An “Unschooling” School?
BevK April 2nd, 2007
Unschooling or free schooling or democratic schooling. Read the article down to what the students have to say, which is where it gets interesting.
The music room sits empty on a recent gray morning at Clearwater School in Bothell. Four girls play cards in the “play” room nearby, and a half-dozen teenagers hang out in the “quiet” room across the way.
The crowd is in the computer room, where 20 students — about a third of this small, private school — are engrossed in strategy and shoot-’em-up video games.
That makes some of their parents uncomfortable, but it shows Clearwater is serious about giving students freedom to choose how to spend their time.
Just as children learn to talk without formal instruction, Clearwater students learn to read and write and solve math problems the same way. There are no tests at Clearwater. No assignments. No classes unless students organize them.
