Rochester Free School: Interviews
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The Rochester Free School is an all-volunteer, DIY, educational organization. We believe education is a right rather than a privilege. Rochester Free School works to de-commodify and de-institutionalize education with free classes open to all. The Free School currently has classes running on Crochet, Web Design, Anarchism, Feminism, Writing, and more. Visit the website at for a full and up-to-date list of all our classes.
The free school operates in a horizontal manner and tries to break down the boundaries between "teacher" and "student." We decided to conduct our interview in a similar way. Three members of the Free School, Caitlin Holcombe, Ronni Kobrosly, and Ben Dean-Kawamura, took turns being interviewer and interviewee. Below, we talk about what attracted us to the Free School, what we see as its strengths and shortcomings, and where we would like the Free School to go in 2010.
Ben:
What got you interested in the Free School? What motivates you to work on building it up?
Roni:
I first heard about the Free School through Caitlin and KT, two folks there were already involved with the Flying Squirrel community space. The idea really excited me because the people involved with the project seemed to have lots of diverse skills I wanted to develop (art, community organizing). Also, as someone who has spent a chunk of their life in higher education, I really appreciate how radical the concept of a Free School is. It seems to me that nowadays "education" and "knowledge" have become commodified. The Free School is 100% grassroots, which is great! The people in this community have so many skills and so much knowledge, it's such a great idea to create a space where everyone can freely share this!
What keeps my motivated about this project is its potential. In other big US cities, like Seattle, free schools have become community institutions!
How about you Caitlin, what got you interested in the free school? What purposes do you think it could serve in the community?