Radicalschooling’s Weblog

“To trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves…and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted.” (John Holt)

After having reflected upon what I perceive to be the strengths and challenges of the Summerhill/Free School model of education, I must admit that I still find it appealing… I really do hope such a school can one day be founded in Montreal. I know people are already working towards this, as evidenced by an alternative education workshop I attended a couple of years ago. I think it’s paramount that parents and children have diverse educational choices! I’m still not sure if I would send my own children to a Free School, but I don’t think I would. At least not until I see one ‘in action’.

As for the issue of whether school and education is seen as synonymous, I decided to ask a third-grader what he would think of not attending school anymore, but staying home and having the freedom to do whatever he wanted all day, every day. He looked at me perplexed and said: “Well, it’s a weird question and a hard question, too. I think it would be half good and half bad. Good because I would do a lot of fun things, like play outside, play sports, watch cartoons… but bad because I wouldn’t learn anything…”

His response confirmed “common knowledge” I had been thinking about throughout the research of this project. Schools teach us useful things that aren’t fun. This constitutes “learning”. Freedom to engage in fun activities of our choice, don’t teach us anything. Our schools seem to have convinced us of this sad fact…

“Next to the right to life itself, the most fundamental of all human rights is the right to control our own minds and thoughts. That means, the right to decide for ourselves how we will explore the world around us, think about our own and other persons’ experiences, and find and make the meaning of our own lives. Whoever takes that right away from us, as the educators do, attacks the very center of our being and does us a most profound and lasting injury. He tells us, in effect, that we cannot be trusted even to think, that for all our lives we must depend on others to tell us the meaning of our world and our lives, and that any meaning we may make for ourselves, out of our own experience, has no value.” (John Holt)

Here are the questions I devised, intended for students of the Albany Free School. Unfortunately, I received no responses back…

Questions for the Free School Students

1) How old are you? How long have you been attending the Free School?

2) Have you ever attended a “regular” public school? If so, what was it like for you?

3) What is a typical school-day like for you at the Free School (e.g. what do you do, what time does school begin/end, etc.). How is your school-day different than that of other New York students?

4) What do you like spending your time doing most? What do you like doing least? Have you and the rest of the students embarked on any exciting projects? Please describe them!

5) What kinds of “rules” are there at the Free School? What do you think of these?

6) I live in Montreal, where there are no schools like the Free School. If you could convince us to start one, what would you tell us about it? What should we know?

7) If you could be critical about your school, what would you critique?

8 ) What five adjectives would you choose to describe your school?

9) What do you discuss during democratic meetings? What discussion topics are most popular?

Thank you so much for helping me with my project!

(Here is the the only response I received from a Grade 7-8 Albany Free School Teacher)

Questions for Albany Free School Teachers

1) How long have you been teaching at The Albany Free School? What is your background (in terms of education and employment)?

I have been teaching at The Free School for 8 years. I have a bachelors degree in English with a minor in education. In addition to teaching at the school I have also worked as a journalist, a cook and sous chef and at The New York State Museum as an assisitant director of their summer camp program.

2) How would you describe your experience working at The Albany Free School? I has been an amazing experience of discovering the many ways that children learn and also discovering a lot about myself. I have grown a lot as a person, learned new skills and been challenged in many ways.

3) In his farewell letter, Chris Mercogliano notes that The Albany Free School’s “approach to education and to life is so far out on the edge”. Do you agree? Why? What is the school’s philosophy/curriculum? In comparison to the mainstream culture, yes I would agree that we are “…out on the edge”, but when we look at what we do in the context of how children naturally learn and interact with each other and the world around us I would say no.

4) Does the school get any sort of public funding? Do parents pay tuition fees? If so, how much? The only public funding we receive is city funds for textbooks and computer software and we participate in the federal food program to ensure that children of lower income families receive free lunches. Parents pay tuition on a sliding scale based on their family income and no one is turned away for financial reasons.

5) In the eyes of the New York Ministry of Education, how is The Albany Free School regarded? We are pretty much ignored as an anomaly and not much attention is paid to us, I believe that would change if free schools were more prevalent and posed a threat to public school enrolments.

