A free school is a decentralized network in which skills, information, and knowledge are shared without hierarchy and the institutional environment of formal schooling. The more open structure of free schools is intended to encourage self-reliance, critical consciousness, and personal development. A hierarchy (in Greek: , it is derived from -hieros, sacred, and -arkho, rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. ...

Free schools have their roots in the anarchist Modern Schools of Spain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A more recent revival grew out of the democratic school movement. It is, at heart, non-institutional and non-authoritarian. Generally, it is a grassroots effort, a collection of individuals acting collectively and autonomously to create educational opportunities and skill-sharing within their communities. It has been suggested that Origins of anarchism and History of anarchism be merged into this article or section. ... The Modern School in New York City, circa 1911-12. ... A democratic school is a school that centers on democratic principles and participatory democracy with full and equal participation from both students and staff. ... A grassroots political movement is one driven by the constituents of a community. ... Sharing is the joint use of a resource. ... Community is a set of people (or agents in a more abstract sense) with some shared element. ...

Free schools often operate outside the market economy in favor of the gift economy. Nevertheless, the meaning of the "free" of free schools is not restricted to monetary cost, and can refer to an emphasis on free speech and open learning. It has been suggested that Free market be merged into this article or section. ... A gift economy is an economic system in which the prevalent mode of exchange is for goods and services to be given without explicit agreement upon a quid pro quo (the Latin term for the concept of a favor for a favor). Typically, this occurs in a cultural context where... Freedom of speech is the right to freely say what one pleases, as well as the related right to hear what others have stated. ...

History

Free school tradition in Anarchist Spain

Spanish anarchist Francisco Ferrer (1859-1909) established "modern" or progressive schools in Spain in defiance of an educational system controlled by the church. Fiercely anti-clerical, he believed in "freedom in education," education free from the authority of church and state. Murray Bookchin wrote: "This period [1890s] was the heyday of libertarian schools and pedagogical projects in all areas of the country where Anarchists exercised some degree of influence. Perhaps the best-known effort in this field was Francisco Ferrer's Modern School (Escuela Moderna), a project which exercised a considerable influence on Catalan education and on experimental techniques of teaching generally." (Murray Bookchin, Anarchosyndicalism, The New Ferment) Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of hierarchy and imposed authority. ... Francisco Ferrer Guardia Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia (January 10, 1859 - October 12, 1909), known as Francisco Ferrer y Guardia in Spanish and often simply as Francisco Ferrer, was a Spanish free-thinker and anarchist. ... Murray Bookchin[1] (born January 14, 1921) is an American libertarian socialist speaker and writer, and founder of the Social Ecology school of anarchist and ecological thought. ... See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ... La Escuela Moderna (trans. ... Anthem: Els Segadors Capital Barcelona Official language(s) Catalan, Spanish and Aranese Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked 6th  32,114 km²  6. ... Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. ...

Free schools in the UK

The most famous free school is Summerhill School, a boarding school in Suffolk which was founded in 1921 by the Scottish teacher A. S. Neill, whose ideas had been radicalised through teaching in conventional schools. Despite many travails with school-oriented government inspectors, Summerhill survives to this day with more pupils than ever. The school's website describes it thus: Summerhill School Summerhill School, founded in 1921 in Hellerau near Dresden, England by A.S. Neill. ... Suffolk (pronounced ) is a large historic and modern non-metropolitan county in the East Anglia region of eastern England. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ... Alexander Sutherland Neill (October 17, 1883 - September 23, 1973) was a Scottish educationalist recognised as one of the leading pioneers in education. ...

"Summerhill School is a progressive, co-educational, residential school, founded by A. S. Neill in 1921; in his own words, it is a 'free school' though this does not mean, alas, that it is state funded. The freedom Neill was referring to was the personal freedom of the children in his charge. Summerhill is first and foremost a place where children can discover who they are and where their interests lie in the safety of a self-governing, democratic community.

"There are two features of the school which people usually single out as being particularly unusual. The first is that all lessons are optional. Teachers and classes are available at timetabled times, but the children can decide whether to attend or not. This gives them the freedom to make choices about their own lives and means that those children attending lessons are motivated to learn."

"The second particularly unusual feature of the school is the school meeting, at which the school Laws are made or changed. These laws are the rules of the school, made by majority vote in the community meetings; pupils and staff alike having equal votes."

