Students set the rules at New York City school
November 21, 2006
NEW YORK (AP) — One recent day at the Brooklyn Free School, the “schedule” included the following: filming horror movies, chess, debate and making caves for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Not that the students had to go to any of these sessions. At this school, students don’t get grades, don’t have homework, don’t take tests, and don’t even have to go to class — unless they want to.
“You can do basically anything at any time, and it’s just a lot more fun because sometimes when you need a break at regular schools you can’t get it,” said Sophia Bennett Holmes, 12, an aspiring singer-actress-fashion designer. “But here, if you just need to sit down and read and have time to play, then you can do that.”
“Free schools,” which had their heyday decades ago, operate on the belief that children are naturally curious and learn best when they want to, not when forced to. Today, the approach is getting another look from some parents and students tired of standardized testing, excessive homework, and overly rigid curriculums.
“Every kid here is definitely motivated to learn something, there’s no doubt in my mind,” said Alan Berger, a former public school assistant principal who founded the Brooklyn school in 2004. “Our belief is that if we let them pursue their passions and desires, they’ll be able to get into it deeper. They’ll be able to learn more how to learn.”
The full article can be read here.
Do you agree with this concept? I have a hard time agreeing with this. What do you think? Should young children be allowed to make this kind of decision?
This is absurd. Children need discipline. Not just physically but mentally. Children need guidance. Just like you hold the hand of a a toddler to guide him across the street in front of traffic. He could probably walk himself across the street, but the dangers of seeing and hearing the traffic would abruptly distract him from his intention of getting to the other side. He needs the warmth of your hand…….the guidance of an experienced one to lead him in the right direction. I wish to apply this analogical situation to the mind of a teenager for example. His mind has recently takin him/her into the stage of adulthood. Gaining more confidence in their ability to be independent. But our world shows that their independence cannot exist without nurturing. This is proven in everyday life. The minds of these young adults must be nurtured, they can choose their own path for enlightenment (god knows how many kids change their direction even once in college) however, their minds must be nurtured, guided, amongst the disconcerting possibilities they may choose. Just like that little toddler who couldnt make his way across the street on his own because of his inexperience with the visuals and noises, these teens cannot make their way across the street of life without the experiences of life itself which rests in the hands of adults.
I rest my case
~Jimmie Beatty
I see two problems with these schools:
a] The children do not learn the required skills needed to get a job (in case their singer/fashion-designer plans don’t work work out).
b] The children do not learn about discipline and working. You must introduce these things to children, or else they have to learn it the hard way. And if they can’t deal with learning it the hard way, they might resort to dangerous escapism, like drugs and alcohol.
There are also some positive things to the free-school approach, but overall I think it is a dangerous extreme.
I do not see much of a problem with such schools. Nowadays schools are seen too much as a treadmill for creating the next generation of a workforce. It is as if children are now cars coming off the production line.
Let children be children. They will pursue the things that interest them and discard those that they do not. I believe that this will lead to grown adultswho are independent and perfectly capable of asserting their rights and finding their way in the modern world.
After all 1/8 schools is currently deemed to be failing its students so how much harm can it really do?
Perhaps a compromise?
A school that made it mandatory for children to attend core studies, but puts more emphasis on free thought would be okay, in my opinion. Even a class where number grades are abolished works for me, but to allow children to play all day and do practically whatever they want?
There is a chance that some children will tire of constantly playing and will express genuine interest in school studies after the novelty wears off, but there will also be some who never quite get the point, and will think of it as a free ride through life. These are the children who will be in for a shock when they reach adulthood.
Basically, it’s a sink-or-swim environment that will probably tend to produce either exceptional students or horrible failures. Not much room for middle ground.
I think it could have its benefits, but it is not for all children. Perhaps children with problems such as ADD should be allowed to attend schools such as this. It would be a good alternative, since they would have nothing to lose if they are already failing their classes in the standard school system.
This will raise a group of burger flippers. Real life is not do what you want, when you want. It works on get what you’ve earned. These kids are not being exposed to the real world.
compare them to the extreme opposite, gifted schools where the kids are in college before most kids finish high school.
Compare the outcomes of both groups of children.
Developing minds…
Baby, Early childhood, Adolescent, Young adulthood, Middle adulthood, Old age…all these steps (periods) of a person’s psychological and physical development are accompanied by unique challenges, as well as deficiencies. Asking children or adolescents to educate themselves is brutal, negligent, and just downright silly, as the young students have yet to experience enough of life during the later periods to fairly gauge, recommend, as well as prescribe what is necessary. The best that they can manage is to blindly copy some other schools’ curriculum without weighing the merits and pray for the best.
i wonder what happens when they find out what they really do want to do with their lives and find out that they are 4-5 years behind their peers because these peers have been “forced” to study math (for example) when they would rather play with transformers and nintendo.
if school is preparation for life and if that same school teaches them “do what you want when you want”… i dont know, but my life sure isnt like that…
Students need to experience a wide range of interesting activities to discover their creative talents.
