New Tagline?  Tell us what you think!

A different place to learn for those who learn differently.
Already we know that a problem with it is that many of our kids don’t “learn differently”. They just prefer to learn more efficiently – waiting until they are interested and then mastering new subjects rapidly.

Our youth members have spoken and they want something MORE than a Co-op.

We are on our way to becoming FreedomHill: the SCHOOL, although we may first spend some time as FreedomHill: the “something other than a co-op or a school”.

Please contact us to receive regular updates.

Over the past couple of years, these two FreedomHill students have been active leaders in our community and their presence is definitely missed.  One of them is actually still with us but her time is divided between college courses at Frederick Community College and working at our local Health Club.  Erin is staying with us through next year so she can complete her thesis and receive her high school diploma.  Our other student is an avid dancer and after several years with FreedomHill she gained the confidence and determination to set off on a new path.  Sydney recently was accepted in a Dance Conservatory in CT where she is among the youngest students in their full-time boarding program.  We are all very enthusiastic and proud to see both students expand their horizons with such grace and assurance.  Two of the younger boys have found themselves stepping up to the plate in handling many of the responsibilities.  Next year we have a few new older students coming in and that will provide additional leadership to the community, especially to the younger children.  The picture attached is of our two students that have sprouted their wings.  We miss their music!!!!!!!!!

Making Music

Medusa and Denise

Jasmine and Denise

Pam and Denise

Pirate Emylee

Sam the Cat

Sam the Cat and Amanda

Wolverine

Snow Princess

Fred teh Bucket Head

Chicks with Chicks

Baby Chick

Chick Love

Painting the Coop

Chicks Dig Me!

The girls of Freedom Hill Cooperative are happy to have their bathroom back.  The temporary and somewhat stinky residents have finally moved out. On Thursday, September 16^th, twenty-five baby chicks arrived, were fed, watered, warmed-up, and cuddled.  After several days of exploring the far reaches of the girls’ bathroom, they were moved into their permanent home.  Several students have been working hard building, painting, and enclosing two separate chicken coops.  The Chicken Corporation is responsible for taking care of the chicks which includes budgeting for feed, bedding and other needed equipment.  Students and staff are looking forward to an abundance of eggs in the future.

We all have memories of growing up that include dreading school, homework assignments, tests, mindless lectures, and all the rest that is part and parcel of being told what to learn and when. Many of us have spent (or I should say are still spending) a good bit of our adult life determining who we are, what we want and how to pursue our goals. Truly discovering one’s passion in life is an intense learning process. What if we all went to schools whose primary goal was to teach you about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? That is what the Sudbury model of schooling is all about.

In 1968 a small school in Framingham, Massachusetts opened called Sudbury Valley School. Sudbury Valley was the first school in the US that based its educational model on self-initiated learning, democratic governance, and individual responsibility. Since 1968, Sudbury has become successful at producing children that are highly motivated individuals making their mark on society. There are about two-dozen or more schools like Sudbury throughout the country. The next one to open will be here in Upper Montgomery County, MD called The Freedom School.

Being Responsible

Children that attend a Sudbury school are given the sole responsibility to determine what they wish to learn, how, and when. Sudbury schools are the only educational option where all the responsibility is with the student, beginning at age 5. At the heart of this philosophy is the willingness to trust that children learn what they need to in order to pursue their dreams. If you walk into a Sudbury school on any given day you will find some children working on a computer, making music, studying art, reading, writing, or engaging in conversations with other children or adults. Whatever it is you find them doing, it is part of the freedom they are offered in order to determine who and what they are about. To many, this simply looks like play. To the children, it is real responsibility that gives them experience in making decisions and handling the consequences of their choices.

Students that attend Sudbury schools have control over their environment. The school is run through a democratic process that emulates an American democratic environment. All of the students and staff are part of the democracy and all of the students have equal vote in all decisions. A five year old has the same vote and power as a school staff member. Through participating in the school’s democratic process, the students gain experience working with others to make decisions. They gain experience advocating their positions on important issues that affect their day-to-day life. They come to understand that their opinions matter and have an effect on the larger community. The school is a place where children get to practice life.

What if…?

When learning of Sudbury Schools, some ask the question, “What if a child never wants to learn to read? Write? Do Math? “ The answer is that this just doesn’t happen. In life, reading, writing and arithmetic are important tools. People are inherently motivated to learn what they need to be successful. It is when we force them to learn on a specific time schedule, with a specific agenda that motivation seeps out, sometimes for life. Students learn because they recognize that in order to survive and prosper in our culture it is needed. Students also learn because they have the freedom to identify their own interests and learn about things that matter to their pursuit of happiness, which is relevant to their life’s work.

How do you measure success?

