At The Daily we support education in all its forms.

We have a hard time believing, however, that what’s going on at Bothell’s Clearwater School has much to do with education at all.

The school is like something out of a childhood fantasy. As The Seattle Times reports, the small private school requires no assignments, administers no tests and gives no grades. In a very real sense, it does no teaching, and has no teachers.

A parent founded the school 11 years ago on the belief that public schools were failing students, and that “free” education was a better way to knowledge. Now, in 2007, the school has 63 students enrolled, with five students graduated.

What are the 63 students learning? Whatever they want.

Times reporter Linda Shaw visited the school to find teenage;rs “hanging out,” children playing cards and a mixed bag of 20 students playing games in the computer room, including violent shooter games.

We’re sure that games like World of Warcraft and Counter Strike have plenty of real-world application, but when they form the foundation of a school’s curriculum we are left wondering what happened to reading, writing and math.

What of the school’s five graduates? Perhaps they demonstrate the benefits of self-directed learning the school purports to foster? Three have gone off to small colleges; the others have not. This is beside the point, however, since success at Clearwater School is not measured by success in college.

As such “free” schools gain popularity, it is important that the Washington State Board of Education keep a watchful eye on the students being “schooled” to ensure that they are given the opportunities of students in public schools.

The public education system may not be perfect, but it’s where most of us came from. And looking around campus, we think it did at least a decent job.