TOP 3 ETHICAL ALTERNATIVES TO PUBLIC SCHOOL

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~The Pholosopher

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The Top 3 Ethical Alternatives To Public School

Number 3 Sudbury School

Sudbury Schools are cooperative, mixed age, learning environments where young children to late teens educate themselves through self-direction. Staff and students are in equal positions of authority through a direct democracy conflict resolution and rules setting process. Students individually decide what to do with their time and adult staff act as facilitators, helpers, and aids with whom students can seek out guidance by their own volition. Sudbury students do not need to follow any pre-determined curriculum. Instead, students are free to choose any type of activity they wish to spend time in within the Sudbury culture of freedom, mutual respect, and responsibility.

The name of Sudbury stems from the original Sudbury Valley school that was founded in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts, near Sudbury, Massachusetts. While there is no formal regulation or association of Sudbury Schools, there are more than 60 schools worldwide that identify as operating under the Sudbury model.

The Sudbury Schools are based on two guiding principles:

The first is the educational belief that children are extremely good at (and therefore do not need to be taught) the main behaviors they will need as adults, such as creativity, imagination, alertness, curiosity, thoughtfulness, responsibility, and judgement. What children lack is experience, which can be gained if adults guide students in open ways.

The second is the sociopolitical belief that having autonomy in childhood is the best way to become an adult who is comfortable functioning within society.

Unique to Sudbury schools is that all decisions about the school from hiring or firing staff, to student complaints or consequences, are held through a town hall meeting where students and staff participate exclusively and equally in voting power. This system is intended to help children take ownership of their choices and community environment so that they continue to be responsible as adults.

Many Sudbury schools have facilities one would expect in a home, from computer stations, kitchens, wood shops, art rooms, and playgrounds. Students who want new equipment or experiences are free to convince others to purchase them through the school budget or fundraising.

As students are free to choose how they spend their time, an immense amount of learning occurs as students talk to each other and share experiences.

90% of students from the Sudbury Valley School have gone on to higher education, 21% higher than the traditional public school average.

Number 2 Unschooling

Unschooling is the educational philosophy by which students choose their own activities for learning often as a subset of homeschooling. Unschooling was coined by educator John Holt, father of the unschooling movement, in the 1970s.

Unschooling is similar in many practices to the Sudbury model in that children are free to drive their own choices in learning through natural life experiences, play, internships, travel, and social interaction.

The difference is that unschoolers are not necessarily a part of a learning community that has a regular staff and building structure with a direct voting approach to rule-setting.

The unschooling philosophy can be summed in John Holt’s statement:

“Since we can't know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever must be learned.”

In this vein, parents of unschoolers provide resources, support, and guidance to facilitate the natural curiosity of children, empowering children to self-direct their learning for whatever their child wishes to access and navigate.

Unschooling parents who lack a certain subject area aptitude will assist their children by taking them to relevant museums, events, and knowledgeable practitioners to help their children pursue their passions.

Unlike traditional homeschooling, there is no set curriculum to parrot public school curriculum mandates.

Instead, children progress at their own comfortable pace and choose to advance based on personal initiative. This can come in the form of taking on personal projects, internships, unschooling co-operative learning play, and voluntarily chosen classes.

Unschooling does not mean unparenting. Parents remain a source of protection for children and a safety net. Unschooling philosophy emphasizes on building relationships with children through conversation, rather than commands, to help children develop their own sense of discernment.

Non-violent Communication, crafted by the late psychologist Marshall B. Rosenberg, is often a cornerstone parenting tool for those who choose the unschooling route.

Number 1 Self-Directed Learning Centers

Self-Directed Learning Centers are schools that provide concrete facility structures for students to learn in while maintaining the unschooling initiative.

The main difference from the Sudbury model is that self-directed learning centers may not have the town hall Democratic structure but, instead, evolve from spontaneous order based on student-lead initiatives.

Self-Directed learning centers typically provide students with classes, speakers, and events at the center for diverse learning opportunities. Students freely choose whether to attend the classes, speakers, or events based on their own personal goals and interests. Students are otherwise free to self-direct their learning in-as-much as unschoolers or Sudbury school attendees.

Self-directed learning advocate and Boston University Psychology Professor, Dr. Peter Gray states that self-directed learning centers are typically built upon 4 pillars: Curiosity, Playfulness, Sociability, and Planfulness.

Curiosity is a child’s natural drive to learn, fostered through uninterrupted exploration. Playfulness is the understanding that children learn naturally by playing with their environment. Sociability is the understanding that children naturally speak and learn with others through asking questions. Planfulness is the notion that children will naturally begin to think ahead with long-term orientation when they are motivated by self-directed goals.

Dr. Gray also holds that self-directed education works best when the following 6 conditions are met:

∀ One, the social expectation (and reality) that education is children’s responsibility is grounded.
∀ Two, children are given unlimited time to play, explore, and pursue their own interests during the day
∀ Three, children are given the opportunity to play with the tools of the culture.
∀ Four, children are given access to a variety of caring adults, who are helpers, not judges.
∀ Five, there is free age mixing among children and adolescents.
∀ Six, children are immersed in a stable, supportive, respectful community.

With these conditions in mind, self-directed learning centers strive to provide students a stable, secure, environment for learning uninterrupted.

For more information regarding ethical alternatives to public school, check out the Alliance for Self-Directed Education at https://www.self-directed.org.

///Sources///

∀ Abrome - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdfgNEOOyeowsTbeuaJYFrQ/videos
∀ The Raw Food Family - https://www.youtube.com/user/rawfoodfamilylife/videos
∀ Sudbury Valley - https://www.youtube.com/user/SudburyValley/videos
∀ Dida Academy - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7PcL2PeKQY06oGpeoYRqWA/videos
∀ Lulastic - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi0vcdkMEVvAYjdCTQ9KyCw
∀ @inspiredfamilyof5 - https://www.youtube.com/user/beachsidemama1013/videos
∀ A Coates Life - https://www.youtube.com/user/AH1OZ

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