Free Range Kids

"The best way to raise kids is to lay off" -Shulamith Firestone

I'm a free range kid who made it to grownup-hood with my creativity intact. I am so grateful to have had a long, free childhood because it made me confident and able to follow my own inner prompting.

 I ran around all day, mostly outside in hills and creeks and forests, with the neighborhood gang of kids and alone, building forts and treehouses, playing games we made up ourselves, climbing, jumping, fighting, hiding, and exploring. We made up shows and songs, captured bugs and frogs, and stayed out until it was too dark out to see.

We did dangerous things, and learned to be careful. We got hurt. There were tears, stitches, X-rays, disputes and dramas. Mostly when we could handle it ourselves, we were allowed to, knowing the grownups were around somewhere if we needed them. We felt we could pretty much knock on any door for help. We were trusted to take care of ourselves and each other. In this way, we became resilient.

Oddly, even though there has been no rise in actual danger to children going around in public, there has been a huge increase in awareness of all of the dangers to them. This has resulted in children in our culture being shut into colorful, safe boxes, er  'play spaces' and set in front of programmed electronic educational screens to safely and passively absorb processed information to utilize optimal educational efficiency goals, blah blah blah...

On behalf of shut in children everywhere, I cry, HELP! Whenever I did have to go to school, I did not like it. Every day as I sat in school, bored, I dreamed of getting free somehow. My child self actually promised that my grown up self in the future would help liberate children because I saw how helpless they were, while children, to get free. 

There must have been a few more like me because now there is a movement. Free schools, free range kids, the slow parenting movement, forest kindergarden,  all of these have sprung up.

The Circle of Children is a school that embodies these concepts. From their statement of purpose:

"We believe children can be trusted to identify and pursue their passions when supported by the proper fertile environment. Learning is a natural process which children are drawn to and enjoy when they are allowed to follow their own inner guidance..."  (Watch their four minute video here:)