The Circle School | |
---|---|
![]() The Circle School, Harrisburg Pennsylvania, US, 2019 | |
Location | |
![]() | |
Information | |
Founded | 1984 |
Age range | 4-19 |
Enrollment | 47 [1] |
Philosophy | Democratic education |
Website | https://www.circleschool.org |
The Circle School is a self-directed democratic school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, founded in 1984. It enrolls pre-kindergarten through high school age children. The Circle School is one of three Sudbury-like schools in Pennsylvania, where students have complete responsibility for their own education, and the school is run by a direct democracy in which students and staff are equal citizens. [2]
Jim Rietmulder founded The Circle School in September 1984 with co-directors Beth Stone and Sue Harten-MacAdam, starting with three students. [3] The school was founded as an innovative pre-school and elementary school, emphasizing children's social, emotional, spiritual and physical development as well as academics. [3]
In 1997 The Circle School added high school grades and has ever since included all grades, pre-kindergarten through high school.
In 2003, The Circle School successfully challenged a Pennsylvania law requiring students to either recite the Plede of Allegiance or sing the national anthem daily. [3]
In 2017 the school officially moved to its current location, a new 9,000 square foot building on an 8 acre campus in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. [5] On about 8 acres of land donated by the George M. Leader Family Corp., the school has "an absence of classrooms". Instead, the school building has been planned to include a "courtroom" to accommodate "hearings within the school's judicial system", and a large "public commons" for the school's governing body. [6]
The Circle School's model of schooling has two defining characteristics:
A 2015 study found that 2% of former students were unemployed and 13% were self-employed. [10]