BY JIM RIETMULDER
THE CIRCLE SCHOOL

It is a puzzling and perverse twist of American history that our schools deny children the ideals on which our nation is founded. Contrary to prevailing practice, schools should immerse children in the dual experience of freedom and responsibility.

For a moment, clear your mind of existing notions of school and consider a fresh look at the subject. How can schools best help children to achieve their greatest potentials and grow into effective adulthood?

First consider the child. In wholesome growth, children become progressively less dependent on their parents, ultimately functioning as independent adult members of society. From the extreme dependence of infancy to the relative independence of adulthood, the essence of the child’s journey is growth of personal capacity for interacting in the world. That world includes persons, culture, nature, and technology. Important features along the way include curiosity, knowledge, experience, self-motivation, self-regulation, freedom, and responsibility.

Now consider the role of school. School should aim to support children’s expanding independence. School should immerse children in experience of the world and the society in which they are growing. American schools in particular should be buzzing with children practicing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Given freedom to explore and practice among people and resources, children naturally engage opportunities and challenges that stretch their limits, over and over again. Life’s steady stream of experience thus leads progressively to highest purpose, deepest truth, and grandest joy: the foundation of authentic, fulfilling adulthood.

American schools today present a very different world to children. In school, most children do not experience fundamental American ideals of freedom, law-abiding citizenship, due process, individual enterprise, and equal voice in governance. On the contrary, from a child’s perspective, most American schools look like rigidly controlled societies run by unelected dictators. Children are systematically rewarded for following instructions, completing tasks quickly, and valuing grades over growth. Even with the best professional teachers – competent, wise, and caring – such methods of school governance instill apathy, passive compliance, lack of initiative, and dependence on authority.

Why would Americans want to expose children to 12 years or more under a political system so unlike the rest of American society? Children learn best by direct experience and example. Immersed in the joys and burdens of American life – freedom and responsibility, opportunity and challenge – children more fully develop initiative, thoughtful cooperation, originality, leadership, and lifelong love of learning.

How, then, can schools be structured to resemble and reflect wholesome aspects of the larger world? How can schools provide children with real experience of that larger world? Consider The Circle School . Located in Harrisburg and now in its 20 th year, The Circle School is Pennsylvania ’s oldest Sudbury school, part of an international movement committed to democratic and personal self-governance in schools.

The Circle School is patterned after American government and life. American legislative, executive, and judicial systems all have their counterparts at The Circle School.

Membership in the “School Meeting” includes every child, preschool through high school, and every staff member. In its legislative function the School Meeting enacts laws, following a process that includes advance notice, public readings, public debate, and formal parliamentary procedure. Actions are adopted by majority vote, in meetings run formally by Robert’s Rules of Order.

Having no principal or headmaster, the School Meeting also exercises executive authority, including appropriation of funds and management of professional staff. The School Meeting even elects the school’s staff members each year. Like most schools, The Circle School operates on a tight budget and complies with voluminous government regulation. The School Meeting – staff and students together – efficiently manages these and many other real-world requirements.

Over the years, the school’s law book has grown to include hundreds of rules, many devoted to safety of persons and property, and many echoing laws in the larger world. All members are subject to all laws equally – staff and students alike, preschool through high school. Alleged violators are subject to investigation and prosecution by an enforcement committee on which every member serves in rotation – something like jury duty. When allegations are supported by evidence – an everyday occurrence – formal charges are filed and the defendant enters a plea. A “not guilty” plea leads to a jury trial. Older students often serve as lawyers for younger students. A finding of “guilty” leads to a sentence, which might be as simple as an extra housekeeping chore or as severe as a suspension.

“Corporations” contract with the School Meeting to conduct activities in private interest areas, such as computers, art, cooking, library management, theater, and so on. Committees meet to conduct the business of the school.

Within this distinctly American milieu, students pursue activities of their own choosing or creation, constrained only by imagination and compliance with the laws of the school. They may initiate traditional academic studies, develop community internships, create new corporations, seek election to dozens of school offices, or pursue any other safe, legal endeavors.

The point is simple: schools can model wholesome American values and systems. It is possible, practical, and proven.

Shall we transform American schools to democracies? Around the world we are learning that nation building requires long term commitment and concentrated effort. Rigidly controlled societies do not suddenly become well functioning democratic republics. Similar principles of inertia certainly apply to massive school systems. Transformation will require clear vision and sustained effort. The benefits to children and society are urgently needed.

So let’s get started. Responsible freedom need not be reserved for adulthood. Let’s put democracy in our schools, and watch the spunk and sparkle of children practicing life.