these impediments to the Core and Love of Learning Phases can be rescripted in a fraction of the time of a normal development. Trust the Process. For more on renegotiating lost lessons, see Leadership Education.

2. The parent(s) do not respect/follow the Scholar Contract.

It is amazing to me the lengths to which we will go to try to get our little ones to apply themselves to their studies with adult-like commitment and zeal, and the contrasting opposition we raise to a youth acting like a scholar. We want them to put down their book and come help with this or that, or go get some fresh air, for heaven's sake, etc. The Scholar Contract is literally less to obligate the student than it is to restrain the parent. We must discipline ourselves as parents/mentors in order facilitate the Scholar Phase.

3. The youth's hard-wired need for peer involvement short-circuits the process.

Without careful attention to the youth's social needs, the forces of nature can be too distracting. Even the most committed Scholar youth can find themselves having to choose between the crucial social development and the critical intellectual preparation of these years. As parents and mentors, we must own the responsibility to see to it that they need never choose between these. Indeed, there is nothing that so powerfully ensures a successful Scholar Phase as appropriate peer support and inspiration. (the Scholar Resource pages include links for peer support and community building)

• Emma's Garden will feature online book forums for youth and other resources for the Self-Directed Scholar.