Admission process:
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Go through materials in "Getting Started" section
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Attending Explore BeMe and/or face to face meeting with Prakash
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Admission questionnaire filling by parents (10-12 questions that make parents reflect their decision to consider alternate schooling in general and BeMe specifically)
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One week trial (to help the child get a sense of the environment and decide if he/she is fine join BeMe.One week trial is applicable only for 5+ years children)
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Face to face meeting of parents and child with the faculty team
Recommended listening
You may say, “Given the freedom to children, what if they make wrong decisions? If I was given that freedom in school, I would have just messed around". Maybe you are right. Maybe you would have. But that's not because of who you are. That's because of the environment you are in and how you are treated. Children who are trusted will become trustworthy. The children who are respected will learn proper self-respect. Children who are cared for will learn to care for others. Practising democratic education isn't about making them stamp their feet and make demands. It is about supporting them and facilitating their development so that they can be motivated to fulfil their potential.
For more thoughts listen to this BBC Four Thought podcast on Democratising Education (20 minutes)
Recommended Videos
Recommended reading
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Read a few chapters from the book "Free At Last" by Daniel Greenberg
(The book is available on Amazon / Banyan Tree Book Store and , soft copy is available here )
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Comparison of different philospohies w.r.t Sudbury Valley School model
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BeMe is inspired by Summerhill School (UK), Sudbury Valley School (USA), and democratic schools in Israel. We recommend you yo explore more about these schools.