Jon Scott learned how to read at the age of 10. At 11, he learned the entire multiplication table in four hours.

Scott is a former resident of the Stelton Colony, also called the Ferrer Colony, an anarchist intentional community that was once located just off of the current Livingston campus.

The Stelton Colony was arguably the most important anarchist colony, said Ben Pauli, a teaching assistant for Rutgers English Writing Program. It was distinguished from other colonies because it was built around a school.

Pauli discussed the colony at a talk yesterday titled “Anarchism and Education in New Jersey: The Legacy of the Modern School of Stelton,” held at the Alexander Library on the College Avenue campus.

After an introduction and a short video, Scott and fellow former residents Steve Shapiro and Ralph Coppola shared their views on the colony and the childhood experiences they had at the colony.

Coppola said the school and the community were really one entity, without a differentiation between the two.

“You talk about a school without walls, well, the school had walls but they extended into the community,” he said.

Historically, New Jersey has been a place for colonial experimentation because of its proximity to New York. The state had a large amount of cheap land available for people to practice their new ideas about social arrangements, Pauli said.

Francisco Ferrer, who founded the first modern school in Spain, directly inspired the Stelton Colony. The desire to escape the ills of modern society and establish places of refuge contributed to social experiments, Pauli said.

The families that came to Stelton were mostly people looking to gain freedom from oppression, Shapiro said.

Coppola told the story of his grandmother coming to the United States alone when she was 15 years old to escape oppression in Latvia.

They believed and practiced the concept of freedom in every aspect. Liberation internally and externally was their mantra, Coppola said.

The main idea of the modern school is freedom through education, Pauli said. One of the important values of the colony was to transform children into free-thinking individuals and not into the obedient and patriotic students that public schools wanted them to be.

Shapiro said the modern school that Ferrer set up was revolutionary because it focused on child-centered education and interests.

At Ferrer’s original modern school, attendance was voluntary. They had no exams or grades, and used the new concept of field trips to get children into the environment to learn firsthand, Pauli said.

The founders of Stelton based the school on these ideas, among others, he said. Stelton had teachers work with the children’s interests rather than dictating to them. This would transform them into individuals who could make their own judgments.

Coppola remembers going to the brook and looking at the frogs and the fish. That was his “biology lesson.” The school had no curriculum, but if a child wanted to learn something, they would find a teacher to instruct that one student, Coppola said.

“No one was expected to do anything or be anywhere they didn’t want to do or be,” Coppola said.  “The colony was not based on constraint. No teacher forced you to learn to read, write or do math. The whole idea was for the teacher to stimulate and guide you.”

Scott said everyone, including the children, participated in all activities of the community. They built, painted and cleaned the school. Everyone in the community had a garden to supplement their diet during the rough times of the Depression.

It was a fantastic place to live, Scott said. Nobody locked their doors, and parents helped all of the children.

The men were asked if it was difficult to learn so much and become successful despite the lack of curriculum.

“When you are given the time, you can do anything, and you will learn it well,” Scott said.

Although everyone cared for each other, they were still somewhat involved in disagreements. Coppola said they had heavy debates consistently, but everyone agreed that learning was critical.

Coppola also pointed out one unique thing about growing up in the colony was all the children assumed the whole world worked the same way. He remembers going to a public school when he was old enough and being shocked that he had to stay inside the building the entire day.

Pauli indicated very few members of the University community know that they are living right where one of the most important anarchist colonies used to be, and how easy it is to learn about it.

He learned remnants of the colony still exist, and Alexander Library is home to an archive of documents associated with the school.

“What struck me was the uniqueness, importance and existence of the community that has gone unrecognized. It is important to any person interested in education, democracy and social change. We hope to publicize this history so it can continue to inspire,” Pauli said.

Today, the organization “Friends of the Modern School” has regular meetings where the residents can reminisce with each other.

“We all come back to these reunions every year [to relive] that feeling and experience that we haven’t been able to get any other place except the modern school,” Coppola said.