From the first moments I thought about going to Albany to work at the Free School and learn about democratic education, there was a second stage to the plan. I knew I would want to come back here and start a democratic free school on the South Side of Chicago. The bald boldness of this plan seemed almost comical to me at first but everyone I talked to encouraged me to take myself seriously on this one, so I have been.
Everything that motivated me to change my course as a teacher also drew me back here. I left because I felt like I wasn't giving my kids what they needed - space and support to play, to follow their own motivation, to learn in authentic ways, to get what they needed socially and emotionally and to prepare to be engaged citizens in a diverse and complex world. I still feel an obligation to create the school experience that's missing for low-income kids here on the South Side.
So in the months since I've been back I've been working, in fits and starts, to build a school. When people ask me when we will open, I tell them the fall of 2014. Arbitrary but urgent.
Last night ten educators at a variety of life stages, from brand new teachers-in-training to experiences veterans, crowded into my too-warm living room for the second information session I've given to teachers about democratic free schools and our plan to build one in Chicago.
I say "our plan" because I have a team of co-conspirators now. Former first-grade teacher and current mother Katherine, Kindergarten teacher and fellow southsider Mia, and Cristen, who teaches high school and spent a sabbatical year at the Brooklyn Free School.
I've held one-on-one meetings with everyone from my former boss to the director of a new charter school. I've solicited advice on building codes and fundraising and community organizing. I've learned a lot in a few months. The more I learn, the more ambitious this project seems. But when I speak to individuals, or to groups like the one last night, I find that I usually connect to some hope they would like to feel about the future. This kind of education - simple and flexible and human - and in the current climate, quite radical - resonates with people. What we are building is at this point as much a mini-movement as it is a school, and I am growing along with it.