Creative thinking, or talent development, ought not to be the exclusive province of of special programmes; nor can it be reduced to a curricular ‘frill’ if there is time; or restricted to ‘enrichment’ activities for those who complete their ‘normal’ classwork.
Creativity is a capacity of every learner that ought to be recognised, valued and extended across all learning stages.
All students have the right to have their interests and talents affirmed and nurtured as an important aspect of their learning identity. Every teacher ought to see and nurture ‘genius’ in every learner. Creative thinking where students engage in, ‘what if’ and ‘I wonder what will happen next’, are important dispositions for all learners to develop – or rather not to lose when they enter school!
For this to happen certain misconceptions need to be redefined. Creativity is just not about encouraging free spirits – true creativity requires rigor, courage, personal effort and a sense of personal quality. Creative results do often come easily to learners but more often requires complex reasoning processes , where learners compare, deduce, abstract, make decisions , investigate, problem solve and continually change their minds. Most creative individual have worked hard to develop what now might seem to be an obvious solution.
Most of us see creativity as an individual achievement but other cultures pursue creativity for the good of the group through dance, song, and shared craft activities This is as true in the world of science where it is common, almost vital, for scientists to share their knowledge with each other.This applies to all other human endeavours and is seen at its best in times of natural disasters when people demonstrate talents they never realized they had.
To develop student creativity demands that schools develop opportunities for students to make connections across learning areas. When students research and express their ideas around an important felt concern many aspects of their work will involve their creativity and in the process uncover students talents and gifts.
Gifted-ness has progressed from being a single measurable trait to one that relies on such things as: interest, motivation, persistence, leadership, self confidence, and self esteem.
Everybody has a range of gifts to develop. Education can enhance or limit each student potential; being creative can be taught
Stunning creative thought or expression does not simply appear. Rather it is the product of years of learning, preparation and , if all students are to be creative, it takes encouragement, the provision of a conducive learning environment and sensitive teaching.
History is replete with examples of creative people who were not highly regarded by their teachers who have never the less made monumental contributions to our society. In a creative era we can longer afford to risk losing the creative energy of those who are not able to see beyond the opinions given to them by their school experience.
To be a life long learner is to be creative – to continually ask ‘I wonder why’, and ,’what if’.
To develop talents of all students is the number one task of teachers in a creative age.
http://leading-learning.blogspot.com/
The idea that children can learn anything on their own, simply by being creative, or by following their passions, is nothing but a dangerous and scary romantic illusion. I’ll make sure my own daugghter (14 months old) gets some guidance in life, and I’ll start by teaching her not to be over-confident nor presomptuous about her own “passions”, likes or dislikes, opinions, etc. By the way, happy birthday Leeam, and thanks to Susan Polgar for this wonderful blog.
I would really like to see how it works in practice before making too harsh of a judgement. Children do need structure, discipline and guidance and I’m not sure this can provide enough of this. But I doubt that this is a case where the kids just lay around and play video games all day.
However, I dislike the current trends in public education. It is unfortunate that some think that public education’s main purpose is to churn out happy little workers who fit a cookie cutter skillset needed by industry. Standardized testing is not a cure for the ills of public education. We are not encouraging creativity and free-thinking enough in our education system.
Though this school may go to an extreme I cannot condemn it without more information. Perhaps the solution is somewhere in the middle between rigidity & standardization and a “do whatever you want, whenever you want” attitude.
ME! ME! ME!
It sounds like a recipe for churning out spoiled brats and self-centered sociopaths. The kids are taught to have great faith in their present cravings but nothing beyond themselves — a strong foundation for cultivation of misery.
While I have reservations about this, I think it’s important to keep an open mind.
I would like to see some real studies on the efficacy of this type of education before consigning those who go thru it as doomed to be bratty, self-centered sociopath’s.
I would suspect that a traditional education turns out just as many (percentage wise) mal-adjusted people as the one presented here.
susan,
the famous english mathematician/philosopher bertrand russell wrote about this method more than 60 years ago. he said that it works–and is indeed beneficial– provided that you have a lot of resources. he mentions that since public schools do not have the resources necessary to make this work, they are better off with the traditional methods. i will try to research for you the book in which he wrote about it.
william
I would send my child to this school – if only to avoid the children of some of the yahoos posting comments here.
It sounds terrible.Do you know the film/book “The Lord of the flies”?.Where is the marines telephone number?.
