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Are free schools truly free?

I used to think of free schools as "unschooling schools," which Wendy Priesnitz of Life Learning Magazine refers to as an oxymoron in her post, "The Dark Side of Influence."

Although someone might suppose an unschooling parent in an area that boasts at least two such "free schools" would know more about them, I had thus far felt sufficiently content with unschooling from home, so I hadn't looked elsewhere. That is, until the other day after reading the same Lenz on Learning post, "Unschooling vs. Sudbury schooling," to which Wendy Priesnitz had referred.

Upon reading the glowing review of Sudbury free schools, I initially felt excited by the possibility of my children taking part in a free school community, perhaps a day or two a week. What great people they would meet, right? I went straight to the nearest Sudbury school's website and started reading. However, whereas Wendy Priesnitz already knew about the "dark side" of Sudbury, it came as a surprise to me--Compulsory full-time attendance. Huh? How is that free?

And so I quit reading the school's website. In her post, Wendy elaborated on the coercive "pseudo-democracy" practiced in these schools and the ominous concept of freeing children from parental influence. I've heard enough to know that it doesn't jive with my family's lifestyle and I can now leave behind any ideas I might have had about a free school somehow providing a better unschooling environment than my homemade version.

Besides, if my kids were at school every day playing democracy with other kids, we wouldn't be hanging together at the lake on a beautiful day or taking a spontaneous trip. They would be cut off from our world of surprises and possibilities.
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6 comments:

  1. Hi Sara, I encourage you not to dismiss free schooling so quickly. For one thing, some schools do offer part-time options. More importantly, I recommend learning more before making such judgments. I posted a response to Wendy's post tonight. Thanks for reading, by the way!
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  2. Hi Evan. I don't mean to completely dismiss the schools as an option. Just for now. I know that my kids would not feel okay with compulsory attendance at this point. If they wanted to go at some point, of course I would support that. I don't doubt that a Sudbury school could be great for a kid who wanted to go and was willing to participate according to the agreements. BTW, I didn't get the impression that you were attacking unschooling. Your position sounded supportive of both options.
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  3. Hi Sara (and Evan), I didn't get the impression that Evan's original post was attacking unschooling, just comparing. And I hope that in my blog post I didn't come across as attacking SVS because I've spent 35 years being inclusive and believe those of us backing alternatives need to stick together. I do, however, disagree with the notion that a school can be democratic and have compulsory attendance...especially when it's presented along with a statement that seems to suggest that families are somehow inherently not democratic. This is an important discussion, which I hope helps some unschoolers clarify their own thoughts on the subject. I think it relates to the fact that what many of us call "unschooling" is about much more than education.
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  4. Yes, unschooling is definitely about much more than education in my family. It seems like unschooling families could organize cooperative time together in daily life to accomplish what the free schools attempt to do for kids, but without the attendance rules and exclusion of parents. I'm sure lots of folks have had similar thoughts.
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  5. Unschooling was lonely and I couldn't find a consistent community or private school with enough freedom so I organized Raw Learning, a private school and homeschool resource center. There is no compulsive anything including classes, meal times or attendance. Families are welcomed and encouraged to participate. Check us out! www.rawlearning.org
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  6. Raw Learning sounds much more like what I would want to create or participate in. When my littlest is a bit older, I may very well do something along those lines.
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