Chris Mercogliano

Tonight we went to a talk in Portland with Chris Mercogliano. He is the director of the Albany Free School and has written several books. His latest book is called In Defense of Childhood: Protecting Kids' Inner Wildness. As soon as I heard about the book, I knew Ron would enjoy the talk. Here is a blurb from the website:

As codirector of the Albany Free School, Chris Mercogliano has had remarkable success in helping a diverse population of youngsters find their way in the world. He regrets, however, that most kids' lives are subject to some form of control from dawn until dusk. Lamenting risk-averse parents, overstructured school days, and a lack of playtime and solitude, Mercogliano argues that we are robbing our young people of "that precious, irreplaceable period in their lives that nature has set aside for exploration and innocent discovery," leaving them ill-equipped to face adulthood. The "domestication of childhood" squeezes the adventure out of kids' lives and threatens to smother the spark that animates each child with talents, dreams, and inclinations.

Ron and I have talked lots of times about how kids need to have unstructured time to play. He loves to quote this George Carlin rant. But the interesting thing that came out of this talk was that Ron started saying how awesome it would be to start a free school on the Westside. It has always been a dream of mine to start at least a coop if not a school, but I know that would be something way in the future at this point. It is just great to know he would be supportive of the idea!