Free to learn

If you believe that democracy is the best way to conduct a society, you will definitely like this school. I could see in the documentary that The Free School educates children in a way that there is no hierarchy between teacher and students, in other words, the children's opinions worth the same as the teacher's. It is true that children have a lot of potential, which many times is limited by bad teachers or insufficient ways to enhancing this potential. However, although children have this potential, it is not going to come out by itself, but it needs an stimulation. The Free School’s teachers have a way of stimulating, but I think that just letting them play and do what they like is not the right one. I personally think that that form of educating is also kind of limiting in a sense. Stimulation needs to be guided, if not necessarily following a specific curriculum or standardized test, the progress needs to be measured (not necessarily by grades) in certain way, so that the teacher can keep stimulating the child.

Some good points that I found in this school is the experiential learning through different activities such as going to field trips. Another thing is that they give space for art, or for students doing things that appeal them, like the ones who were making a film. I remember one teacher saying: “If I am teaching [this specific subject] and there is one student that wants to paint instead of doing this subject, I’ll let him paint.” I do not agree with this statement because this supports the idea of “I do what I want because I am free.” And in a sense this does not teach a right behavior in a community. Society itself means to have norms to follow in order to leave peacefully. Since a school is a social institution, it needs to teach its students to learn to respect general norms. People will always have trouble if they do what they want. I think a clear example of this is the problem with the director and the actors during the film making.

The council meetings are a good example of dialogue. I think that was a good way to teach students how to solve their problems by giving their ideas and listening to each other. I didn’t see very clear the role of the teacher, and I would like to know more about that. Also I think it would be important to know the background of each student. There were some things such as learning how to put a glass that a child is supposed to learn at home. I would have liked to hear more of what the parents say, what kind of behavior these students show at home. Lastly, since this school has such a long history, are there any significant contributions that their graduates have done in the past?