aayveefashion’s blog

One recent day at the Brooklyn Free School, the ’schedule’ included the following: chess, debate, filming horrow, movies, and making caves for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Not that the students had to go to any of these sessions. At this school, students dont get grades dont have homework, dont take tests, dont even have to go to class. Unless they want to, “You can do basically anything at any time, and its just a los more fun because sometimes when you need a break at regular schools you cant get it,” said Sophia Bennett Holmes, 12, an aspiring singer-actress-fashion designer. “Free schools,” which had their heyday decades ago, operate on the belief that children are naturally curious and learn best when they want to, not when forced to. Today, the approach is getting another look from some parents and students tired of standardised testing, excessive home work, and overly rigid curriculums. “Every kid here is definitely motivated to learn something, there’s no doubt in my mind,” said Alan Berger, a former public school assistant principal who founded the Brooklyn school, which launched in fall 2004. Hundereds of free school opened in the US and elsewhere in the 1960s and 1970s, Most shut down, but some persisted. At the Brooklyn Free School, much of that decision-making occurs in a mandatory (yes, as in required) weekly gathering called the Democratic Meeting. Here, students air grievances, pose challenges, propose rules and set policy. Even the youngest kids have a vote equal to staffers. But no sword-fighting is allowed inside. Students are required to show up for a minimum of 51/2 hours a day, partly so that the school can meet legal definitions, but what they do with their time is up to them. “Not only is there more interest, this is the wave of the future,” said Jerry Mintz, director of the Alternative Education Resource Organization. The Brooklyn Free School is not free in the financial sense. Tuition is $10,000 (euro 7,800) a year, but many parents just give wht they can. And there is a waiting list of about 35 students.