6) Do the students take any state tests? Please describe the school’s evaluation procedures. No state tests are administered. Evaluation is done on a very individualized basis and we have a narrative report that we prepare for each student which is given to parents at mid year and is followed up with a mandatory parent-teacher conference.

7) When students graduate, what can they do? What have past graduates done? Most go on to the public high school, and now some choose to go on to our sister school the Harriet Tubman Democratic High School.

What kinds of benefits are there to children attending The Albany Free School, rather than being homeschooled? The largest benefit I can see is that they are in an highly social environment and they learn how to work well together within diverse multi-aged groups.

9) Have any parents enrolled their children at The Albany Free School and then withdrawn them? What were their reasons in doing so? Yes that happens at least once or twice each year, the main reason is that they want more structure for their child, and they want more academic focus.

10) What are the biggest challenges that you encounter on a day-to-day basis? What are the most memorable moments like for you?

The biggest challenge is to not become too attached to one way of viewing a situation. I feel that we have to be very self-directed as teachers and especially tuned into each child’s particular needs, as we do not work with kids from a preset curriculum.

Thank you so much for your support and assistance!

It is very challenging to critique a school without having visited and witnessed first-hand how it is being run. Having stated this, there are some aspects of the Free School model that I feel have not “convinced” me…

To begin with, there is the obvious concern: what if students do nothing? Although this is a very probable outcome of freedom, proponents of the school claim that boredom, anger, and loitering are all states of being (or consequences) that must be lived out by the child to the fullest. According to them, even such feelings are valuable learning experiences! However, I am not ready to accept that my child may spend the entirety of his/her days doing ‘nothing’.

After giving this school model a lot of thought, I have concluded that my biggest problem with it is that it seems difficult for the children to continue on to higher education. It is not impossible, and surely many have gone on, but taking exams is optional, and most children may prefer not to (I think I would have declined such an offer, had I been ever given the choice!). Although I do recognize that university is not for everyone, it would be a shame to have some students miss out on an educational experience that would open many doors, only due to the fact that they were not accustomed to taking exams, or studying for them!

Finally, I think a major disadvantage in the freedom found in such schools is that it (unfortunately) does not reflect the reality in which we live. Regardless of family or employment, there are certain things in life that leave us no choice; we must adjust to the demands of a working environment, for example. Although I’ve previously mentioned positive traits that could be fostered in such a school, I think certain negative characteristics can also be picked up, namely a lack of responsibility. The best example of this was witnessed first-hand by myself.

Over a month ago, I sent the Free School a questionnaire I had devised for students and staff. I did not specify when I would need it back, only asked them to let me know if they could commit to having some people fill it out for my project. I received the following response:

Hi Helen,
Sorry I’ve been slow checking my email, but i checked out the questions, and i will start circulating them to other staff and see which students want to answer. Is there a time frame that you would like us to have in mind for when you need the responses? If so let us know, and we’ll be in touch.

I answered that ASAP would be best, but within a couple of weeks would be fine. When I heard nothing in two weeks, I sent this e-mail:

I hope all is well… I’m just wondering if you know when the responses will be ready. It would be really great if I could receive them by Monday, but I understand if it may take another couple of days. Would it be alright if you let me know? Thanks so much! I am really looking forward to reading them!
Helen

I received this e-mail back:

I think we will need till the end of the week, it that okay?

I assured him that this would be fine, but that I would really need the responses by end of week!

When I heard nothing five days later (yesterday), I sent this e-mail:

How are you? Just wanting to check that everything is alright with the questionnaires… I don’t want to put any pressure on you guys, but I will need them back within the next couple of days…

I received this response:

Hi Helen,
I have to be honest, we have been extremely busy the past week or two, we have a benefit show for the school we are organizing, as well as spring outings and activities happening practically everyday. I will do my best to send them via email tomorrow, and i apologize for the delay.

