TXMary2 Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/fl-cool-school-new-school-20101205,0,6390449.story Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethben Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 Our city had a charter school much like the one described. School therapists my son worked with hated going to the school because no one kept schedules and chaos reigned. Often, there were high school kids outside smoking or going out for two hour lunches. Some kids were able to develop their interests, but most didn't really learn a lot. Eventually, the school district shut it down because it was failing the children. It was an experiment with good intentions, but horrible in execution. I always have felt that in order to unschool well, it takes quite a bit of time and creativity from the teacher. We do have another charter school that has structure, but if the students find a frog in the school playground, the teacher will allow the frog to be part of their school day. There's some spontaneity allowed within their structure. Students can learn within their interests. The school is very popular with huge waiting lists. Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXMary2 Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 Our city had a charter school much like the one described. School therapists my son worked with hated going to the school because no one kept schedules and chaos reigned. Often, there were high school kids outside smoking or going out for two hour lunches. Some kids were able to develop their interests, but most didn't really learn a lot. Eventually, the school district shut it down because it was failing the children. It was an experiment with good intentions, but horrible in execution. I always have felt that in order to unschool well, it takes quite a bit of time and creativity from the teacher. We do have another charter school that has structure, but if the students find a frog in the school playground, the teacher will allow the frog to be part of their school day. There's some spontaneity allowed within their structure. Students can learn within their interests. The school is very popular with huge waiting lists. Beth The school in the story is a private school. I wonder if that will make a difference in the outcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted December 14, 2010 Share Posted December 14, 2010 I have a dear friend whose 2 now adult sons went to a Sudbury school (the original? ) in Canada. I havent met them but he talks about them and he is so proud of them..they are pretty amazing people. One is very academically inclined, and the other isn't..but they are very free spirits, they travel and base themselves in Hawaii, and seem to have a deep trust in life and an ability to make things work for themselves. I have always had the sense that when unschooling works well, and maybe with the right kids too (not sure), it is really the most wonderful educational method of all...but I am not sure it always works well, or that I am the right type of parent to be able to facilitate it. I do admire it when it works well though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsabelC Posted December 14, 2010 Share Posted December 14, 2010 (edited) There are many schools around the world. They are almost all day schools. The UK has Sands, a school in Devon, which was created and is run by students, parents and teachers. It is a secondary school but also has a primary sister. In USA there is a large democratic school movement, the largest school, „Sudbury Valley School‟ is over 26 years old and has many followers using the SVS methods. The democratic school movement is thriving world-wide. In Israel there is „Hadera‟ school, which has several subsidiaries and over two hundred pupils. Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, Costa Rica, Brazil, Germany, France, Spain, Korea and many more countries also have free schools. I find it unlike the way unschooling works for people I know, because generally unschooled kids are very close to their parents, whereas Neill's approach seems to be to try and separate kids from parents as much as possible. It's certainly not an approach that I'd be comfortable with. There's a lot more info on the original Sudbury website if anyone is interested. Edited December 14, 2010 by Hotdrink Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.