I’m not sure a “school with no rules” would work for everyone. But for any criticism one could come up with for schools like Currambena, one thing is true. Schools like this one are the result of an education system that puts results ahead of student welfare and arcane rules and regulations in the place of building an environment in which children can thrive.
Currambena works very differently to the typical school:
There’s no morning bell to signal the start of the school day, either. Children simply gravitate towards classrooms when ‘inside time’ begins. Some stay digging in the vegie patch and if, for some reason, a child wants to spend the day doing maths in the tree fort, so be it. There are no room numbers or official grades, no tests, no lining up, no homework.
For a start, if children aren’t forced to sit in class and finish their maths, how do parents know whether they’ll bother at all? Rachel Turner, who sends her kids to the school, recalls how it worked for her: “I took school very seriously and was incredibly involved in it. I was never tempted to shirk, because learning was fun.
“As long as teachers know the children are participating – that nobody is being left behind – the kids have the freedom to do what they need,” she adds. “Teachers make sure everyone is reading and writing, of course, but if a child is consumed in one activity, why shouldn’t they be allowed to continue it?”
I’m not sure that schools like this one will become the norm. I can’t see this style of school appealing to more than a certain niche. However, it does remind us that schools are too cold and out of touch.
There are far more people out there who have had terrible experiences through school compared to those that reflect on their school days in glowing terms. This is simply not good enough. We spend the best part of our youth at school and the argument that “it is what it is” doesn’t wash with me.
Perhaps we don’t need something as revolutionary and extreme as a free-range school, but certainly not what we have at the moment.
Tags: Education, Family, kids, life, News, Parenting, Schools, Teaching
Topical Teaching 
Leave a comment