Please feel free to use this forum for questions or messages for the entire community to see. If you'd prefer to contact us directly, please use the contact form.
Alex Khost
04/23/2008 05:40pm
Joe, for a person who says they went to a "similar school," where the basics were not learned by children, you seem to have personally learned researching, reading, and writing well enough (aside from a missing apostrophe) to find, read, and write on our forum. However, without having even visited our school, which you are more than welcome to do, I think your claim might be a bit unwarranted.
Joe
04/22/2008 06:23am
Having experienced first hand a similar school, I am sad to say that all good intentions do not not always work. While embracing the benefits of this education model, I found that the basics do not enter our childrens heads by themselves. Without some type of structure or call it curriculum, children will not learn to read or add numbers. The greatest progressive social thinkers of history were well learned for the most part. Of course there are the rare exceptions. In addition, teaching is an art, which takes learned skills and practice. What I am looking for now, is a school that does not "throw out the baby with the bathwater."--have not found it yet.
simone
02/15/2008 09:01am
Peter, Peter, Apple Eater
________________________________________
Peter , Peter , apple-eater,
Had a child and couldn't teach her;
He put her in an apple shell,
And there he kept her very well.
----THE END----
Alex Khost
11/12/2007 12:02pm
I emailed my reply to Aaditto but thought it worth posting up here as well:
I imagine that for any student who wants to take the exams at the end of school (and none are actually required in the U.S. although many colleges do require them to get in, but less and less are making it a requirement) they would be able to do so. I know a lot of free schools offer the students some sort of a preparation course if those are their intentions. Since currently our oldest student is 12, we're not quite there yet!
And the point of those exams to get into college is one of the only "good" arguements I've ever heard against free schools-- taking an exam IS a skill, and since our students will have not taken any, or at best (worst?), only a few, they will most likely place much more poorly on those exams than conventional schooled children. But of course, if that's the worst criticism one can give of our school, I think I'm willing to live with it!
Aaditto Shen, Kolkata.
11/11/2007 08:59pm
Hi!
I am back, with a brief query this time...
I saw somewhere in your site that you are structuring your 'teaching-learning' set-up more in an 'open-space' format - where there is little structure and division into classes/forms and so on - sounds GREAT to me - just how it should be! No putting people into those 'little ticky-tacky boxes'!!!
However, I was wondering, what will happen if a kid actually DESIRES to sit for a school-leaving examination at the end of their tenure at Teddy McArdle Free School? Are you planning to have any such provision at all?
Best,
Aaditto.
Aaditto Shen, India.
11/11/2007 08:33pm
All the very best to all of you at the school!
I LOVE the design and elaborations of your website - and even more, the fact that another democratic free school is actually taking shape in this world! Only I wish it was closer to where I am - or that i had the resources and scope to actually go over to you - I would have LOVED to volunteer!
May all the positive energies of the world shower upon the Teddy-community!
Sallinger, I think, would have been much pleased...!
I have been thinking of starting a similar school in my own country - India - for almost 3 years now. Coming in contact with your school has been quite a moral booster...
Cheers! ... To vomitting-out all the apple-pieces!
Aaditto.
Ariana Matos
10/16/2007 12:35pm
Wow its about time something like this in New Jersey is happenng. I have always been an advocate of alternative education. As a victim of the public and private school system, I too one wish to enroll my children in a school where a love of learning is respected and kids are not forced to learn things that they are not ready for yet. I am also learning disabled and I am a huge advocate for students with learning disabilites. I am a junior at NJCU so if there is anyway that I can be part of this process I would love it!
Thanks!
Ariana
gladys
10/05/2007 01:32pm
Hope you had a good a good turnout on today's garage $ale.
I did some shopping came home and visited the website.There should be more head strong people in this world like yourself.
I am a school teacher and not only do I love a good garage sale but I do enjoy helping children in any way possible.
Stefanie
08/18/2007 01:44am
Wow -- I accidentally stumbled across this site while looking for volunteer opportunities, and the philosophy of this approach really resonates with me. I am currently a junior at Mount Holyoke College, studying Psychology/Education and pursuing teacher licensure, and was not familiar with "free school" education until browsing through the information offered here. I'm very interested in volunteering or interning in a school such as this, though I will be regrettably too far away during the school year. If any of the people behind Teddy McArdle, or any other posters, are aware of a free school located in Western Massachusetts, I'd really appreciate hearing from you.
