Free schools

A free school, sometimes intentionally spelled free skool, is a decentralized network in which skills, information, and knowledge are shared without hierarchy or the institutional environment of formal schooling. The open structure of a free school is intended to encourage self-reliance, critical consciousness, and personal development.

Free schools have their roots in the anarchist Modern Schools of Spain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A more recent revival grew out of the democratic school movement. It is, at heart, non-institutional and non-authoritarian. Generally, it is a grassroots effort, a collection of individuals acting collectively and autonomously to create educational opportunities and skill-sharing within their communities.

Free schools often operate outside the market economy in favor of a gift economy. Nevertheless, the meaning of the "free" of free schools is not restricted to monetary cost, and can refer to an emphasis on free speech and student-centered education.

Free school tradition in Anarchist Spain
Spanish anarchist Francisco Ferrer (1859–1909) established "modern" or progressive schools in Spain in defiance of an educational system controlled by the church. Fiercely anti-clerical, he believed in "freedom in education," education free from the authority of church and state. Murray Bookchin wrote: "This period [1890s] was the heyday of libertarian schools and pedagogical projects in all areas of the country where Anarchists exercised some degree of influence. Perhaps the best-known effort in this field was Francisco Ferrer's Modern School (Escuela Moderna), a project which exercised a considerable influence on Catalan education and on experimental techniques of teaching generally." (Murray Bookchin, Anarchosyndicalism, The New Ferment)

Free schools in the UK
The most famous free school is Summerhill School, a boarding school in Suffolk which was founded in 1921 by the Scottish teacher A. S. Neill, whose ideas had been radicalised through teaching in conventional schools. Despite many travails with school-oriented government inspectors, Summerhill survives to this day with more pupils than ever. The school's website describes it thus:

"Summerhill School is a progressive, co-educational, residential school, founded by A. S. Neill in 1921; in his own words, it is a 'free school' though this does not mean, alas, that it is state funded. The freedom Neill was referring to was the personal freedom of the children in his charge. Summerhill is first and foremost a place where children can discover who they are and where their interests lie in the safety of a self-governing, democratic community.

"There are two features of the school which people usually single out as being particularly unusual. The first is that all lessons are optional. Teachers and classes are available at timetabled times, but the children can decide whether to attend or not. This gives them the freedom to make choices about their own lives and means that those children attending lessons are motivated to learn."

"The second particularly unusual feature of the school is the school meeting, at which the school Laws are made or changed. These laws are the rules of the school, made by majority vote in the community meetings; pupils and staff alike having equal votes."

Inspired by Neill's work at Summerhill, Maidstone Justice of the Peace Otto Shaw started Red Hill School in 1934, in a large house on Red Hill, in Chislehurst. Red Hill School moved to East Sutton a year later, and closed in 1992.

Another A. S. Neill-inspired school was Kirkdale School in South-East London, UK. The school was founded in 1964 and closed in the 1980s.

An institution founded on similar principles to Summerhill and Kirkdale was Kilquhanity School near Kirkpatrick Durham in Galloway in the south-west of Scotland. It was founded in 1940 by John and Morag Aitkenhead and closed in 1997.

Sands School, set just on the southern edge of Dartmoor and established in 1987, is also similar.

During the 1970s other short-lived free schools were established in the British inner cities.

Free schools in Australia
Preshil, established in Melbourne in the 1930s, is based on principles similar to that of Summerhill, although it is non residential, and classes are held at fixed times. It remains unaffiliated with any doctrinal or theological ideology, and is currently experiencing a resurgence for those seeking alternatives to the mainstream government and private schools. Students are involved in, and take responsibility for decisions about their curriculum, extra-curricular activities, and changes to the school environment. Since the 1970s Preshil has operated up to year 12.

Melbourne Community School was established in 1977 by a parents group seeking an independent small school alternative. Formerly known as the Malvern Community School, it now is located in East St Kilda.

Alia College was established in 1999 in Hawthorn East, Victoria, by educator Bob Morgan. It has many similarities to Preshil and to Montessori Schools. There are no religious, cultural or doctrinal affiliations. It has a mainstream academic focus but a strongly democratic style that allows students to speak freely and to take responsibility for many elements of school life. Classes are time tabled and students are expected to attend. It operates from year 7 through to year 12.

Candlebark School was established in Romsey, Victoria, in 2006, by educator and writer John Marsden.

Victoria See also Lynall Hall Community School, Richmond ; Currambena Primary, NSW; Collingwood College, Vic; Fitzroy Community School, Vic; and Brisbane Independent School, Qld.

Free schools in the US
Free schools have existed in the U.S. for many years, and their numbers increased with the hippie movement of the '70s. Many of the schools created in the '60s closed within the first 10 years, but there are a few notable exceptions. Today, free schools in the U.S. are again enjoying popularity as people become more educated about school choice concepts and look for alternatives to institutional school systems. Additionally, the free school movement has grown with the popularity of anarchist, non-authoritarian ideas among college-aged persons.

The Albany Free School was established in Albany, NY in 1969 and, unlike many similar U.S. schools of the time, still operates today. The Free School's founder, Mary Leue, corresponded with Summerhill founder A.S. Neill about her plan to take his experiment of radical freedoms to a different demographic: the inner city. Leue went on to create The Free School in Albany's urban south end with the idea of making these freedoms and democratic principles accessible to children of the poor.