Another A. S. Neill-inspired school was Kirkdale School in South-East London, UK. The school was founded in 1964 and closed in the 1980s. Kirkdale School (1964 - 1980s) was a small, independent free day school located in Sydenham, South London, UK. During the whole of the schools existence it was run as a parent/teacher co-operative. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... The 1980s refers to the years of and between 1980 and 1989. ...

An institution founded on similar principles to Summerhill and Kirkdale was Kilquhanity School in the Scottish Borders, founded by John Aitkenhead, which closed during the 1990s. Scottish Borders (often referred to locally as The Borders or The Borderland) is one of 35 local government unitary council areas of Scotland. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ...

Sands School, set just on the southern edge of Dartmoor and established in 1987, is also similar. Sands School was set up by Sean Bellamy and Sybillia Higgs in 1987 Visit the website for more information. ...

During the 1970s other short-lived free schools were established in the British inner cities. Template:A year The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ...

Free schools in Australia

Preshil, established in Melbourne in the 1930's, is based on principles similar to that of Summerhill, although it is non residential, and classes are held at fixed times. It remains unaffiliated with any doctrinal or theological ideology, and is currently experiencing a resurgence for those seeking alternatives to the mainstream government and private schools . Students are involved in, and take responsibility for decisions about their curriculum, extra-curricular activities, and changes to the school environment. Since the 1970's Preshil has operated up to year 12. Preshil, or The Margaret Lyttle Memorial School, is an independent, non-denominational private school, in Melbourne, Australia. ...

The Village School in Croydon, Victoria is an independent, non-sectarian and non-denominational primary school having no specific affiliations with any other educational establishment or educational system.

Melbourne Community School was established in 1977 by a parents group seeking an independent small school alternative. Formerly known as the Malvern Community School, it now is located in East St Kilda.

Candlebark School was established in Romsey, Victoria, in 2006, by educator and writer John Marsden. John Marsden (born September 27, 1950) is an Australian writer. ...

See also Lynall Hall Community School, Richmond Victoria ; Currambena Primary, NSW; Collingwood College, Vic; Fitzroy Community School, Vic; and Brisbane Independent School, Qld. Brisbane Independent School (BIS) is located in semi-rural Pullenvale in the western suburbs of Brisbane. ...

Free schools in the US

Free schools have existed in the U.S. for many years, and their numbers increased with the hippie movement of the '70s. Many of the schools created in the '60s closed within the first 10 years, but there are a few notable exceptions. Today, free schools in the U.S. are again enjoying popularity as people become more educated about school choice concepts and look for alternatives to the public school system. The large number of new schools based on the Sudbury model, a type of free school based on the Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, are a good example of this increased demand. Singer at a modern Hippie movement in Russia Hippie or Hippy refers to a subgroup of the 1960s and early 1970s counterculture, that began in the United States and influenced Europe, becoming an established social group by 1965 before declining during the mid-1970s. ... The Sudbury model of education was pioneered at Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Massachusetts. ... The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts. ...

The Albany Free School was established in Albany, NY in 1969 and, unlike many similar U.S. schools of the time, still operates today. The Free School's founder, Mary Leue, corresponded with Summerhill founder A.S. Neill about her plan to take his experiment of radical freedoms to a different demographic: the inner city. Leue went on to create The Free School in Albany's urban south end with the idea of making these freedoms and democratic principles accessible to children of the poor. The Albany Free School is the oldest inner-city independent alternative school in the United States. ... New York State Capitol Building, completed in 1899 at a cost of $25 million was the most expensive government building of its time. ...

Grassroots Free School in Tallahassee, Florida has enjoyed a long and successful history. Founded by Pat Seery, the school still operates today. In the 1970s, the school operated out of the club house of an abandoned, 40-acre golf club. Grassroots was sculpted very closely from the Summerhill school. The school was a favorite not only of hippies, but of liberal-thinking families that had grown tired of Southern paternalism. Also, the Natural Bridge School in Tallahassee held many of the same principles, and was a frequent high-school extension of the Grassroots experience.

Jefferson County Open School in Lakewood, Colorado is a more recently developed free school, only about 30 years old.