I am so sick of hearing how our schools are failing because the press keeps quoting a bunch of statistics showing how other countries score so much better on standardized tests than American kids do. First of all, the test is skewed because in other nations, not only are underperforming and poor children not encouraged to be in school, they are actually encouraged not to go. So they don’t even take the tests where as all of American children, no matter how smart or not, are required to go to school be tested. If the American education system is so bad, maybe someone can explain to me how it is that 50% of all of the Pulitzers and Nobel prizes given out in the last two decades have gone to Americans, why 85% of all patents for new inventions are to Americans, why American has the largest, richest economy in the world and last I checked we were still the only ones to put a man on the moon and bring him back? Better yet, maybe somebody can explain why it is that half the people of the world are trying to come to America for better opportunities for them and their children? I don’t see too many Americas heading oversees to get their kids a better education. Susan Polgar is a pretty smart individual. Maybe all of you who think that the American education system is so bad can ask her why she is raising her kids in American rather than in Hungary…enough said.
Dinosaurs were still roaming the earth when I was in public school, yet I can easily recall the names of a few very special teachers, whose influence persists to this day (as a chess teacher, I strove to emulate them).
They not only inspired and motivated, while making each class fun, but they challenged me and my classmates to “think outside the box,” while we “stayed inside the lines” (as was seemingly required by the “system”?). Their love for us was evident (we knew there was no place they’d rather be), and their love for the subjects they taught was infectious. Eagerly awaiting their classes, we performed to a level we wouldn’t have believed was possible, as our interest in a diversity of subjects was fostered—even math, which we’d been warned was dull and boring, came alive thanks to their efforts (I’ve come to conclude there are no boring subjects, only boring people, so they’d be bored in any event!).
So, as I wonder, is the public school system and its curriculum flawed (giving rise to alternatives such as these “free schools”), or is it that not everyone who teaches is truly “called” to this profession (or both, perhaps)?
Susan, given your numerous accomplishments (the number of languages you speak, your chess achievements, your social skills, etc.), I’m eager to learn about your education, since you were home schooled. How was your day structured, for example?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Leeam!!! Many, many returns of your very special day!
That concept worked great. Now WalMart doesnt need to look hard to hire greeters.
Addendum: I didn’t question whether the kids themselves might be part of the problem, since they’re a virtual tabula rasa, which clean slate is only waiting to be written upon, as I’ve found was the case with my numerous students. I never had even one child (in any of my classes over the years) who wasn’t a sponge as far as learning was concerned; also, not a one resisted being inspired/motivated (or was I extremely fortunate in this regard?).
Arguably, they could indeed be a part of the problem, as could be their parents, as well, since it’s they who hold sway over their kids’ formative years (a lot of damage can be done before school begins).
Duh! Perhaps I ought to have answered the questions you posed, Susan (which I did only circuituously). I think this concept resolves nothing (it’s as severe a solution as would be cutting one’s head off to rid oneself of a pimple on the nose). What’s more, would we let our children dictate their bedtimes (midnight?) or decide what the family will have for supper each night (jelly beans might win out over broccoli!)? There must be a more efficacious solution.
I think it works… SOMETIMES. First you have to find the students that really need that kind of system. Not all the kids have the same needs and of course it would be impossible to put everyone in just one kind of school.
Most of my life, since I was a kid, I learnt almost every subject before I went to the respective lesson: My family gave me a lot of encouragement to learn and be curious and they themselves were always giving me the example. School was kind of boring but I had very good notes in most of the subjects. I’ve met some examples of people that could have been in a school like those. But I see them as an alternative, I would disagree to have only that kind of school.
This was tried in Montgomery County, MD in the late 1960’s and failed. Even now, 1 former student is still bitter that he didn’t have traditional teaching. He just wasn’t disciplined to learn by himself. I think it is great for a minority of self motivated students, but most need the structure and guidance.
Complete bullshit !
No wonder America is ruled by an uneducated ruffian …
My own education was much like this. I didn’t go to an institution, but was, what is called, unschooled by my parents. I loved it. I did go to public school until forth grade, but it was torment, and I’ve never once regretted the decision my parents and I made to unschool instead. I choose my own subjects to study and when to study them. When it came time to apply for college I never had any trouble. I’m now in my second year of college, receiving excellent grades, and loving it. The freedom of my education prepaired me for the responsibilities I now face as an adult. I agree that this type of education is not for everyone, but no one child is like another. I have good friends who were unschooled, homeschooled, and public schooled, each choosing with their parents what was best for them, and they are all now happy, successful, and intelligent young adults.
On November 24th, Dr. Phil addressed “non-schooling” (home schooling without structure, as in: the “world” is the “classroom”), home schooling, and also public schooling. Though I missed the first fifteen minutes (I was cleaning eaves troughs and siding; winter’s coming), I did hear him say that children shouldn’t be making such decisions for themselves, since “their brains aren’t fully developed yet.” He said they need “guidance and leadership.”
It was pretty clear that, despite that the public school system wasn’t perfect, he thought it was preferable to the other alternatives (many parents gave testimonies to the contrary, but he was buying).
Did anyone else see this program, since I didn’t hear him speak about “free schools,” and I was wondering if I simply missed this part of the program.
I want chess lessons for intermediate