Tag: free school

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The Freedom Academy (Part 8)

How is the Freedom Academy different from homeschooling and unschooling?

Let’s discuss homeschooling and unschooling separately. First is homeschooling. It’s like school but you do it at home. There is usually still a curriculum which one gets from a homeschooling provider that may or may not be accredited by DepEd. One or both parents act as the teacher, helping the child along with their lessons which they basically go through at their own pace. The parent(s) may also opt to throw in additional lessons not in the standard curriculum but which they think will be interesting, helpful or meaningful for their child (e.g. painting, dancing, stargazing, cooking, carpentry, etc.).

Many homeschooling parents have also formed support groups to help each other and they sometimes plan activities where their kids can interact, play and learn together.

The difference between Freedom Academy (FA) and homeschooling is mainly the absence of a curriculum. We do not pretend to know what is best for your child. We do not force any curriculum on them. Rather, we trust that your child will naturally pursue what is interesting for them, will learn in their own style and in their own pace and in their own way. We provide the necessary support and resources for them to maximize their pursuit of their interests. But the rest is up to them. They are free to decide how they want to spend their entire time at FA. They can play, read, talk to friends, build things, sit and reflect, and even do academic stuff like study math if that is their desire. 

Unschooling is more unstructured and free — it is as the name itself suggests — the absence of school or the removal of school. Unlike homeschooling, there is no fixed curriculum. In practice, parents would usually try to fill in the child’s schedule with what they think is important for them to learn, not necessarily academic in nature, or if the parents are more liberal, they will just allow the child to do what they want the entire day. Some unschooling parents also join homeschooling support groups and activities.

Unschooling is closer to the FA philosophy and belief that every child has a natural capacity for learning, self-development and self-determination. The difference is that FA provides a community for the child that is run by a democratic process. The idea that their voice matters, that their opinions can be heard, and that their vote counts is a powerful experience that will enhance their sense of social responsibility and morality. 

Being in FA also allows the child to develop away from the constant supervision of parents, which is important in letting them exercise independence and building their own social and interpersonal skills in order to thrive in the community. 

These are important skills that they will carry all the way to adulthood.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.

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The Freedom Academy (Part 7)

Can kids handle this kind of freedom? Won’t there be chaos?

This idea comes from a misunderstanding of freedom as being able to do whatever you want. Freedom is not just that, however, because just doing whatever you want in a social context, would lead to conditions where you would no longer be free. 

For example, a boy who thinks he can just punch anyone in the face would sooner or later face a bigger or stronger boy (or even girl) who would also harass him, thus limiting his freedom. A girl who thinks she can just take someone else’s property would also find that others would do the same to her.

In order for a community to survive and live together harmoniously, there have to be agreements on how people ought to behave towards each other. With freedom comes a certain responsibility to honor those agreements and respect the rights of others, as long as one still wants to be a part of the community.

In our current society, these agreements are what we have made into our laws. As long as we adhere to those laws, we are pretty much free to do what we want, to pursue our dreams, to do business, arts, to practice a profession, and so on. But the moment we break those laws, there will be consequences that limit our freedom to some degree. A serious crime would lead to a graver consequence like imprisonment which is a severe limitation of freedom.

Now, how does all this apply to the Freedom Academy?

The Freedom Academy is first and foremost, a community — it is composed of kids, teens and adults sharing a common space for a few hours each day, and the foundation for behavior in that community is democracy — the idea that each individual has a certain amount of power over how the community is run and governed.

There are rules in this community, just like in any democratic society, but the difference between the rules here and the rules in any other school is that here, anyone in the community can propose to change any rule, or add a rule, or delete a rule and if that proposal gets a majority vote, then it becomes an official rule. In a traditional school, adults make and enforce the rules. Kids have no choice but to follow.

Another key difference is that here, it is not just adults enforcing the rule, but the kids themselves will form a committee to investigate and decide on consequences when the rules are broken.

In this context, kids will very quickly understand that if they want to continue staying in this community and enjoying their freedom, they must also learn to take responsibility for their actions and make sure to respect the rights of others. Otherwise, they may be asked to leave the community. And then where will they go? Back to school? I think not.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.

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The Freedom Academy (Part 6)

If there are no tests, homework or grades, how do we know if the kids are learning anything?

Let me answer this with a story.

Back when I was teaching at a Chinese high school, I had a student who had very high grades in her Chinese class. There was a poster on the bulletin board in the hallway and it was written in Chinese. So I called over this student and asked her to tell me what it was saying. She just smiled and said, “I don’t know, sir. I can’t read that.”

I said, “Why not? You have the highest marks in Chinese class.”

She replied, “Oh we just memorize that stuff. We don’t really understand it.”

This simply illustrates that even with test and grades, we still have no clue if our kids are really learning anything, or if they are able to apply what they have learned in useful and practical ways.

Forcing kids to do homework and take tests and get high grades is not a reflection of learning but a reflection of our need to validate their learning according to our standards. I am not saying though, that this is without merit. Certainly this type of instruction is useful in higher education or professional education when a person has decided to pursue a certain field.

