Surprise as it may, there is no school in the world that is named ‘Liberal School’! Being ‘liberal’ is not in school’s DNA, ‘school = regimentation’. And the best schools are just (comparatively) less regimented, may be 7/10 on a scale of 1 – 10 (highly regimented).

To be fair, however, schools can’t be liberal; schools aren’t geared for enabling distinctive educational journeys for students. Students are essentially faceless in the school system, except for the 10-15% at both the ends of the spectrum – the super achievers, and the ‘hard-to-keep’ difficult ones.

What may be liberal school education?

The following five features would typically characterise a liberal school education:

• Grade-free education
• Independent learning (with teachers as co-learners at school, and parents as co-learners at home)
• Whole-child education (to be honest, much less time on ‘academic subjects’)
• Subtle career discovery
• Competency assessment and evaluation (not knowledge, age-level expectations)

Why is liberal school education critical?

Liberal education is hardly a choice/option, it’s the right education. Here is why:

• (True) Education is personal as well as socially productive, thus, liberal; school education must fall in line
• Never was the world of work more interdisciplinary
• Soft knowledge (wisdom), soft skills, soft attitudes (such as respect for women and children) were never more essential
• Never was the imperative to be sustainable that loud and for good (wider implications of every action is a need)
• Becoming a learner is both necessary and sufficient condition to be liberally educated (not one needs to be overemphasised about the need to grow as learner)

How to liberally educate children?

Here are the more important demands and pathways to be ‘liberal parents’:

• Coming soon...