.flux wrote:Looks like a really exciting venture, best of luck with it. My only negative comment, and this applies to all non-state funded schools, is how much private education costs! I don't have kids and went to an almost free (as in low school fees) state school myself so I had no idea!
Yeah...
That is my biggest problem too.
We want to make sure that the school is available to all income levels, races, classes, etc. We want this school to not just be for rich folks (like a local *freeschool*).
We wanted to go the public route, but then we would be totally fettered by state federal and local rules and an idea of the purpose of education that i believe harms teachers/workers, communities, and students.
We then considered a Charter... but the same issues arose, and charters have been siphoning off money to public schools.
We did not want to go private due to the accessibility, and now are looking at ways to make payment without funding, akin to Anarchist FreeSkools. As it stands, we would charge (at the highest end) only $6,600 a year for a really rich family. We will have a sliding scale until almost zero depending on need. Right now, the local Rudolf Steiner School (an *alternative* private school) runs about $12/yr per student, with no possibility fo scholarship. Childcare for a child under 5yo runs about $8000/yr at the cheapest places for 9a-5p M-F.
The school would be cheaper than a lot of that. All decisions, including staffing and curriculum, will be made by a body of students and community participants.
I am excited.
JP wrote:that is a challenge and a half!
A while back i listened to a radio programme about free schools in Israel, how they took the democracy and empowerment of the children to a pretty radical level, as in the children were designing their own curriculum and so on. But they are doing well and similar schools have been set up elsewhere in the country.
good luck!
Yep. It sounds something like those schools.
xJimx wrote:Hey Rodolfo this looks excellent, good luck; if my family ever relocates to Michigan then I'll get in touch
I can definitely see the appeal of such schools. My eldest daughter is at a mainstream state school now & although overall it's a great place there are already some aspects of her education that bother me slightly (although I used to be a teacher so it shouldn't surprise me) in terms of things she's been told & repeated at home - mainly stuff about religion.
Unlike many state schools in the UK my daughter's school is not a 'church school' (state funded but formally linked to a local church parish, vicar/priest on the board of governors etc), however there is a definite Christian undertone that I don't much like.
You are always welcome!
This school could be a modern, anti-racist, anti-sexist, etc. redoing of Summerhill in England.
I love the idea of a school funded by the community (like state schools are now), but cannot stand the idea that it is businesses and parents that get to decide what the students need to learn and how to behave and how state schools have explicit ties to violence and forced socialization.
But I believe in the idea that a community should pay, as a school benefits the community, and school *should* not be way to socially track people, but a way to make connections and learn how to interact and practice ethics and democracy: not as a pipeline to classism.
SpugFab wrote:Man I bet a bully at this school could totally clean up
The kids are learning self-defense through ritual cage-matches.
But seriously... the children will have a lot of meaningful interactions with adults (about 33% more than in traditional schools), some it due to the high adult to child ratio (15 to 20 students the first year, for two full time staff, and at least one adult volunteer a day). But from what I have seen, and what my wife research shows... is that such open democratic schools allow children to be much less bullied. The non-coercive consensus meetings allow for no tyranny of the majority, and force reconciliation and are designed with the rights of the most marginalized. There is much more working through issues as a community.
I have seen even the inkling of bullying nipped in the bud by groups of students acting intentionally, instead of allowing bullying to fester due to the lack of real meaningful decision-making power of the students. Kids in state schools behave as if bullying is none of their business if they are not victims. In free schools, we have seen all kids take ownership of their culture and come up with solutions. Ultimately, kids figure out how to solve bullying instead of adults coming up with one-size fits all solutions.
"The worker has the right to leave his boss, but can she do it? And if she does quit him, is it in order to lead a free life; where she will have no master but herself? No, she leaves to sell herself to another employer. She's driven by the same hunger. Thus the worker's liberty is only a theoretical freedom, lacking any means of realization; an utter falsehood."
-Bakunin
