Beyond Free Schools: Community
(Page 3 of 11)
November/December 1970
By Jerry Friedberg
One of our more serious initial differences had to do with degree of organization-and-responsibility. John M. was constitutionally hostile to meetings, and Marge to schedules. Helene and Cindy worried and railed about responsibility, concern for learning and coordination.
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We had many a trauma over such things those first months but our commitment to one another and to being out front held fast . . . changes came in their time. John, Marge and all of us came to appreciate the need for getting together to work things out and for coordination. And Helene, Cindy and all of us learned a lot about relaxing a little.
We struggled through a great variety of meeting frequencies and times, finally settling (more or less) into three meetings per week: One for business, one for Gestalt-encounter and one for talking about kids, projects and ways of teaching/learning. Of course, everything was flexible, and as needs emerged they got dealt with. And in all this there was the strong, growing feeling of being a family.
(If what I've written so far sounds idyllic, it is no less true and, remember, I'm outlining Lorillard's beginnings and its greatness. I'll get to its miseries and limitations soon enough.)
I've talked a lot about the staff before talking about how we were with kids because the latter derived directly from the former (it always does). We began with 33 children, 3-7 years old and we were committed to expanding the upper age limit by at least a year each year. We established an environment with lots of things for kids to play-destroy-learn-explore-build with.
We had woodworking materials, blocks, water and sand, a rope swing, a homemaking and dress-ups corner, a huge climbing structure made of scavenged tree trunks and boards, arts and crafts materials, books and a quiet reading corner, manipulative games-puzzles, etc., some animals and science equipment, lots of space for running-making-noise-or-being-quiet, the Botanical Gardens and Fordham's pool, the neighborhood and its people and stores and lots of New York City to explore.
The staff was there—generally—to support, provide materials, be interested, leave alone, bring in interests and skills, suggest, prod, confront, question and play . . . but not to force or push.
We only intervened forcibly, by and large, to prevent physical or psychological damage (though we had our differences in deciding when that point had been reached). We did our best not to lay on the kids excathedra judgments and shoulds. Instead, we attempted to be honest with them about our feelings and perceptions. With our upset and anger—for example—our goal was immediate and full expression rather than held-in, festering resentment masked thinly by resort to rules, Procedures or moralisms. Similarly with love, boredom, excitment, etc.
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