About the Writer
Bruce is a drawing artist, with a cartoon flair. An acoustic fingerstylist with classical guitar training and has accidentally stumbled into the area of writing and blogging on democratic education or whatever catches his attention on any particular day. He has been a graphic designer and photo retoucher for over 30 years. Articles on his work have been published in Fine Arts magazine and broadcast on Brooklyn 12 news. His illustrations have been published internationally. In 2013 he self published book “84 Drawings” with a foreword by Parabola editor Lee Van Laer. He has some other ideas, but needs funds in order that they happen. If you have money please send it to him.
He is currently working as assistant shoveler and shpieler (storyteller) to his Urban Farming and Food activist wife, Sheryll Durrant as they venture into the entangled world of food justice in the Bronx as managers of Kelly Street Garden. Come visit them during the growing season and dress to do some work.
The Free School Apparent 
Hello – I don’t mean to comment on your bio, but don’t find another way to contact you directly. I just wonder if you know about Sudbury Valley School model (http://www.sudval.org/), as I don’t see them on your list of “People of Action”. If you did not include them purposefully, I wonder if you’d tell me why? Thank you, and thanks for the links. -KF
Yes, Sudbury is a form of “free” school. When my son was a baby, my wife and I had heard about the Sudbury School which was to open near Woodstock. Our thoughts began to revolve around how to move upstate and organize our lives around that. But we really did not want to leave Brooklyn. At least not then. Fortunately, a few months after that, Alan Berger published a letter in the Gazette for our food coop about wanting to start a school. That is now Brooklyn Free School.
I have read some of the studies done by Sudbury on following the graduates of their schools as to what they go on to do in life. Sudbury has a longer history and therefore is better situated to conduct such a study. I found the studies useful in justifying my support for the democratic model. I have heard there are some differences in their structure. But at the heart of it, we are on the same path.
I just wanted you to know I am enjoying reading your blog. I love the sense of community at BFS that you illustrate through your writing 🙂 I am hoping to have my child attend BFS but she is 15 so we will have to see!
Best!
Jenni
Sorry this blog has been inactive since 2016 or so. Most of the writing was done between 2009 and 2013. My son has since graduated and is now a Cartoon Major at The School of Visual Arts. He is taking a year off because Zoom was driving him to madness. It has been an interesting time during the pandemic.