Chris Mercogliano on Alt Ed

Mercogliano (joined below by colleagues Caroline Sharkey, Bhawin Suchak, and Mike Berry) is codirector of the Albany Free School. The independent school was founded in New York state in 1969 and grants its 50-plus students (ages 3 to 14) and eight full-time teachers equal say in school policy and operations. Although it’s equipped with classrooms, computers, and learning materials, there are no grades, tests, or compulsory classes. Teachers serve as facilitators, helping students—privileged and underprivileged alike—pursue their interests. For more information, visit: ">www.albanyfreeschool.com .

I’m a new library media specialist in a low- to middle-income middle school, and a lot of the kids I see operate at an elementary school level. Several are autistic, hence non-responsive and non-communicative. What can I do with them?

Chris Mercogliano : Try reading classic fairy tales aloud to them. Bruno Bettelheim, a child psychologist known especially for his work with autistic children, wrote in The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales that fairy tales have a powerful healing potential because they carry messages to both the conscious and unconscious minds. They deal with the universal human problems that especially preoccupy children—separation anxiety, abusive/neglectful parents, sibling rivalry, facing the unknown, etc.—and they resonate with children’s magical way of thinking. Bettelheim found that his young patients on the psychiatric ward improved dramatically when he fed them a...

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