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Selected Blog Posts
I connected my laptop to the internet and fire trucks came
I've been marveling that not a week goes by (sometimes not a day) without something brand new happening, that's never happened before in the school's 30 years. Here's (one of) this week's first-time happenings, an interesting cascade of events: Wireless internet...
Curriculum: Let It Go! Let It Go!
Matt likes music that sounds to me like a car crash. Recently I found solace in the softer sounds of Disney's Frozen, sung and played (endlessly) by younger friends. 18-year-old Matt greets me with a big smile and genuine warmth; ready to engage, caring about me. When...
What would you change about public school?
Professor Richardson asked 15-year-old Ian what he would most like to change about public school. With 25 people in the room, most of them graduate students and current or future teachers, here's what Ian said earlier this week: [Ian:] I think it would be the...
Skateboarding in the Library
Five minutes before the Hour Of No Rules, I saw Cord and Zach sneaking out of the conference room lavatory. It was Zach who had proposed to suspend the rules for an hour, and brought it to a vote with mischief behind his charming grin. And Cord—well, Cord is our...
All About Anarchy
If I'm being honest, it wasn't anarchy, but something more akin to libertarianism. The rules weren't really gone, but School Meeting voted to suspend enforcement of any victimless violations. And not even all of the rules were gone -- those about campus boundaries,...
Circle School Grandparents
My mom is great. When Graham was a newborn, she used to arrive at my house late in the morning, bringing lunch for us and a basket of washed, folded baby clothes. She’d admire Graham, and we’d eat lunch together. Then she would do all the dishes, including the ones...
A History of Snow
This doesn't really require a narrative, right? Circle School kids are not unique in their love of snow, but they might be unique in how much time they get to play in it! Helpers Ashlin, Avery, Lexi, and Lucie sorted through pictures from 1984 through 2000ish with me...
Connor’s List
A little over 20 years ago, a young Connor Tyrrell (now president of The Circle School Board) dictated a list of reasons he wanted to attend The Circle School. I think most of them remain relevant today! -Julia I'll learn Japanese at TCS. I can do math at my own level...
Cracking the Ice Cream Maker Whip
This post is contributed by parent Joan Cramer, whose sons John and Graham have attended The Circle School since 2008. It’s catalog season again! I’m not much of a shopper, but this time of year I love to curl up with a cup of coffee and a thick stack of catalogs. I...
Musings on Forced Apologies
Sometimes while serving on the Judicial Committee at school, I am involved with my fellow JC members in giving a sentence to someone charged with physically or emotionally hurting someone else. It is often challenging to figure out an appropriate sentence, and...
Homework
There are three 10ish-year-olds at the kitchen booth doing homework. "I have SO MUCH homework," they keep saying. They've made two bags of microwave popcorn between them, covered the table in paper towels, and poured the popcorn out into a huge pile. They are munching...
Forts & fights & thirty years
At School Meeting today, we'll hear a motion to amend the current rules about "WIPs" (Works In Progress) to allow for outside WIPs to be kept on forts overnight. In other words, to establish some form of property rights -- the ability of a fort-builder to maintain...
Other Writings
What Kind of School?
The Learning Edge
Focusing on the latter, The Learning Edge offers thoughts about how and why self–direction is important and effective in education, proposing a framework of ideas supporting the practice of self–directed schooling.
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Selected Newsletters
Musings on Forced Apologies
Sometimes while serving on the Judicial Committee at school, I am involved with my fellow JC members in giving a sentence to someone charged with physically or emotionally hurting someone else. It is often challenging to figure out an appropriate sentence, and...
Homework
There are three 10ish-year-olds at the kitchen booth doing homework. "I have SO MUCH homework," they keep saying. They've made two bags of microwave popcorn between them, covered the table in paper towels, and poured the popcorn out into a huge pile. They are munching...
Forts & fights & thirty years
At School Meeting today, we'll hear a motion to amend the current rules about "WIPs" (Works In Progress) to allow for outside WIPs to be kept on forts overnight. In other words, to establish some form of property rights -- the ability of a fort-builder to maintain...
Over Exposure
“But how will my child know what she’s interested in if she never gets exposed to it?” This question has been addressed many times before, but I woke up this morning thinking about it, so here are my thoughts today. Underlying this question is an assumption: “It is my...
Wedding democracy
I don't know whether to call it democratic, or maybe crowd-sourced. Either way, I have never experienced a wedding as I did on Saturday. Well, yes, I was the father of the bride, and so, no, I don't see it through clear eyes, what with love and tears and all. But,...
The Year in Pictures
The 2012-13 "Year in Pictures" slideshow, for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7MoT0it43g&rel=0
Seven sins of forced education
"Children are biologically predisposed to take charge of their own education." So says psychologist Peter Gray in his recent new book, Free To Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for...
Another note about test scores
Peter Gray's latest post over at Psychology Today, Be Glad for Our Failure to Catch Up with China in Education, reminds me of this post Jim wrote here back in October. Both make the pretty commonsense point that standardized test scores are probably not a great...
A view from a new family
A new-to-The-Circle-School mom wrote a post on her blog about their journey from Kansas City to Harrisburg and The Circle School, and some of her observations and experiences of the school. I found it interesting, and even learned some things (did you know we have...
Agency and coercion in several kinds of schools, Part 1
As a teenager in the 1970s, I wanted to be a fifth-grade teacher—an impulse that remains today, perhaps because I still love and listen to my inner nine-year-old. I studied interesting schools back then (still do), and traveled to visit several while still in high...
Weaving justice
Last night our judicial team demonstrated for the school community how the wheels of justice go 'round at The Circle School. Simulating what we do every day, they investigated complaints of law-breaking—real cases from a few years ago, with names changed. The...
Agency, attention, mistakes, and school
Agency is the capacity to choose and act on your own behalf, and may be a hallmark of life. A rock just sits there, but living creatures can do things, can take actions. Even bacteria detect and move towards nutrients, making choices and taking action in a primitive...
The benefits of play
Play is a hot topic these days, and every article I read on the subject reinforces for me the "rightness" of the Circle School experience. Here's an article about the benefits of play, both social and "academic." Enjoy. 🙂 -Julia
Growing
The nice man is just trying to be friendly. “So you two girls go to The Circle School…What’s your favorite subject?” The young girls are a little nonplussed. “We only take classes if we want to.” “Oh. Well what do you do at school, if you’re not in classes?”...
Infinity and the backyard bell tower
Nature impels us to avoid death and seek infinity. Call the first a biological imperative and the second a spiritual imperative. The first is the survival instinct. Maslow's hierarchy of needs suggests you must satisfy the first before you can do much about the...