When I heard nothing (again!), I sent this e-mail:

I completely understand how busy you must all be! Unfortunately, my project is due on Friday evening, so I really do need to receive the responses before then! I do hope this can be done, as I’ve included a special section for it, and I am really counting on it!
Thanks again,
Helen

At 6:50pm on Friday, I received this e-mail with one attached set of responses:

Hi Helen,
Here are my responses, i apologize for the delay and the lack of response from others, hope this will help you with the project.

My purpose in transcribing this e-mail correspondence is to emphasize the complete frustration on my part! In working with individuals who prefer to freely do things their way, I have no trust or faith in them delivering what they promised me, even though I gave them ample time to do it in! Unfortunately, I work with deadlines… I fear that the Free School model may be making students unreliable and unaccountable, for anything and to anyone!

Researching the Summerhill School Model and subsequently, the Free School Model has been quite a learning experience for me. I have been awed at several brilliant strands of thought behind the radical schooling philosophy. My desire to pursue the study of this model has ultimately been inspired by my appreciation for elements found within it.

I find the more I read about the model, the more I agree with “things” that seem wrong with our “regular” schools. Often, children really are treated as numbers and given very little choice in matters related to what they want to learn. We seem to have convinced ourselves that children thrive on structure (and deep down, I still believe this), but I often wonder whether we think that way because it is more convenient for us to think so, as parents, teachers, and policy-makers! Perhaps children really do thrive going with their own rhythm and abiding by their own freedom to decide, be, and do…

Although we’re getting better about limiting the amount of children’s homework, we still do give it, thus disabling them from spending their “free” time outside of school in matters they want to pursue. I do find that children seem reluctant to engage in a variety of activities; they so often seem drained after school that all they want to do is lounge around… If students loved going to school because it meant they were free to initiate their own activities, perhaps they would continue their pursuit of discovery and learning opportunities outside of school-time.

When I first read about how there are no school-bells in Free Schools, I really liked that. It reminded me of a private school I taught at, where they also chose not to have bells. After all, students are children, not cows!

The democratic aspect of the school meetings is brilliant! We have often emphasized the importance of giving students choice in order to empower them, but how much more just is their world when they are given the liberty to discuss everything openly and have their voice weigh in as much as their teachers? I think the students in such a school would feel more empowered to be agents of change in their schools and communities, than students do in regular schools. I also think students learn more from each other in a collaborative setting that does not separate students by age, like the Free School model.

Finally, I believe the most positive aspect of the Free School Model is that children do get hooked on their particular interests and talents because the learning that takes place really is meaningful to them. If we are to believe that one of the major purposes in education is to elicit passion for learning (which I believe is fundamental!), then this model serves such an idea well! Furthermore, it seems to me that as educators, we harp on and on about the value in play… However, after kindergarten, very few teachers allow for the necessary time, materials, and space for their students to play. If play is defined as an open-ended, self-initiated activity with no particular goal, then it is the Free School model that encapsulates it best.

There is a recent statistic that gets tossed around among educators: the best teachers quit following their first five years of teaching. I have often wondered why this is. I’m now convinced it’s related to an aspect of liberty found in the Free School model. Good teachers dream of facilitating student’s experiences in learning. Instead, the reality is that they are unable to make school the enjoyable and interesting place it ought to be, resulting in thousands of children detesting school. Many teachers have lost the ability to think laterally and instead, think in the top-down fashion their schools are being run like, mimicking corporations…

Teacher of 25 years in New York City, John Taylor Gatto was nominated for New York City Teacher of the Year Award in 1990. Upon accepting it, he said the following speech, entitled “Why Schools Don’t Educate”:

http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/john_gatto.html

I think he raises some very important points about the nature of our school system. Unfortunately, school and education have come to be known as synonymous, when in reality, true education does not necessarily take place in schools at all… Interestingly, Gatto resigned from teaching in regular schools and became a teacher at The Albany Free School.

Gatto is author of several books and articles. More of his articles can be found here:

http://www.cantrip.org/againstschool.html (How Public Education Cripples our Kids, and Why)

http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html (The Six Lesson Schoolteacher)

http://www.dvschool.org/psngatto.htm (The Public School Nightmare: Why fix a system designed to destroy individual thought?)

Enjoy the reads and do comment if something strikes you! Look forward to reading your thoughts!