FREE
FOR ALL
HUFFINGTON
01.13.13
this standardization agenda.”
Miller said he understood the
reticence from certain parents
and educators to the free school
philosophy. “A wide open free
classroom” will not be the best
environment for every student, he
explained. But the principles behind the free school movement —
the idea that every family blazes
their own path for their children
and each student discovers his or
her own way of learning at their
own pace — is an agenda that
serves the student, he said.
“So many kids going to these
alternative schools have really
thrived,” Miller said. “Because
they’ve been freed from the rat
race. They follow their own path.
They’re happy. And that’s what
this is about: not having to be successful in conventional terms.”
THE ‘SELF-ESTEEM
INOCULATION’
Lily Mercogliano, a former student of the Albany Free School,
has been on the Board of Trustees
and has worked as an advisor at
Brooklyn Free School since 2005.
“Most people who went through
the free school system certainly
have an affection for it,” Mercogliano said. “They see what it can do.”
Isaac Graves, a former Albany
Free School school student who
now writes and researches free
school programs extensively, said
he took from his experience a
startling, “legitimate passion to
The Brooklyn
Free School’s
annual Field
Day, an event
of outdoor
games and
races.