Grassroots Free School in Tallahassee, Florida was founded in the 1970s and was founded by Pat Seery. The school still operates today. Originally, the school operated out of the club house of an abandoned, 40 acre golf club. Grassroots was sculpted very closely from the Summerhill school. The school continues to be a favorite of liberal-thinking families that have grown tired of Southern paternalism. Also, the Natural Bridge School in Tallahassee held many of the same principles, and was a frequent high-school extension of the Grassroots experience.

Jefferson County Open School in Lakewood, Colorado is a more recently developed free school, only about 30 years old. An even more recent example of the proliferation of the free school movement is the Brooklyn Free School formed in 2004.

Free skool movement
Beyond schools that offer democratic reforms to the educational system, radical experiments in non-hierarchical education with anarchist roots have given rise to temporal and permanent free schools. They are often termed "free skools" to distinguish them from what supporters view as an oppressive and institutional educational industry. Temporal free skools offering skill-shares and training have become a regular part of large radical gatherings and actions. More permanent skools in cities large and small have popped up across North America offering a wide range of workshops, classes, and skill-shares.

Free Skool Santa Cruz in California is perhaps typical of a new batch of free schools that are explicitly rooted in an anarchist tradition of collectivism, autonomy, and self-reliance, and feature informal, non-authoritarian learning outside of the monetary economy. From the Free Skool Santa Cruz website: "More than just an opportunity to learn, we see Free Skool as a direct challenge to dominant institutions and hierarchical relationships. Part of creating a new world is resistance to the old one, to the relentless commodification of everything, including learning and the way we relate to each other."

These are on-going, informal learning networks, that focus on skill-sharing among adults as well as children. The boundaries between students, teachers, and organizers are consciously blurred, with some free skools claiming, "we are all teachers, and we are all students." Free skool "classes" are often autonomous workshops held in informal settings in homes, cafes, and community centers. Free skools typically offer a monthly or quarterly-produced free skool calendar.

A particular branch of these "free skools", called a "Sudbury School" began at Sudbury Valley School and has now spread wide through the U.S. and even out to Europe, Japan and more areas around the world. A good place to find a Sudbury School in your area is the "other schools" page that is on so many sudbury school's Web sites (e.g. here).

Alberta

 * Indigo Sudbury - Edmonton, AB

British Columbia

 * FreeSchool Vancouver - Vancouver, BC
 * The Purple Thistle Center - Vancouver, BC
 * Windsor House School - North Vancouver, BC

Nova Scotia

 * Halifax Free Skool - Halifax, NS
 * Tatamagouche Summer Free School - Tatamagouche, NS

Ontario

 * Guelph Free School - Guelph, ON
 * Alternative Schools Advisory Council - Ottawa, ON
 * Alpha Alternative School in Toronto - Toronto, ON
 * Anarchist U - Toronto, ON
 * SEED Alternative School - Toronto, ON

Québec

 * Montreal Freeschool - Montréal, QC
 * École P.E.A.C.E. - near Montréal, QC

Arizona

 * Prescott Freeskool, Arizona

California

 * Davis People's Free School - Davis, CA USA
 * Isla Vista Community Free Skool - Isla Vista, CA
 * Bastiat Free University - Newport Beach, CA
 * Wildcat Community Free School - Richmond, CA (SF Bay Area)
 * City Heights Free Skool - San Diego, CA
 * Free Skool - Santa Cruz, CA

Colorado

 * Free School Denver - Denver, CO

Delaware

 * The New School - Newark, DE

Illinois

 * Chicago Free Skool - Chicago, IL (updated 2009)

Massachusetts

 * WoGAN FreeSkool, Worcester - MA

Minnesota

 * Second Foundation School - Minneapolis, MN

Montana

 * Missoula Free School - MT

New Hampshire

 * Ashuelot River Free School - Winchester, NH

New Jersey

 * Teddy McArdle Free School - Little Falls, NJ

New York

 * Albany Free School - Albany, NY
 * Harriet Tubman Free School - Albany, NY
 * Brooklyn Free School - Brooklyn, NY

North Carolina

 * Asheville Free School - Asheville, NC

Oregon

 * Ashland FreeSkool - OR
 * Portland Freeskool, OR
 * The Village Free School - Portland, OR
 * Eugene Free School - Eugene, OR

Texas

 * The Houston Real School aka Dragon Valley - Houston, TX

Tennessee

 * Nashville Free's-Kool - Nashville, TN

Washington

 * Olympia Free School - Olympia, WA
 * Seattle Free School - Seattle, WA

Wisconsin

 * Milwaukee Free School - Milwaukee, WI

UK

 * Sands School, UK
 * Summerhill School, UK

Lithuania

 * Free university in Užupis and Vilnius, LT

Currently active free schools in Australia

 * Preshil, Vic
 * Melbourne Community School, Vic
 * Fitzroy Community School, Vic
 * Lynall Hall Community School, Vic
 * Alia College, Vic
 * Candlebark, Vic
 * Berengarra, Vic
 * Kinma, NSW
 * Currambena, NSW