Customer Reviews

Free the children;: Radical reform and the free school movement

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I am professional, I teach college, I teach advanced highschool, and I teach future teachers how to teach. I am also a person who survived the education system with a form of autism, and no special help. As I became a teacher, and even instructed college students in the theory of teaching I found out that the strategies I had used to overcome my deficiencies are actively discouraged by teachers. I also learned that the current ideas about teaching effectively crush students inititative. This book discuss schools where students were given a chance to think for themselves, and I really think this type of school should be considered by more educators.

I always get laughs from students when i point out that the more we reform schools the worse performance seems to get. The ideology in public schools as well as what are evangelical schools is usually that if students are left to their own devises they will want to learn as little as possible. Part of the reason for this is the media campaign glorifying laziness. After all movies like porkies teach children that they have won some kind of game by goofing off. The other part of cause is that this theory is a self fullfilling prophesy. On the whole, I am convinced that an enviorment can be created where students make informed decisions about their learning, and in the process of making decisions learn the valuable ability to have an independant mind.