Thread by @naomicfisher

Interesting example of how a more self-directed approach to education gets covered in the press - the focus of the article is on curiosity and helping kids find what they love, the title is ‘school with no rules’. 1/
thetimes.co.uk/article/would-…

There’s a focus on ‘it could never work here!’ rather than finding the examples of how it does work here - @Seanfeb1962, @DerryHannam or @HenryReadhead could have told them how. 2/

This is a state school of 295 students so they can’t go for the argument usually levelled against self-directed education - that it’s just for the privileged bohemians. Instead they’ve gone for ‘it can’t scale up’, with no evidence except for a failed experiment in Knowsley. 3/

Then they bring in someone - @daisychristo - who is a proponent of a diametrically opposed way of education and to my knowledge has no expertise in self-directed education - to tell us that it can’t possibly work.4/

It’s all presented as if it’s new and unheard of, rather than something people have been doing for at least a hundred years, in the UK and elsewhere. 5/

Despite that, there are some great quotes from teachers. “the whole point of school is to provoke curiosity” “it’s about having the freedom to fly”. “Secondary education should be about preparing you to stand up in the world”.6/

The quotes from young people are particularly nice “i go to school with a smile every day” says one. Their academic results are good and many teachers want to work there. 7/

I’m left wondering, what would a school need to demonstrate in order for people to think, maybe they are onto something rather than ‘it couldn’t possibly work here’? 8/

Ask @smlcbrighton. Ask @EKSudburySchool. Ask @thegardenbriz. They’ll tell you that government policy in this country does not nurture these kinds of learning environments. Many parents want to make the choice but it is made extremely difficult for them. 9/

The biggest barrier to change is our lack of willingness to imagine a different way to learn, and instead to panic about ‘no rules’. Our young people need change. Let’s give them a future where they go to school with a smile, and where education gives them to freedom to fly.10/