Is education freedom?

It is frequently the case that parents are dissatisfied with the role of the education system in the lives of their children. Some parents resign themselves to the limitations of schools, others join together in protest, but it is rare that parents unite to create a project to set up an alternative model of schooling. This was exactly how the school Casa Verdes Anos (lit: “Green Years Home”) began; it was founded in 2004 by a group of families who were looking for more than the typical model of post-modern education.

Located in the garden of the Palácio Marquês da Fronteira in Monsanto, this school is everything but typical. And hardly have we gone through the gate into the leafy, spacious garden than we are overwhelmed by the sensation that children belong in a place like this.

That is clearly what the project intends. It is called “Casa” precisely because it tries to provide the same comfort and happiness for children that they enjoy at home, as well as providing each of them with individualised attention. For this reason, the classes in the 1st cycle (years 1 – 4) are no bigger than 18, and a dozen in the crèche.

Activities too are a way of children expressing their individuality: through horticulture, providing an opportunity to use what they produce for their own nutrition, which, at school, is lacto-ovo vegetarian and organic; or through art, giving pupils the chance to make their own toys out of wool or wood. There are also sewing lessons, where they learn to make clothes. And everyone contributes regularly to what is affectionately known as the “table of the season”: a tree trunk where they place objects which have a connection with the current season. The clear aim is to integrate children into the natural environment, be it through the thanks they express to Mother Earth before meals, or through building a relationship with nature.

The whole outlook is based on Waldorf pedagogy, an educational philosophy comprising the body-spirit-mind trilogy, as well as on the Modern School Movement, which aims to encourage democratic participation and personal responsibility. It would certainly be premature to decide whether this methodology leads to better educated adults, but a visit during playtime shows that games take shape in a spontaneous form and integrated into the physical space of the garden.

Despite the possibility that the “Escola Verdes Anos” might seem to be hostile to conventional schools, according to Sofia Machado, an infant teacher at the school, in fact the aim “is becoming part of society and equilibrium”. And, in the opinion of both parents and teachers, it is indeed this that happens.

About the author

Hugo Filipe Lopes:Has a degree in sociology and a post-graduate qualification in clinical nutrition from the Egas Moniz Faculty. Collaborates with a number of online publications, a trainer and nutritional therapist. Honourable mentions in the Casa da Imprensa and Lisboa à Letra competitions..