I did promise to post about democratic schools, didn't I?

[conuly]

First things first, there's one in Brooklyn. I feel so proud.

Basically, the idea of a democratic or free school is that students are treated like people. So students and staff have an equal voice in the running of the school, and (usually) students don't have to go to class (the idea is that they can take responsibility for their actions and will learn at their own pace. This seems to work).

Of course, this leads to the worry that your kid won't learn at such a school, they won't be interested in learning whatever it is you want them to learn. It happens. The FAQ for Sudbury has an example where a kid had graduated and really knew very little math, but he wanted to take the SATs. So he went to somebody for help and learned enough to do well on the SATs in six weeks, because he wanted to and could focus on it.

What really attracts me to this sort of school is that you don't treat a kid like a kid until they're 18 and then say "okay, now go out and be an adult and take responsibility for yourself". They're expected to take responsibility the whole time, it's not so sudden, they know how to do it.

I can't keep on talking about this, I have to go to class soon. Summerhill is another famous one, this is the link to their FAQ. Both the last two links have links to essays, go read.

Comments

wow!

[scottrossi.livejournal.com]

these sound amazing! i wish there were more, it would have made school so much easier and better.

[adiva_calandia]

I go to a school like this, up in Alaska. Most of my teachers have participation requirements, so if you don't want to come to class, that's fine, you'll just fail. Some people do that -- hang out in the lounge, do well on the tests, and still fail. 'Course, our principal is a nazi, and has taken to yelling at people for sitting in the lounge during class, regardless of whether they have a class or just have an IS (Indepentdent study).

IS's are quite cool, the chance for us to create out own class. They're only a quarter long, but you can get core credits for it. I have friends who take Geometry as an IS, and that's fine. There's also the option to teach class -- This quarter, I'm co-teaching a class on Theatre Improv, and there's a Comics class. A few years ago there was a History of Punk class. . .

Anyway. Yes. It's a very cool system, although a lot of kids at my school (myself included) don't take advantage of chance to be part of the running of the school. That's sad, but I've come to terms with it. We do tend to do better in college, since we're already used to the responsibility of making oneself go to class, etc.

wow!

[scottrossi.livejournal.com]

these sound amazing! i wish there were more, it would have made school so much easier and better.

[adiva_calandia]

I go to a school like this, up in Alaska. Most of my teachers have participation requirements, so if you don't want to come to class, that's fine, you'll just fail. Some people do that -- hang out in the lounge, do well on the tests, and still fail. 'Course, our principal is a nazi, and has taken to yelling at people for sitting in the lounge during class, regardless of whether they have a class or just have an IS (Indepentdent study).

IS's are quite cool, the chance for us to create out own class. They're only a quarter long, but you can get core credits for it. I have friends who take Geometry as an IS, and that's fine. There's also the option to teach class -- This quarter, I'm co-teaching a class on Theatre Improv, and there's a Comics class. A few years ago there was a History of Punk class. . .

Anyway. Yes. It's a very cool system, although a lot of kids at my school (myself included) don't take advantage of chance to be part of the running of the school. That's sad, but I've come to terms with it. We do tend to do better in college, since we're already used to the responsibility of making oneself go to class, etc.