We do not believe that grades or assessment tests are quality measures of success.  We believe the best assessment is self-assessment. 

At the Emerson Lily Free School, we are there to help the students meet their goals in life.  If you give students the freedom to choose what to learn, they will have ambition and the self-confidence to seek out their ambitions.  To meet their goals, they know they will need to learn many basic skills, such as reading, writing, math, science, and history.  Many decide to go to college, and the staff is there to help them prepare, if that is the direction they take.  Colleges are now quite used to applicants without grades, due to the enormous popularity of homeschooling.

What happens when a student is constantly studied and judged as “successful” or “unsuccessful”, or a “good student” or a “bad student”?  First of all, they can easily loose a sense of their own inner-guidance system, in seeking approval of others.  What happens if access to certain classes is only available to the “good students”?  What happens if the “bad students” are labeled as “learning disabled”?  That is one of the worst labels you could give a student.  Is telling a student that they are not “able” to learn going to give them optimism for success?  Students can easily get beaten down by the punishment and rewards system of compulsory education.

Success breeds success.  It’s a state of being, in a sense.  It’s feeling self-confident with yourself.  It is a feeling of fulfillment.  What would happen if students were given the freedom to seek out what fulfills them?  When a student feels fulfilled at something like painting or sculpture, and continues with those activities, the success they feel in that area translates to most every other subject as well.  Their minds start thinking, “Well, if I can do that, I’m sure I can do this.”  It’s just a matter of self-confidence.