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The Story of the
Albany Free School
Making It Up as We
Go Along is the story of the
Albany Free School, a school based on
real freedom, real community, real
democratic principles, and real
affection between teachers and
students. There, for over twenty-five
years Chris Mercogliano has taught a
never-ending variety of children—kids
of all ages from every race and social
class, from those with developmental
and behavioral problems to the
so-called "gifted." Thanks to this
ongoing experiment in education, one
of the longest running of its kind in
America, Mercogliano has come to
understand how children learn and
above all, how important autonomy and
authenticity are to the learning
process.
There is no preset methodology to
describe because Mercogliano and his
students make it up as they go along.
What the author does do is render into
words some of the possibilities that
abound when teachers and students
learn together in an atmosphere of
freedom, personal responsibility, and
mutual respect. His book debunks many
of the misconceptions about teaching
and learning, including the belief
that education requires a lot of
money, sophisticated technology, and
extensive specialized teacher
training.
Mercogliano wrote this book with three
broad goals in mind: to provide an
in-depth history of the Free School,
including a brief analysis of its
place in the broader scheme of things;
to describe the school in a way that
is meaningful to both those who have
some point of reference to the various
alternatives to conventional schooling
and those who do not; and to address
certain fundamental subjects that are
too often neglected in our national
thinking about children: aggression,
sexuality, race/class, and
spirituality. In the process, he
proves that teachers can help all
students pursue their genius and their
dreams through the union of
self-direction, excitement, joy, and
emotional honesty.
“More convincing than any book I have
had the privilege to read, this one
proves that learning by children
ought, once and for all, to be
institutionally disembedded."
—Ivan Illich, author of
Deschooling Society
"This is the most soulful and
authentic book about education since
the writings of the radical critics of
the 1960s Holt, Kozol, Dennison, Kohl,
and Herndon. . . . Mercogliano reminds
us once again that true education is
not a management technique but a human
encounter."
—Ron Miller, author of
What
Are Schools For? and
Free
Schools, Free People
"This book is an important addition to
the literature of educational
innovation and reform. It is a
thoughtful, sensitive, lucidly written
description of an earnestly hopeful
effort on behalf of children."
—Dr. Robert Coles, Professor of
Child Psychiatry at Harvard
University; author of Children in
Crisis
"You won't regret taking the time to
hear what Chris has to say, because as
codirector of one of the nation's
longest-running educational
experiments, he has certainly earned
the right to say it."
—John Taylor Gatto, former New
York State Teacher of the Year; author
of
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden
Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
and
The Underground History of
American Education
“Making It Up As We Go Along is
an exceptional story about an
exceptional school."
—Herb Kohl author of
Thirty-Six Children
“This is a voice that needs to be
heard.”
—Donald Graves
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