I wouldn’t, for example, willingly place myself under the care of a medical professional who did not pass certain standards of medical practice, who would call themselves “doctors” merely on their own say-so, and without really earning that degree.

However, to place certain standards of children who did not willingly agree to be judged under those criteria, and then to grade and classify them as having passed or failed those standards, is a wrong way to measure learning.

Learning is the learner’s business, not the teacher’s. True learning happens when children choose to engage in areas and activities that interest them, and when they are given as much time as they want to perform and master them. 

And you don’t really need grades to know if they have learned anything. In real life, we don’t go around asking to see people’s grades to see if they know anything. We talk to them, we observe their attitudes, and we look at their work output.

That will be pretty much how it works at the Freedom Academy.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.

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The Freedom Academy (Part 3)

The educational model and philosophy of The Freedom Academy draws heavily from multiple sources of democratic and self-directed education. We draw inspiration from long-standing and well established institutions such as Summerhill School in the UK (founded 1921) and Sudbury Valley School in the USA (founded 1968), to more recent models such as the North Star Self-Directed Learning Centers (founded 1996) and Agile Learning Centers (founded 2012).

These alternative methods were born mainly out of frustration and disillusionment with the current traditional education system, which has remained essentially unchanged for hundreds of years. John Taylor Gatto, once a multi-awarded public school teacher in New York City (awarded Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990 and 1991, as well as New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991), turned his back on the system and became one of its harshest critics when he saw the extensive damage it was capable of causing.

He authored several books such as Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992), The Underground HIstory of American Education (2001), and Weapons of Mass Instruction (2008) describing in detail the way schools are used primarily for social control and for creating a docile and compliant workforce.

Sir Ken Robinson, a recognized expert on creativity and education, authored the book Creative Schools (2015), where he presents some of the most innovative learning systems in the modern world. The common thread I discovered running through all of them is that one way or another, they broke the mold of traditional schooling. They encouraged students to explore and develop their own interests. They respected the individual’s learning process and methods and allowed each to take as much time as they wanted, or to utilize whatever methods suited them best.

Daniel Greenberg, founder of the Sudbury Valley School, authored Turning Learning Right Side Up (2008, with Russell Ackoff), and he asserts, “No matter how ‘good’ the teaching or the opportunites to learn, an unmotivated student learns nothing.” What schools have been trying to do is to force this motivation on students, to enforce a social agenda by threats or enticement — e.g. “if you don’t go to school, you’ll become a bum,” or “if you want success and to earn a lot of money, you need to finish school,” and so on.

However, Greenberg argues that “the key role of an educational system…is to provide a setting in which the various internal motivations each child possesses can flourish into active pursuits. It is not the role of adults to attempt to replace the motivations already present in children with others that the adults wish the children had.” And this is the kind of students his school has been producing (and is still producing) for over 50 years.

It is upon this foundation that the Freedom Academy stands — to provide a venue for nurturing each child’s interest and motivations, where they can express themselves freely and not be judged, in a space that is open, supportive, energetic and caring.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.

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The Freedom Academy (Part 2)

There is an internet meme going around which says, “Imagine if schools actually helped kids identify their strengths by exploring their talents from a young age and growing their skills over the 12 years, instead of letting them all follow the same routine and leaving them confused in life after graduation.”

The Freedom Academy is a Self-Directed Learning Community built on the idea that people (from childhood and all the way until they die) are naturally curious about the world around them and are always working at increasing their knowledge and understanding of it. Given the freedom, time, opportunity and resources to pursue their interests, they can learn whatever they deem necessary to become independent, responsible and productive individuals of society. As such, learning is self-directed, self-motivated and achieved without coercion or artificial inducement.

There is no defined curriculum or set material that students “must” go through. There are no exams, homework, seatwork, and the like that supposedly measures competence and ability — unless the student so desires and makes a prior agreement or arrangement (i.e. the student asks to be taught a certain subject and part of the teacher’s condition is for the student to perform drills, homework or tests and to be evaluated based on these). 

Also, the term “teacher” may not necessarily refer to an adult but another fellow student from whom the learner wishes to gain knowledge or skills. Adults who work to keep the school in operation are simply called staff or facilitators (from the French word “facile” or Latin “facilis” which means to make things easy or effortless — thus it is the facilitator’s job to support children in their interests, to make it easier for them to learn and develop).

Children can and will educate themselves. The academy provides a supportive environment where they:

  1. Can play, explore, converse, socialize and interact freely with all age groups;
  2. Can learn what they want and at their own pace;
  3. Have access to various learning tools and materials;
  4. Are free from bullying and harassment;
  5. Have a voice in the day-to-day affairs and governance of the community.

Imagine kids, and even teens, excited to go to this school that is not a school, where they are happy learning and doing things they love, where they are free to explore their interests and try out new things without judgement or criticism.

In a few months, there will be no more need to imagine as the Freedom Academy pushes forward to become a reality in Davao City.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.