There are no formal evaluations at Sudbury Schools. Children naturally evaluate themselves by determining their own sense of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with what they have done. Traditional report cards are not needed in this environment. In fact, research has shown that testing and reporting actually diminishes a child’s curiosity. The exact opposite occurs in this environment. When children work in small groups or one on one with staff members, engage in social successes and failures, or participate in a real-life democracy some form of self-evaluation is guaranteed. It is interesting to note that, children are more critical and develop higher standards for themselves when they are pursuing a self-imposed goal versus passing a test or passing a course. As a result, children become successful at the most important skill they could master, how to be life long learners.

Teachers that do not teach

There are no teachers and there are no classrooms. The staff is available to support student’s educational choices and to help achieve their goals. This can be done actively or by recommending a book or material, helping to identify an outside source or setting up an internship. If a student wants to learn something new, they either ask a staff member for help or another student or they learn it on their own. The staff is there to participate in the democratic process and for the on-going operation of the school. They are expected to be role models of responsible adult behavior and offer their insights to school meetings and discussions as they provide the continuity of the school community and culture.

Life after School

Most of the children that attend these schools do go on to college. It was discovered in a recent study that about 90% of the graduates attend college. And many of the students go on to pursue entrepreneurial situations or self-employment. This is not surprising given the large amount of responsibility and “CAN DO” attitude of Sudbury students. The bottom line in sending your child to Sudbury is trust; trusting that when given the opportunity to follow their innate instinct to increase their understanding of themselves and their environment, the outcome will be a life of intense exploration and growth.

Traditional education worked for a while in our country. Now, it really does a disservice to our students by hindering their ability to function capably and responsibly in a democracy. If we want our kids to grow up to be effective adults, we have to structure our schools to mirror society and produce confident and capable students. Schools need to be a place where children are able to practice life.

First and foremost, in play, children prepare themselves for life. Recently, an 11-year-old I know created an elaborate party, complete with invitations, food, decorations, and activities for her friends. As one mother dropped her daughter off at the party, she surveyed all of the preparations and commented that the hostess must have way too much time on her hands. The woman had no appreciation for the energy and creativity that went into the event. While deeply involved in party creation, the girl practiced many skills: writing, budgeting, planning, organizing, marketing, and time management. This was a very expansive and creative undertaking by a child who was given the freedom to create.

Play is what creative people do; it is where their imaginations grow. Our educational system was created during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when the goal was to limit creativity so that people could and would act machine-like, moving in lock-step. Those days are long gone. Today, our future depends on creative people. We are moving from the Information Age, which was dominated by linear, analytical thinking, to the Conceptual Age, which will require “…a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers,” writes Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind (Riverhead, 2005). “These people – artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers – will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys,” he says.

If the Conceptual Age is what’s coming, then children who play freely will be well prepared because children at play are conceptual thinkers. When devising a game, for example, children will find endless ways to create, revise, re-create, test, elaborate or expand, and try again. They take nothing for granted, and they experiment wildly, giving themselves constant feedback. Most educational systems do not value this type of learning, yet it is invaluable preparation for life in the 21st century.

Play is an activity in which children learn an essential skill: how to fail. In most schools, failing is seen as a disgrace, and this view leaves no room for risk taking. As adults, we know that mistakes and failure come with life, but that doesn’t mean we are comfortable with them. Our discomfort may have to do with the fact that we had little opportunity to practice failing while growing up. When children are able to play freely and almost endlessly, they try something over and over until they get it right—or until they realize it isn’t going to work. At that point, they move on, without attaching negative meaning to the result. This builds a resiliency that serves them well at every stage of life.

Another skill play develops is problem solving. In a traditional school, problem solving is taught by giving children word problems or artificial situations and asking them to work to reach a predetermined solution. These problems have no meaning to the students. As a result, the students mechanically apply whatever formula they have been told to use. This is not real problem solving. Conversely, in play, anything can go wrong, forcing participants to figure out appropriate solutions, or the game is over. In the process, they may go through rounds of trial and error. This is problem solving in the real world.

Intense focus and concentration are also intrinsic to play. This is particularly worthy of note considering that more and more children being diagnosed with some form of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). And yet, when these same children play, most of them have no trouble focusing. Many won’t focus at school because they are bored; the curriculum is meaningless to them. Rarely, if ever, do traditional schools allow children the opportunity to focus intently on something and follow that fascination through to its end. Instead, children learn to listen with one ear, keep one eye on the clock, and get by with the bare minimum.

Play is intense. It requires total focus, and if we allow children this focus, they can transfer that skill to anything in life. They naturally stay in the moment, an ability that adults often must work to regain later in life. “Psychologists believe that play cajoles people toward their human potential because it preserves all of the possibilities nervous systems tend to otherwise prune away,” writes Hara Estroff Marano in her article “Education: Class Dissmissed” in Psychology Today, [month?] 2006. “It is no accident,” she continues, “that all of the predicaments of play—the challenges, the dares, the races and chases—model the struggle for survival.” In short, when children play, what they are really doing is practicing life by adapting to realities that we cannot begin to emulate in a classroom. Or, as Marano writes so eloquently, “Think of play as the future with sneakers on.”