As we seem to have hinted at in class, one of the bedrocks of the debate in multicultural education seems to rest on how to best provide education for future citizens of a (supposedly) free democracy. The suggestion of autocratic schools failing to reflect the democracy in which we hope to prepare our students made me think of this article from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/nyregion/05bigcity.html
(I was actually reminded of this article earlier in the week thanks to this episode of This American Life: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/424/kid-politics Both are, I think, quite useful resources for this unique social experiment in education)
Free schools, in summary, are schools where there is no set curriculum. They are built upon the premise that students, if given time and freedom, will seek out their own passions, and motivate themselves to learn. The students and faculty work together to decide what the students learn, how the school is run -- essentially making the school a mini-democracy in action.
Do you think this is an effective way to educate children?
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