Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School
Philadelphia Freedom School
HISTORY
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In the summer of 1964, African people throughout the south joined with whites and blacks from other parts of the country to fight against the horrific forms of discrimination against Blacks throughout the United States. During that amazing summer, young people joined with their elders and organized their communities to stand up for the rights of Black and Brown people to vote, to end laws that enforced segregations, and to get rid of laws that perpetuated the mistreatment of Blacks in the areas of housing, education, and the criminal justice system. In that summer there were Freedom Rides, Freedom Trains, Freedom Songs, and of course, Freedom Schools.
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Freedom Schools were established throughout Mississippi and beyond. In these schools, children came together with college students from all over the country along with young people from their own communities. In the Spirit of Umoja (unity) and Ujima (collective work) they worked to strengthen reading skills, improve math, and learn about the history and culture of African people and the importance of standing up for freedom and justice.
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In 1993 the Black Community Crusade for Children in collaboration with Children’s Defense Fund organized a new generation of Freedom Schools in South Carolina. They worked to develop the model with Harambee, DEAR time, and a curriculum that focused on reading and social action. In 1995, two community organizations opened up Freedom Schools in the city of Philadelphia, Friends Neighborhood Guild, and Cunningham Family Center. In the following year, Women’s Christian Alliance joined the movement. In 2009, Friends Neighborhood Guild and Women’s Christian Alliance are the longest-running Philadelphia Freedom Schools.
Program Description
Philadelphia Freedom Schools (PFS) prove year-round educational enrichment programing for students in grades K-12. The program exists to build intellectual, cultural, civic and political capacity of children and youth in order to make meaningful change in themselves, their families, their schools, communities and larger society. PFS is governed and managed through a federation of local community based organizations, with CISP as the lead agency, helping to offer developmental activities for children in need of academic, social and emotional enrichment.
Each summer, children throughout the city of Philadelphia have the opportunity to engage in a curriculum designed with books and lessons that reflect their own images and experiences. Through various educational “Pathways” explores routes to stronger futures for the students.
The wide array of literature, activities, field trips, and projects all relate to and reinforce each other over the course of the summer. Local college and high school students serve as team teachers and positive role models in PFS classrooms. This ladder of leadership gives the younger students inspiration and support for setting positive goals.
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PFS CURRICULUM
To that end, each curriculum day is designed as a journey to and through one of the pathways to a stronger future. The basic model is:
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Departure – leaving to go to the pathway
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Sankofa Rewind – remembering something significant that can help us proceed
wisely
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Pathway of Literacy – utilizing our written resources to obtain information
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Pathway of Numeracy – utilizing mathematics and problem-solving skills to enhance
learning
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Pathway of Ma’at – using principles of justice, order and reciprocity to seek harmony
in our world
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Pathway of Djehuti – using our gift of writing, drawing, typing and inscribing to
“remember” the moment in the future
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Arrival - by this time, we should feel stronger than we began because we have
found another tool on our collective life journeys that can be used to make us thus
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