Freedom in Education  

How the school of tomorrow looks like? For me, it is a school where you don't have to do anything.

Let me dream a little bit here. What do you think about a school where any child can come and learn anything he wants? If this child has more questions than answers from his relatives and friends, or anybody whom he meets in his life, he can come in this school and learn.

He may learn something here, that he cannot learn or see anywhere else. The key word is here - he may learn something, but he does not have to learn anything.

For example, you can come to this school if you want to learn to draw. Or you may choose different class (learn to jump the ropes or to work in the lab), or you may choose another teacher. Teacher is not a slave (in Latin, pedagogue is a slave, who is bringing child to school). Anybody can be a teacher if he knows something and wants to teach.

You can come to this school and leave any time you want. Very often a child does not want to finish class, but is forced to do so. In this "school of tomorrow", a child can leave any time she wants. She can go home and eat something or take a break and run outside in the playground.

You can join the drama club and participate in making backstage decorations. Or you can try to participate in the performance if you can handle the pressure.  Or you can just learn something from other kids.

Even if you did not finish certain task, you can always learn some new skills from experience, and there is no need to try to do something from the beginning to the end.
Olga Pisarik: The schools should be small, it would be better to have school in every neighborhood, like the "The young pioneer's clubs" of my childhood.  Anybody can be a teacher in this school. They can teach any subject kids want to learn. And anybody could be a student in these schools, regardless of their age. They can have a chess club over there, or book club, or drama club. In one school they can have one kind of subject and in different school completely different kind of subject.

And when you learn to do something very well, you may want to teach your friend, who is your fellow student in this school to do the same. You don't have to know how to read, or how to count, or how to solve geometrical problems,  or how to speak foreign language, or to know history. But in this school somebody can show you how all of this can be fun.
"The best school - is the place where nobody forces you to do anything."

And one last thought. The word "school" in Latin means "leisure", "a casual conversation". Let's create schools that are going to be  real leisure for our kids!

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