It’s 8:30 a.m. at The Circle School, and the student body is gathered for morning circle in the main room of the 1910-era Mahncke Park house that has been its home for 50 years. The children begin their day as they have started every day, with a story, a song, and a Native American blessing extended to the world.
From there the students head to class. Rather than “first grade” and “seventh grade” and so-on, their rooms are named for an element of nature. Sky room may go first, followed by sun room, and more.
A deep connection with the natural world is one of the signature values of The Circle School, where students are encouraged to explore their social, intellectual, and natural world to discover knowledge and wisdom. Every inch of the main house is covered in art projects. Inside the classrooms, teachers are free to teach in their own style and manner. With a maximum 12 students per class, teachers are able to get creative and try new things. Some have Montessori training, others have art and music backgrounds, and others are traditionally trained. Some, like Terry Ramirez, are not formally trained at all.
Ramirez, one of the middle school teachers, began as a home educator. She considered herself an “unschooler,” using life experiences to illustrate and exemplify the basic skills she taught her children. What might sound unorthodox turned out to be quite effective. In high school her children tested into Keystone, and her older son has gone on to attend Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Blanca Luna asked Ramirez to “unschool” her kids as well.
Luna eventually decided to put her children in The Circle School, where she got involved thanks to the school’s mandatory parent participation policy.
Every month parents accrue a $100 fee on top of their tuition, which ranges from $540 to $580 per month. Parents work off the extra fee at a rate of roughly $10/hour. According to Luna, it’s pretty rare for parents to end up paying any of the fee. Most parents find a service niche, whether it’s accounting, teaching special classes like art or yoga, leading field trips, or helping maintain the grounds. Some, like Maray McChesney and Mark Maker, use their professional expertise to help out with public relations. Ramirez, with her classroom full of animals, serves as a teacher.
Co-ops are not as common in Texas as they are in northeastern states, but families invested in The Circle School have felt the benefits.
“It’s been a crazy supportive group…I didn’t have that before my daughter came here,” said McChesney.
As a parent, Luna became heavily invested in the school’s mission to cultivate “a thriving and compassionate community while individualizing education, fostering a lifelong love of learning, and providing the confidence and leadership skills needed to become impactful citizens of the world.”
In 2000, Luna began working with The Circle School, and eventually became its administrator. As a celebration of The Circle School’s 50th anniversary, many past founders, benefactors and board members recently came back for a tour. Luna was encouraged when one of the founders pulled her aside and said that the school was running exactly as she’d hoped it would.
“The fact that she was proud of us, and that we still did morning circle was liberating,” said Luna.
The last 50 years have seen their ups and downs. In 1965 it opened as The New Age School, a passion project of Isabeth Bakke, based on the teachings of Maria Montessori, Carl Orff, Jean Piaget, the Waldorf School, and others. Bakke was deeply influenced by Nicholas and Helena Roerich’s vision of a peaceful society and wanted a school that would equip students with the necessary tools to bring about such a world.
The cosmic humanist New Age movement began shortly after the school opened, and while there was no association, it made the school a lightening rod of controversy as the culture wars raged throughout the ’80s.
In 1990 the school was renamed The Circle School, and music teacher Melissa Javors wrote the school song to help the children embrace the new name. The ups and downs continued as the school fought for financial stability in the midst of San Antonio’s increasing suburbanization.
In some lean years, the school did not have grades 6-8. It was common for home schooling families to send their children part time. Now, Luna says, the school is operating at capacity, with a wait list. They don’t have space for part time students, and they have a thriving middle school program. A refurbished playground and a new classroom building opened for the 2015-16 school year.
While re-urbanization certainly helps, Luna also attributes this to the rising concern in middle class families that over-testing is sucking all the joy out of their children’s learning. Others are concerned that traditional middle school environments are putting kids under needless social and academic pressure.
Watching the kids playing outside during their half hour (at least) of recreation, its easy to see a healthy web of nurture. Older kids are pushing the younger ones on swings. Kids are hugging and helping each other in some areas while competing in others.
