Free School Teaching: A Journey into Radical Progressive Education

6. A VERY DIFFERENT CURRICULUM

CHAPTER SIX A VERY DIFFERENT CURRICULUM As I mentioned in chapter 3, the assumptions by traditional schools that knowledge exists outside of and distant from human consciousness and that learning is the transmission of this knowledge to students have far-reaching repercussions for what is studied in traditional schools, what roles the teachers and students play, and what resources are used. Progressive educators strongly disagree with traditional visions of education on many levels and have set forth their own ideas on the content of curriculum, materials to be used, and roles to be played in teaching this curriculum. The Albany Free School, with its unique curricula, is enacting these progressive educators’ vision in many ways. The Albany Free School does not have a formal curriculum in the sense of a standard course of study that students all follow. What the school does, instead, is allow each child to do what he or she wishes to do, within certain limits. Those limits involve safety issues and respect for others in the community. If a student wishes to do something that interferes with another’s rights or with some other aspect of the running of the school, then the student is not permitted to do that thing until he makes some compromises or adjustments. As A. S. Neill phrased it, students in the Albany Free School have freedom, but not license.1 Students are free to pursue those activities that interest them; they are not compelled to study certain subjects, nor are they required to attend any classes. But this in no way means, as many critics argue, that the Free School students “don’t learn anything.” Simply, the Free School students learn (make meaning about) those things that hold interest for them—in other words, what they feel a connection to. This freedom to pursue their interests and make meaning from these interactions with the world leads to growth and change in the students along their own personal paths and potentials In the process of interacting with the world and making meaning from those interactions, the Free School students do come into contact with those 73 74 FREE SCHOOL TEACHING subjects or skills that make up the curricular content in traditional schools, but they experience little of the sense of disconnection, unreality, or alienation that is so much in evidence for students in traditional schools. In other words, the Albany Free School students come to the traditional academic subjects, disciplines, or skills on their own terms and for their own purposes, and thus the subjects and skills are meaningful and more than likely will stay with them much more solidly throughout their lives. Not only do the Free School students have exposure to traditional academic subjects through their individual curricula, they also get to experience a different, social and emotional curriculum—one that is largely missing for many students in traditional schools. The Albany Free School students experience democratic governance and diversity, they’re actively involved in the “real world” (the world outside the school building), and they encounter opportunities to develop their skills of interpersonal interactions and intrapersonal understanding. Both curricula— the academic and the more social/emotional—work in tandem to gently guide students to an understanding of what it means to be fully human. Students learn that each person is unique and should be valued equally, that we must seek to understand ourselves and the world in which we live, that people have responsibilities to be just, equitable, and caring toward their fellow humans and to their environments, and that sometimes one needs to actively challenge limit situations to increase levels of social justice. In this chapter, I will use my journal entries and interviews of teachers to illustrate these two different curricula at the Free School. ACADEMIC CURRICULA Students at the Albany Free School come into contact with the traditional academic subjects and skills in several different ways: (1) when they explicitly choose to, (2) when a teacher suggests it, and (3) when the subject they are interested in has a natural connection to one of the traditional subjects or skills. The first way occurs more frequently than most people might expect , particularly with older students. Since the school only goes up to the eighth grade,2 almost all the students will attend traditional schools for their high school years. Because the Free School students realize that in high school they will be required to take classes in certain subjects, many of them want to arrive prepared...