The Manhattan Free School

People have been asking questions about our school and the philosophy behind it. Here are some answers to these questions. We hope they will be useful to you.

What is a free school?

Free schools are also known as democratic schools, and they are rooted in the belief that all people like learning and want to learn. For more than a century these schools have prided themselves in their commitment to self-directed learning and equality in decision making. The Manhattan Free School is modeled after long-running democratic schools, such as The Summerhill School (England), The Sudbury Valley School (Framingham, Massachusetts), and The Albany Free School (Albany, New York).

How will children be prepared for the real world?

The democratic free school model is much closer to the real world than traditional models. In the “real world” there is age mixing and there is no one to tell you what to do all the time. In the “real world” we are responsible for our own actions and our own accomplishments. So children learn about the real world every day at this school.

Are there any quantitative studies which support the democratic free school model, in terms of outcome for students?

Studies in homes, schools, and workplaces repeatedly show similar results: When people are empowered to make their own decisions, they are more satisfied and likely to yield more thoughtful results. The Manhattan Free School is based on many of the same principles as the Summerhill School in England, the Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, The Albany Free School in Albany, New York, and the Brooklyn Free School in Brooklyn, New York. Since the Sudbury Valley School opened its doors in 1968, educators have conducted extensive research of Sudbury graduates. Former students of the school clearly expressed that their democratic, free education helped them immeasurably. Their educational experience aided them greatly in the pursuit of an occupation, higher education, or other life choices - providing strong evidence that this approach works.^*

^*Greenberg, Daniel, & Mimsy Sadofsky (2005). The Pursuit of Happiness: The Lives of Sudbury Valley Alumni. Framingham, MA: Sudbury Valley School Press.

How does the school ensure that students learn the "basics"?

What is meant by the “basics”? This question in and of itself represents a core principle of the Manhattan Free School. A certain segment of society has sought, and succeeded, in imposing their view of what is important for all students in America, and indeed in much of the world, to learn in school. We don’t presume to know what is best for each individual student to learn now and certainly not what will be best in the next five or ten years. The world is a fluid, fast-changing, and increasingly open society where individuals need to be first and foremost confident, flexible and independent thinkers and learners. Nurturing these qualities is what a free school does best. What a student learns is determined by each individual’s own unique set of talents, skills, and interests which they pursue in their own good time. Students learn how to read, write, and do mathematics (these skills constituting the common perception of the “basics”) in a natural and organic fashion; as necessary to support and better understand their passions and interests. There is no more effective way to learn than as a natural means to accomplish a self-motivated end.

If the students aren't "exposed" to knowledge, how will they find out what they like?

Children are innately curious and are exposed to a tremendous variety of information on a daily basis from their family, friends, schoolmates (younger and older), staff members, media, and the world around them. In a free school environment, students do significantly more exploration of a greater variety of topics and subjects than they would ever be exposed to at a traditional school. Furthermore, once a student finds a particular area of interest they are not limited by whether or not there is a course offered on that subject, nor are they restricted in the amount of time and effort they can expend learning about that interest. Subsequently they are able to delve much more deeply into that area, thereby obtaining significantly more knowledge and understanding than would be possible in a traditional setting. In addition, all staff members at the school are free to offer any subject or topic that interests them to the students. Finally, the school has the flexibility and mission to establish numerous ties with local organizations and individuals for in-school visits and workshops and to take trips to locations around the city of interest to the students on short notice.

What happens if a student doesn't do anything?

It is actually impossible to do nothing. What most people are concerned about is students doing what looks like nothing; for example playing video games, playing cards, reading all day, etc. The truth is that everything the students do has value, particularly to them. The evidence is that when a student appears to be doing nothing, by simply observing the activities of others, for instance, they are actually paying close attention and learning tremendously from what they are observing.

My child has been diagnosed with "ADD/ADHD" ; what about him or her?

Experience at other democratic free schools indicates that this is not a problem. They find that when children are allowed to expend their excess energy through play, they can then focus. According to John Holt in Learning All the Time, research by specialists in learning disabilities links so-called "perceptual handicaps" with stress. Such research has shown that when students with supposedly severe learning disabilities were placed in a relatively stress-free situation, their disabilities soon vanished. Millions of children in the United States are on prescription medication, sometimes called the "school drug", to control their behavior and promote learning. Other democratic free schools have found that there is no longer a perceived need for these drugs when children are not coerced into learning, and when the need to be responsible for their behavior comes from within. The democratic process in particular promotes development of this internalized sense of responsibility for one's own behavior through honest, direct interaction with a community of friends and peers.