Beyond Free Schools: Community
(Page 4 of 11)
November/December 1970
By Jerry Friedberg
The children, at first suspicious and adult-cue centered, came to trust and relax with us. The adjective most commonly used by visitors who liked what they saw at Lorillard was "relaxed," with "comfortable" and "full of life" runners-up.
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These, then, were some principle ingredients of our school: A highly enriched environment, freedom and caring adults with some honesty, interests and skills. We wanted learning and growing to emerge naturally and spontaneously in response to actual interests rather than programs; child-centered rather than teacher-centered.
We soon discovered, however, that even establishing an environment involves implicit programming. We began with strong differences here. At the extremes, we-do-our-thing-and-let-the-kids-do-theirs warred with we-should-be-responsible-and-insure-that-good-learning-occurs.
Over time, Hop and Sherry-so opposed to programming-came to appreciate (as we all did) the value of observation, suggestion, continuity and thoughtfulness about ways of helping children learn when they're ready for that to happen. Cindy came to see more (as we all did) just how much kids do with freedom, developing their own non-programs.
DESPITE OUR BAD EXPERIENCES WITH IMPOSED PRE-STRUCTURES AND ENGINEERED LEADERSHIP IN OUR SOCIETY GENERALLY, WE REJECT ONLY THAT STRUCTURE AND LEADERSHIP WHICH IS IN FACT UNWANTED. WE DO NOT REJECT THAT WHICH EMERGES SPONTANEOUSLY, FEELS OK AND REMAINS FLEXIBLE, NON-COERCIVE AND OUR OWN.
Without compromising our commitment to non-coercion, we moved generally through the year toward more active roles in relation to the children: Making materials and projects available, questioning, pointing out, suggesting, etc.
Above all, we were concerned with the quality of children's lives and our own lives. How did we deal with anger, shyness, need for attention, aggressiveness, excitement, dependency, racial feelings, joy and so on? We wanted the children and ourselves to express feelings more freely, to deal with conflicts more openly and independently and to be less afraid in reaching out with curiosity, affection or hostility. (This was—above all—for the children, whom we wanted to be out from under the shadows of adult judge-executioners).
More than in any other school I know, we spent our energies observing, talking about and dealing with things like Missy's strong drive toward domination, Roger's hostility and difficulty handling affection, Elena's clinging, Magali's taunting for attention and Victor's fear of anything strange.
Where many other experimental children's schools are aimed at getting kids to learn faster, better and more enjoyably we were confident that kids learn as they are ready to; as they need to; as things are available in their experience. We felt that attention was needed most in matters of personal growth: The atmosphere of the school, trust, relaxation, openness, self-reliance, warmth and joy. This was the core of what Lorillard was about for both the children and the staff.
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