FREE
FOR ALL
cally and ethnically. Only 20 percent pay full tuition, he said, and
many simply pay what they can.
The student body, made up of 60
students, is 49 percent white, 30
percent black, 13 percent Hispanic, and 5 percent Asian.
Berger used to work in business, before he grew tired of all the
“mergers and acquisitions” and
moved on to education. He worked
in New York public schools for a
while, as a teacher and administra-
HUFFINGTON
01.13.13
tor, before being turned off again,
this time by the lack of creativity
and choice available to teachers and
students in that rigid system.
Berger said that every student
“finding their own way” is a key part
of his free school philosophy now.
One student, Oscar (all students’ names have been changed),
a talkative upper school kid with
an impressive vocabulary, found
his path after a rocky start. He
said his favorite classes were The
Wire and Urban Studies, where
students watched and discussed
the TV show The Wire, and an-
Students in
”Chemistry:
The
Gathering”
create an
“elemental”
version of the
card game
“Magic: The
Gathering,”
with
characters
that hold
specific
chemical
powers.