Free skool movement

Beyond schools that offer democratic reforms to the educational system, radical experiments in non-hierarchical education with anarchist roots have given rise to temporal and permanent free schools. They are often termed "free skools" to distinguish them from what supporters view as an oppressive and institutional educational industry. Temporal free skools offering skill-shares and training have become a regular part of large radical gatherings and actions. More permanent skools in cities large and small have popped up across North America offering a wide range of workshops, classes, and skill-shares. A hierarchy (in Greek: , it is derived from -hieros, sacred, and -arkho, rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. ... Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of hierarchy and imposed authority. ...

Free Skool Santa Cruz in California is perhaps typical of a new batch of free schools that are explicitly rooted in an anarchist tradition of collectivism, autonomy, and self-reliance, and feature informal, non-authoritarian learning outside of the monetary economy. From the Free Skool Santa Cruz website: "More than just an opportunity to learn, we see Free Skool as a direct challenge to dominant institutions and hierarchical relationships. Part of creating a new world is resistance to the old one, to the relentless commodification of everything, including learning and the way we relate to each other." Collectivism is a term used to describe any moral, political, or social outlook, that stresses human interdependence and the importance of a collective, rather than the importance of separate individuals. ... Look up autonomy, autonomous in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Self-Reliance is an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson. ... The term authoritarian is used to describe an organization or a state which enforces strong and sometimes oppressive measures against the population, generally without attempts at gaining the consent of the population. ... A monetary economy is a societys economy where products and services are traded in exchange for money. ... Commodification is the transformation of what is normally a non-commodity into a commodity, to assign economic value to something that traditionally would not be considered in economic terms, for example, an idea, identity, gender. ...

These are on-going, informal learning networks, that focus on skill-sharing among adults as well as children. The boundaries between students, teachers, and organizers are consciously blurred, with some free skools claiming, "we are all teachers, and we are all students." Free skool "classes" are often autonomous workshops held in informal settings in homes, cafes, and community centers. Free skools typically offer a monthly or quarterly-produced free skool calendar.

These types of anti-authoritarian schools include free skools in Portland, Olympia, Berkeley, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis.

Currently active free schools in North America

Canada

• Alpha Alternative School in Toronto
• Alternative Schools Advisory Council - Ottawa, Ontario
• Anarchist U in Toronto
• The Beach School in Toronto
• École P.E.A.C.E. near Montréal
• Fairfield School in Wolfville, Nova Scotia
• FreeSchool Vancouver, Vancouver
• Guelph Free School, Guelph, Ontario
• Indigo Sudbury in Edmonton, Alberta
• The Purple Thistle Center in Vancouver
• RÉPAQ (Réseau des écoles publiques alternatives du Québec)
• Windsor House School in North Vancouver, British Columbia

USA

• Albany Free School, New York, USA
• Ashland FreeSkool, Oregon, USA
• Barrington Collective Freeskool, Berkeley, California, USA (on hiatus)
• Brooklyn Free School, New York, USA
• Free Skool Santa Cruz, California, USA
• Missoula Free School, Montana, USA
• Olympia Community Free School, Washington, USA
• Portland Freeskool, Oregon, USA
• Prescott Freeskool, Arizona, USA
• Second Foundation School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
• Teddy McArdle Free School, New Jersey, USA
• Modern School of Stelton, New Jersey
• WoGAN FreeSkool, Worcester, Massachusetts
• The Houston Real School aka Dragon Valley, Houston, Texas
• The Village Free School, Portland, Oregon USA
• Olympia Free School
• Teddy McArdle Free School
• Wildcat Community Free School, SF Bay Area

See also

• Free to Learn - a radical experiment in education(documentary)

Currently active free schools in the UK

• Sands School, UK
• Summerhill School, UK

Currently active free schools in Australia

• Preshil, Vic
• Village School, Vic
• Melbourne Community School, Vic
• Fitzroy Community School, Vic
• Lynall Hall Community School, Vic
• Candlebark, Vic
• Berengarra, Vic
• Kinma, NSW
• Currambena, NSW

See also

• Independent Schools Council Australia
• Alternative Education Resource Organization
• ABC Radio National prgram on Progressive Schools in Australia

See also

• Anarchism
• Anti-capitalism
• DIY ethic
• Direct action
• Democratic Schools
• Unschooling
• Alternative education
• Grassroots
• Grassroots democracy
• Community
• Sharing
• School
• Sudbury School
• Education
• Alternative school
• Gifted education
• Special education