Supporters of the Freeschool want to make two things clear: they are not trying to create the anti-ExCo; and they are not an establishment, or even an organization.
The Freeschool has been described by its supporters variously as a forum for sharing information about free classes, a vehicle for new ideas about education and a way for people to find others with the same learning interests.
“We want people to be able to provide each other with free education,” Bobby, a “Freeschooler,” said (he and other supporters wished to go by psyeudonyms). “There’s obviously a huge financial aspect to education the way it is right now,” he continued. “You can have access to Oberlin and its resources, but only if you can find a way to get tens of thousands of dollars.”
A recent Freeschool meeting attended by 15 people included proposals for a workshop in yoga and yogic lifestyles and a discussion group about macrobiotic living.
“None of us are claiming to be experts,” one Freeschooler said. “The point is that everyone has knowledge and everyone can educate each other. It shouldn’t just be about a few people with power and a degree teaching other people.”
Others chimed in their agreement.
“Personally, I have come to recognize that learning can be done without the hierarchy and class division of private college classes,” Bobby said. “The worst is lecture classes. It sets up such a strange power dynamic.”
“The way classes are set up creates such a distanced, sterile atmosphere, making it seem like the material has no bearing on our actual lives,” Joe, another Freeschooler, said. “I think this detached feeling comes from professors having a formula for success in learning — you know, 10 percent of your grade is participation, 50 percent is one test, stuff like that.”
It appears, however, that in the minds of many Oberlin students an outlet for alternative education already exists.
“That’s what ExCos are for,” one college junior said. “We can already take or teach whatever classes we want, in whatever format we want, so what’s the big deal?”
“The problem is that there is a lot of bureaucracy around ExCos,” Alex said.
Some Freeschool classes were first rejected by the ExCo Committee.
“The ExCo committee never rejects an application based on whether or not we like the idea for the class,” committee co-chair Suzanne Friedman pointed out. “If a class is rejected it’s usually because the instructors didn’t fill out all of the application. It’s bureaucratic, but we have to ensure that people are going to get a high-quality class.”
The Freeschool’s supporters hope to distinguish themselves from ExCo by precluding certain class requirements (there are no guidelines for either the number of hours a class must meet per week or the number of classes there are in a semester) and by actively involving the community outside the College.
“The only way the Freeschool can survive is to have a strong base of support in the community outside the College,” Alex said. “Actually, not being sponsored by [Oberlin] college is core to the idea of a Freeschool. The fact is that the ExCo is just another wing of the college, and people in the town see being able to take ExCos as a rich private college coming to the town saying, ‘You’re not educated, take these classes.’”
The ExCo committee insists that it exists because people want it.
“If people didn’t feel that there was something to get out of it, we wouldn’t be offering 95 classes this semester and over 1,000 people wouldn’t be taking them,” ExCo Committee member Ben Seibel said
Supporters of the Freeschool, many of whom admitted to being enrolled in several ExCos this semester, maintain that they are not trying to be anti-ExCo, they are just trying to promote learning for learning’s sake.
“It’s worthwhile to take an ExCo; we just want to facilitate for people on a greater scale what they are already doing — meeting people, sharing their experiences and knowledge,” Joe said. “Most people already go to the Freeschool, they just don’t recognize it yet.”