not smart enough to figure this out???

then freak out when their kids are being educated in an anti-authoritarian environment. They have absolutely no experience in how to trust their own intelligence and progress without "testing", let alone their child's.

we spend TIME observing how the school operates, what happens in the classrooms, and 'open house' is more than just open the doors.

Testing is not required for a good education, nor is authoritarianism; good judgment on the part of parents and school IS.

and many parents can't handle it. They have no cultural or social basis to judge the environment or their kid's progress. A parent will feel social pressure that their kid should be reading at this age or that age without seeing the other important skills that the kid is acquiring.

In the democratic schools that I am familiar with, there is quite a bit of exodus in the first few years because parents panic with the unfamiliar. (And a lot of "problem" kid dumping during the teenage years.) One of the problems that I see with this school is, because it is only grades 1 to 3, is that parents are not experiencing interactions with older students who have thrived in this environment.

and we had time to observe students thriving. Not 'democratic,' but easy-going, student-centered, based on Piaget, Ginott, etc.

Lowell has since added grades. Daughters worked/taught/counseled in summer camp/programs for years.

http://www.lowellschool.org/

no testing and learning would be self-directed, then they were idiots.

I don't recall one test. Teachers wrote great, thorough and complete explanations of students' work.

The origin of the HuffPo article comes from the right wing rag NY Post.

with a democratic school. And both Lowell and the Blue School seem to have solid child-centric education goals. It doesn't surprise me that the right wing NY Post would feature, in a tabloid manner, a way to discredit a progressive school. And I've no doubt that there are some parents unhappy. That is going to happen with any educational system.

Will have to read more about Blue School.

GREAT thing about Lowell - kids learned to read by WRITING, their own 'stories' and books, which were then 'bound' and kept in library!. We probably still have ours. They wrote their experiences. Was REALLY fun to watch. AND, MATH = halloween, sorting and classifying the candies they received! I recall sitting on living room floor 'helping' with that.

I don't recall any families leaving for the reasons mentioned in Post.

ONE of the Lowell parents - Linda Darling-Hammond! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Darling-Hammond

As I said, daughters attended a 'progressive' school.

reading for instance.

That requires someone telling you what each letter is, what it sounds like, how it forms a word and you memorizing all that.

Authoritarian in other words.

You can't just declare that some letter means something to you and then run with it.

I would like to decide what I do each day and have no predetermined arrival time.

It facilitates children to be self-motivated and independent. The kids not only shape their own education but, democratically, decide how the school is run.

My nephew's school needed a wiring upgrade, a field that he was interested in, somewhere around age 9-11 he decided to make it happen (that is what kids do in a democratic school). So with the teachers assistance, he researched the schools needs. On his own, he contacted contractors and got estimates. With outside assistance (which the school facilitates) he worked up a budget and presented it in front of the school's monthly budget meeting for a vote of acceptance.

By the way, my nephew did not proficiently read until age 9. He was self motivated to do so because he wanted to be able to read architects notes on diagrams.

This is THE standard for a democratic school.

In order to graduate, the student must present a thesis. An acceptable thesis will take 1-2 years to complete. 90% of the students go on to university and from my limited experience, they do well. Most likely because they are accustomed to working confidently and independently.

except you don't have to learn the basics, unless you want to...


I guess there are enough people in this country where some fringe groups can have their science experiments

Let's see how these kids are doing in 20 years....

Have you been to a democratic school? Have you met people who've been to one?

32K to crack eggs on their head - hefty

Last edited Wed Jun 13, 2012, 11:37 PM - Edit history (1)

And yes, there are no tests but there are resources and books galore but not, "by committee" approved text books. Certainly these parents knew that going in. The school is, by design unstructured in the sense of a top down structure and there is zero test taking.

It the parents were expecting a test based education, then they were idiots.

http://blueschool.org/overview

Just not the structure or motivation that you are accustomed to.

Maybe when these kids get older, their parents can send them to Carrot Top University.

Although for 32,000 dollars a pop I wouldn't mind telling a class full of kids that they are wonderful special beings of light while they run around and hit each other with their chairs.

Let's see, you could probably stick 15-20 kids per classroom. That's 480,000 - 640,000. Maybe some of that has to go towards rent, insurance, and the like but that should still leave me taking home at least 200k per year. To do nothing. I could live with that.