How To Start You Own School

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After a few weeks they discover with considerable horror that the woman is a stern disciplinarian, requiring that children who commit themselves to working with her must keep a rigorous schedule. About half the children drift off, including two children from the families who wanted the teacher in the first place.

Several of the parents are angered at having a paid teacher around, and stop coming. The school goes on almost totally centered around the craft lady—about half the kids working with her, and the other kids wandering around and playing.

SCENE 5

Three teachers pull out of public school. They know each other well, seem to share common values and educational philosophy.

Through frequent meetings they work out a detailed and explicit set of goals which includes such things as "fostering free expression," "recovering feelings" and "achieving the human potential." Perhaps they talk too much.

They write up their plans, advertise a bit, offering "a school that's an alternative to public schools . . . for parents willing to pay a specific fee." Within two days they have 30 children enrolled for the following Fall.

They devise an intricate program for the school: Interest centers for subjects, craft work areas, field trips to forests and polluted lakes, lots of nature stuff, a garden, and a heavy experiment with children's encounter groups. The children get into it fast in the fall, do a lot of playing with words about bodily processes, sex discussions. There is much good feeling about nature in the school.

When the children begin getting heavily into dreams through the encounter groups, some parents revolt, insisting on control over the teachers. They reconstruct the "Board" with teachers a minority. Then the parents threaten to fire the teachers if they don't slow down the experiments a bit and get on with "more academics." The rest of the parents are passive.

The teachers all quit at the end of the first year, amidst much bitterness. The parents by this time are beginning to enjoy each other at potlucks and decide to "fight to keep the school alive for the sake of the children." They form a committee to search for new teachers but find themselves wrangling interminably over "what should we look for in a teacher."

Notes From The Summer Of 1970 — July

Meanwhile, back in Freestone . . .

. . . a hot July day, Erik outside the window singing "on the 4th day of Christmas," Stephan designing his tipi, Sasha reading "2001"—and we're deep into the book now, wondering if the pain and trouble that seems to surround free schools and "alternative education" is a function of our perception . . .

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