Events
Open Houses
- October 12, 10am - 2pm
- December 13, 10am - 2pm
- Spookfest
- October 25th
The FreeSchool Movement and Democratic Education
"The function of the child is to live his own life - not the life that his anxious parents think he should live, nor a life according to the purpose of the educator who thinks he knows best. All this interference and guidance on the part of adults only produces a generation of robots. We set out to make a school in which we should allow children freedom to be themselves."
- A.S Neill, Summerhill School
Although there is no exact definition or requirement for a democratic school, FreeSchools or Democratic Schools generally share most or all of the following characteristics:- shared decision-making among the students and staff
- a learner-centered approach in which students choose their daily activities
- equality among staff and students
- the community as an extension of the classroom
Learn more about the FreeSchool or Democratic School Movement, below you will find some helpful resources collected by WCF staff, families and community for further reading and research.
FreeSchool Resources
Web:
Books:
- Creating Learning Communities, Ron Miller (editor)
- Education in America: A View from Sudbury Valley by Daniel Greenberg
- Free At Last: The Sudbury Valley School by Daniel Greenberg
- A Free Range Childhood: Self Regulation at Summerhill School by Matthew Appleton
- Free School Teaching: A Journey into Radical Progressive Education by Kristan Accles Morrison
- Free Schools, Free People: Education and Democracy After the 1960s by Ron Miller
- Freedom- Not License by A.S. Neill
- The Happy Child: Changing the Heart of Education by Steven Harrison
- In Defense of Childhood: Protecting Kids' Inner Wildness by Chris Mercogliano
- Kingdom of Childhood: Growing Up at Sudbury Valley School, Edited by Mimsy Sadofsky and Daniel Greenberg, Interviews by Hanna Greenberg
- Making It Up As We Go Along: The Story of the Albany FreeSchool by Chris Mercogliano
- The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States by Paul Avrich
- No Homework and Recess All Day: How to Have Freedom and Democracy in Education by Jerry Mintz
- A Primer of Libertarian Education By Joel Spring
- Real Schools- In Their Own Words, Edited by Mary M. Leue
- Summerhill School: A New View of Childhood by Alexander S. Neill (Author) and Albert Lamb (Editor)
- Trusting Children: A View of Sudbury Schools Around the World, Published by Sego Lily School
- The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World as your Child's Classroom by Mary Griffith
- What Are Schools For?: Holistic Education in American Culture by Ron Miller
FreeSchools - National
- Albany FreeSchool (Albany, NY)
- The Brooklyn Free School (Brooklyn, NY)
- Grassroots FreeSchool (Tallahassee, FL)
- Second Foundation School (Minneapolis, MN)
- Sudbury Valley School (Framingham, MA)
- Teddy McArdle Free School (Little Falls, NJ)
- The Village Free School (Portland, OR)
FreeSchools - International
Organizations / Networks / Institutions
- Alternative Education Resource Organization (Roslyn Heights, NY)
- The Institute for Democratic Education (Tel Aviv, Israel)
- International Democratic Education Network (Devon, United Kingdom)