What: A viewing of the documentary "Free to Learn: A Radical
Experiment in Education"

When: Saturday, January 23rd at 7:30 PM

Where: Wooden Shoe Books

Description:

Please join the Anarchism and Education study group for a viewing of
"Free to Learn: A Radical Experiment in Education," a documentary that
explores the inner workings of a thirty-year-old inner-city democratic
free school in Albany, New York. The viewing will be followed by a
one-hour group discussion.

From the documentary's website:

"Free to Learn is a 70 minute documentary that offers a 'fly on the
wall' perspective of the daily happenings at The Free School in
Albany, New York. Like many of today's radical and democratic schools,
The Free School expects children to decide for themselves how to spend
their days.

The Free School, however, is unique in that it transcends obstacles
that prevent similar schools from reaching a economically and racially
diverse range of students and operates in the heart of an inner-city
neighborhood.

For over thirty years in perhaps the most radical experiment in
American education, this small inner-city alternative school has
offered its students complete freedom over their learning. There are
no mandatory classes, no grades, tests, or homework, and rules are
generally avoided. As a last resort, rules are created democratically
by students and teachers, often at the prompting of a student. At a
time when our educators are mandated to march forward with no child
left behind, the students of the Free School, many of whom would have
fallen through the cracks of today's failing public school system,
have managed to slip out of education's back door and have run away
free.

Free to Learn follows a handful of these children courageously meeting
the daily challenges of hope, acceptance, loss, friendship, conflict,
and the difficult task of deciding, for themselves, what to do with
each day."