High Schools: Letting the Students Run Things

• Share

Freedom Annex in Washington, D.C., is a different kind of high school. It has no grades, no desks for teachers, no bells to end classes. The students choose the teachers and set the curriculum. They attend only if they choose, and they create hardly any disciplinary problems. Any that arise are handled by students, not teachers. Freedom Annex is, in fact, the first accredited student-run high school in the U.S.

"Modern Strivers." The school was opened last month after a year's preparation by students at Washington's Eastern High School, where there are only three whites in a student body of 2,400. Gregory Taylor, now a senior, resented his classification as a "basic" student (meaning that he was destined for manual labor), and he was uninterested in what he considered an irrelevant curriculum. Taylor organized a group called the "Modern Strivers." With the help of George Rhodes, Washington's assistant superintendent for secondary schools, the Strivers worked out a written proposal for their own freedom school.* They raised funds, got the loan of two floors in a church-owned building and a promise of volunteer bus service from Washington's Urban League.

Freedom Annex now has a curriculum that many college black-studies departments would envy. Twelve salaried and accredited teachers offer 85 students courses in black history, Swahili, black literature, black art and drama and community organization. Students spend half their day at Eastern High in the study of math and the sciences, half at the Annex. Though the Annex gives no grades, just pass-fail ratings, the high school gives full credit for Annex classes, and Eastern's Principal William Saunders backs the student-run school enthusiastically. He is particularly impressed by the lack of disciplinary problems. "If all the students at Eastern High School brought me the kind of problems the students at the Annex do," says Saunders, "my job would be a breeze and a source of continual challenge and excitement."

Risk of Excess Success. Despite the emphasis on black studies and black pride, no anti-white hostility is discernible. By their own efforts, the students have rejected the lethargy and alienation inherent in their ghetto lives, and they take a positive view of the future. They plan to keep Freedom Annex improving and growing. Already, four dropouts from Eastern, encouraged by the Annex's freedom, have returned to classes and are doing well.

The trouble is, despite donations and grants, the Annex does not have enough money to operate for the entire year. The students plan to hold a fashion show and put on a play to raise funds, but even if they succeed their school will still be in danger. There is a possibility that Washington will adopt the Annex program for its entire school system. The Strivers would like to see the idea spread, but they know that a large part of the Annex's appeal is that it is voluntary. Massive adoption, they fear, might well kill the spirit that makes Freedom Annex ring.