"You are the hope of the future." That's the message Marian Wright Edelman, executive director of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), gave more than 1,500 excited college students and recent graduates as they began a week-long training for the CDF's Freedom Schools. She was preparing them for a daunting task--that of transforming the…

Freedom Schools, which operated during 1964 after the collaborative efforts of several Civil Rights organizations, provided an opportunity to understand how students can drive the curriculum to meet individual and collective needs within a community. The presence and use of poetry throughout the Freedom Schools was mysterious, given that it is…

During the summer of 1964, Mississippi communities and activists established forty-one "Freedom Schools" that served over two thousand students. The Mississippi Freedom Schools embodied a critical philosophy of education. Despite its grassroots orientation, the educational ideas espoused in the Freedom Schools did not necessarily…

Provides historical background about the Mississippi Freedom Schools that aimed to assist African American elementary and secondary students in 1964. Focuses on the questioning techniques that were based in progressive methods. Addresses discussion as a method, provides an example of a Freedom School discussion, and explores the implications for…

In 1964-65, Freedom Schools, staffed mostly by northern volunteers, were established for 11th grade Black students in Mississippi. The major goals of the summer schools were to give Blacks a broad intellectual and academic experience and to form a basis for statewide student action. (RM)

Reviews the social studies goal of citizenship education. Describes the goals, instructional techniques, evaluation methods, and classroom management strategies used in the Mississippi Freedom Schools during the middle 1960s. Contends that these schools could be used as a model for effective social studies instruction today. (CFR)