Best wishes with this first year!
argus20s@mtholyoke.edu
Heidi
07/31/2007 11:26am
I LOVE WHAT YOUR DOING WITH THE KIDS. I HOMESCHOOL AND I LOVE IT. YOU ARE SO RIGHT EDUCATION IS NOT A ONE SIZE FITS ALL AND YOUR IDEAS ARE RIGHT UP THERE WITH WHAT A REAL EDUCATION SHOULD BE. GOOD LUCK ON YOUR FREE SCHOOL JOURNEY. I LIKE TO SEE HOMESCHOOL AS WELL AS FREE SCHOOL GROW IN NUMBERS.
Hank
05/24/2007 06:53am
A new flyer for the June 12th Open House at the school site will be posted soon. Watch for it and please make copies and distribute them as widely as possible. Give some to friends and ask them to post them too (at work, church/synagogues/mosques, markets, etc.). We need to broaden our school's awareness. THANKS!
Peter
05/07/2007 06:29am
Just saw the new site design for the first time. It looks great.
Sandra
04/27/2007 05:43pm
The new site looks great!
Hank Khost
04/02/2007 07:13am
As mentioned at the planning meeting this past Saturday, please make copies of the Open House flyer as soon as it is available on this site and put them up in as many places as you can. Suggested key sites (although anywhere is good) are: public libraries, yoga studios, art places, churches, YMCAs, Whole Foods/health stores. If possible, please place the general Teddy McArdle flyer at the site also (i.e., the one with the tear-off contact tabs). Please get permission to put the flyers up so that the school does not get complaints from places that do not allow flyers. THANKS!!
Sandra
02/03/2007 02:40pm
Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to comment on how wonderful the presentation was today with Jerry Mintz. Very informative and insightful!
Patrick B. Bishop
01/11/2007 11:13pm
Enjoyed my first TMFS meeting at the library and looking forward to the next. I scoped out some potential sites this week! Whatever physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual labor needs doing to get this school running - count me IN.
Sandra
12/07/2006 08:31pm
Hi,
It was really great meeting everyone at the meeting and I look forward to working with everyone. Some quotes to inspire:
Socrates --
“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel”
“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.”
“Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue-to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.”
and finally a Chinese Proverb -- my favorite--
“Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.”
Sandra
11/30/2006 10:47am
Hi everyone,
I wanted to reach out to anyone else who is interested in the Teddy McArdle School, but whose chidren have special needs. It would be nice to open up the lines of communication about our experiences and share in what ways we've overcome the challenges that come hand in hand with our children. Thanks. Sandra (sndrjimenez@yahoo.com)
Henry P. Khost, Jr.
11/14/2006 10:55am
Just re-read an old, short book that captures much of the spirit of the Free School in a fun style. It is called "Where Did You Go? Out. What did You Do? Nothing." As you can see from the title, it is light hearted but the message is woven in nonetheless. Very enjoyable. Unfortunately, probably out of print, but worth a web search. I'm donating my copy to The Teddy McArdle School.
Dennis Charles
11/08/2006 07:25pm
Alex,
It was great speaking to you this week. My wife and I are extremely excited about what you are putting together here. I urge any parents in North Jersey who have even the slightest interest in the Teddy McArdle Free School to attend the meeting this coming Saturday. I look foward to meeting all of you.
CFenton
11/07/2006 02:28pm
Keep up the good effort! I, too, seek to create an alternative environment for learning (down here in Florida...)! Good luck!
Emily Riedman
11/05/2006 01:46pm
In Dewey's book Experience and Education he explains how school is just a social experiment- why not provide a different type of setting for this "experiment"!! way to go ALex
Peter
11/05/2006 10:11am
Congratulations, Alex, on beginning this truly important and exciting process. I look forward to being a part of it. Btw, nice photo in the bio section! I hope to see that on the back of a book about the wild success of the TMCAFS some day soon.
Henry P. Khost, Jr.
11/01/2006 07:55am
The purposes and desired goals of education must form the basis of planning and selecting schooling. What is it it should do (there are certain necessary basics, such as learning to read well). But there are also things it could do, if they are desired/chosen (such as learning to design a chair). Beyond a few basics, the rest should match the outcome desired by those being "educated" and those responsible for them while they are young.
sandra
10/28/2006 02:55pm
Schools were made to teach us how to comply not learn. . . Education is an all day all week all month all year learning experience.
Henry P. Khost, Jr.
10/25/2006 08:16am
It is interesting, especially for your school, to recall how many prominent and highly successful persons did not come out of traditional educational backgrounds. I don't have a thorough list but Thomas Edison and Winston Churchill come to mind (the latter was a "poor" student). Others?
R. Buckminster Fuller
10/25/2006 08:02am
Everything you've learned in school as "obvious" becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines.
Albert Einstein
10/25/2006 08:00am
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
Mark Twain
10/25/2006 07:57am
Don't let schooling interfere with your education.
