by Cody Unger | Nov 13, 2023 | Daily life, Ideas, Pictures
Circle School staff continue to advance our staff initiative as adopted in fall 2022: Increase the quality of life for Circle School students and staff, particularly through three initiatives: Increase students’ access to resources. Increase staff’s...
by Jim Rietmulder | Oct 15, 2023 | Daily life, Ideas, Pictures
Drag-alongs, tag-alongs, stumble-ons, and happenings The Circle School describes itself as “self-directed” education, but that term can be misleading. Talking about student freedom, initiative, and self-direction sometimes creates the impression that each student is...
by Jim Rietmulder | Apr 14, 2023 | Ideas, Public policy
I want children in school to find happiness. Not momentary fireworks, but the saturating joy of purpose and meaning in life. Not someday, but now, as children. I’ve noticed that kids who live fulfilling lives as kids tend to build fulfilling lives as adults. I think...
by Cody Unger | Sep 2, 2022 | Stories
When I was 13 years old, I didn’t want to attend The Circle School. My mom and stepdad had fallen in love with the school, and found my two younger siblings required no selling on the idea, but I wasn’t buying. I was mostly happy in public school, though...
by 007 | Jun 8, 2022 | Daily life, Pictures
Concealed in a shipping container, six secret agents arrived in April — unarmed, disarming, and charming. Their handlers, the Cool Things Outside Corporation, commandeered a lavatory and quartered the agents in an improvised barracks. Dozens of locals peeped in...
by Ellen Abbott | Apr 7, 2022 | Uncategorized
Over the past year, I was a member of The Circle School’s ad hoc Anti-Racism Committee, formed by the Board of Trustees in February 2021. I’m so grateful for the perspective I gained through this work, and in conversations with my fellow committee members (Kirsten...
by Jim Rietmulder | Dec 1, 2021 | Stories
With retirement on the horizon, I’m feeling reflective. This morning I’m thinking about how different The Circle School is today from the way it was in its founding years. And how much the same it is. I’m thinking about changes to come, and how the cherished sameness...
by Faith Brooks-Carr | Sep 14, 2021 | Parenting, Stories
Hello Circle School Family! I became interested in the school many years ago when I started my family. I had begun delving deeper into research regarding what successfully existed globally based on the personal criteria I held. My personal criteria were heavily...
by Jim Rietmulder | Aug 27, 2021 | Ideas
At first glance, you might get the wrong idea from the title of my book, When Kids Rule the School. You might think kids are in charge in some sort of absolute way. It’s not that simple. The publishers didn’t like my working title: “Kids Practicing...
by Marina Reinford | Aug 11, 2021 | Daily life, Stories
Sometime back in March, I made a cardboard spinning wheel at school. If any of you are wondering what type of school I go to where I can make a spinning wheel out of cardboard, it’s called The Circle School, and it’s a self-directed democratic school in...
