  Detrimental Schooling: How Traditional Education Harms Children and Society
Alternatives to Traditional Schooling
Myths About Home Schooling/Self-Directed Learning and Commonsense Answers
The School Student’s Bill of Rights
Quotes About the Detriments of Schooling
The School Student’s Bill of Rights
© 2004 Laurie A. Couture, M.Ed, LMHC
1. All young people have a right to a democratic education, as the United States of America is a democracy. This includes the right to individual thought, idea and free speech, even as it differs from the educator’s, and the right to all the responsibilities associated with free speech; the right to question their educator’s ideas and statements without punishment; the right to develop an individualized curriculum; the right to question and dispute the validity of the teacher’s/school’s curriculum as it applies to the individual; the right to develop an alternative independent study if the current curriculum fails to stimulate interest.
2. All young people have an inherent right to safety of their person and to have their physiological needs met and respected.
This includes the right to be free of physical punishment; the right to eat if hungry; the right to have water at all times; the right to eliminate bodily waste whenever the need arises, without restriction; and the right to rest and exercise. These physiological necessities cannot be withheld as a form of punishment or containment, nor presented as "privileges" that must be earned.
3. All young people have the right to freedom of movement and physical activity.
This includes the right to move freely around the classroom and building without confinement unless there is a specific emergency at hand; the right to shift to a more comfortable seating arrangement, such as on the floor; the right to periods of unstructured outdoor and physical activity at least three times during the school day. The need for outdoor and physical activity cannot be withheld as a form of punishment, nor presented as "privileges" that must be earned.
4. All young people have the right to have their individual learning styles and learning needs met according to their strengths.
This includes the right to receive information and demonstrate understanding of the information through the sensory channels most appropriate to the needs of the individual, including movement ("hands-on"); the right to receive information and demonstrate understanding of the information through the intelligence channels most appropriate to the needs of the individual, including artistic, visual, kinesthetic, verbal, musical, logical, introspectively and intraspectively (group work); and the right to proceed at each learning task at a pace suitable to the needs and abilities of the individual.
5. All young people have the right to be respected as individuals.
This includes the right to wear the clothing and hair style that the individual chooses, as long as the dress style is legal/appropriate to wear in public; the right to be valued as one is, not according to how well one conforms to the rules, needs and desires of a teacher.
6. All young people have the right to emotional and social respect.
This includes the right for the individual’s behavior to be understood and viewed in the context of the individual’s life circumstances and needs; the right for firm and vigorous protection by the school system from peer harassment and from teacher ridicule, discrimination and disrespect; the right to real human relationships with teachers based on nurturance, respect and caring and the right to have one’s developmental social needs met during the school day (the need to socialize).
7. All young people have the right to real world experience in every aspect of their curriculum.
This includes the right to spend the school day pursuing self-directed learning, education and resources outside of the school; the right to spend the school day in apprenticeships in fields of individual’s interest, and the right to have school life follow a community model rather than a prison model.
8. All young people have the right to free time and solitude.
This includes the right to large amounts of free time and space for solitude and socialization through out the school day; the right to own one’s time outside of school to be free from intrusions such as homework, projects and study, unless the individual chooses this as part of the individual’s curriculum.
9. All young people have the right to sanctity of the home.
This includes the right to be free from school intrusions in the home such as homework, projects and studying unless the individual child chooses this as part of the individual’s curriculum; the right for children’s behavioral issues to be addressed at school and to remain the private business of the child unless the individual chooses to share these with their parents (or unless a serious medical, psychiatric or legal issue is suspected), and the right of the child to full advocacy by their parents untainted by negative reports and evaluations by the teacher.
10. All young people have the right to opt out of any educational experience that does not meet the individual’s needs and personal goals in order to pursue a an educational experience that meets their needs and goals.
11. All young people have the right to have their work evaluated in a constructive and individualized manner free from tests and grading.
This includes the right to a comprehensive evaluation taking into account all areas of a child’s being, needs, experience, learning styles, sensory channels, talents, efforts, strengths, challenges and individual goals; this includes the right of the child to participate in self evaluation as part of the overall evaluation; this includes the right of the child to include in the self-evaluation an evaluation of how well the teacher supported the individual’s learning goals, strengths and needs, and the right of the child to dispute and appeal the teacher’s evaluation.
12. All young people have the right to privately evaluate the competency, effectiveness and behavior of the teacher and the right to influence the firing of any teacher who consistently fails to treat children with respect and dignity.
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