“Kids have an opportunity to learn from older students, watching what independence looks like,” said Luna.
The outdoor space is full of free from play structures as well as a playhouse, some tractor tires, and plenty of mud and rocks. With the confidence and self-actualization characteristic of the school’s students, McChesney’s daughter Arden and one of her friends explain that they had been making pottery out of the mud, but the sun cracked it.
“(The outdoor space) is an extension of the classroom,” said Ramirez.
In many ways, The Circle School is an institution whose time has come. What was radical and even controversial during the Civil Rights and “hippie” movements is now largely mainstream. Students at The Circle School were doing yoga before Madonna. They were getting in touch with nature before Al Gore was making documentaries. They don’t need celebrities to tell them what they are doing is valuable, and they will keep right on pursuing peace when cultural trends move elsewhere, just like they have for the last 50 years.
*Top image: Circle School students ponder just before recess comes to an end. Photo by Scott Ball.
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Wonderful article! Thanks for telling the story of the best kept secret in town!
This sounds similar to the schooling I had as a 1st and 2nd grader before testing was beginning to rear its ugly head.
Nice article Brandy Jacobs
The Circle School was such a blessing for our kids and our family!
Funny, for a place that prides itself on “unschooling,” hitting parents up for extra fees and/or volunteer hours seems awfully schoolish!?!
Everything has a cost. That is just their terminology used to keep track of the volunteer hours. The parents know going in.
The parents aren’t FORCED to participate, rather the school allows credit for volunteering. The nature of a co-op is that, in order to keep prices affordable, the members do jobs that would normally be a paid position – cleaning of the school, simple (and sometimes not so simple) repair, grounds keeping, etc. The diversity of skills and occupations found within the “community” are so vast that even complex tasks can be accomplished.
Funny thing is that with this abundance of knowledge and abilities, the school has a reputation for doing everything on their own (not a bad thing). During groundbreaking for the new building, a grandparent asked me if the school had actually received a building permit from the city – the fear being that the school was going to do an old-fashioned “barn raising”. I looked around and began to think about how these kids were learning that you CAN combine yoga and breakdancing, that they CAN write a play in lieu of writing a simple history report, that they CAN question the norm…
And then I ended up responding that, yes, a proper commercial building permit had been granted, because occasionally you have to play by others’ rules and color in the lines… but at least it doesn’t have to be beige!
Unfortunately, as wonderful I’m sure this school is for the students who are allowed to attend there, their admission policies are discriminatory. I called a few years ago to inquire whether my son with Down syndrome would be welcomed to attend there. I was told in no uncertain terms, “we don’t do that here.” How galling, especially considering at least two of the educators they claim to be inspired by–Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner–developed much of their educational philosophies to help to educate people like my son–people with intellectual disabilities. For example, Steiner’s Camphill schools are still in operation today. How disappointing that such an ableist school has been featured on this website. If you are looking for an alternative to public school for your child, I can wholeheartedly endorse the Discovery School of San Antonio. They welcomed my son to their summer camp program with open arms, and they told me they would be glad to have him during the regular school year as well. Currently, both of my children attend where ALL are truly welcome–our wonderful local public elementary.
And yes, that is too bad. I’m sure your child would have been a joy and a contribution to the school experience. However, they were being honest as to their limitations. One of the things we have been spoiled with in our society since legislation in the 1960s has helped us in so many ways, believing that all inclusive should be expected. But much of that can really only be provided by government agencies, because of financial cost. Maybe not your child but many special needs run into the hundreds of thousands per year. This is would be impossible at small private institutions doing well at what they do, but nothing more. Does that make sense, in a financial excuse for them?
I have wonderful memories of bringing our two young boys there 25 years ago. I have never felt as welcome at a school as at the Circle School. The kids look forward to arriving in the morning and the parents don’t want to leave. There was no junk food or industrial food served. The school’s values and our own values aligned so nicely, especially in its teaching about the natural world, science and the arts as elements of everyday learning, not subordinated subjects.
But I wouldn’t call it unschooling. I wish it was!
Erica Solis