Alternatives in Education: Inside and Outside the System
Spring 1998
Marie Eaton
Fairhaven 344 650-3680
"Today there is a wealth of new thinking about schooling, yet it is fashionable in America to say that schools are failing and there is a groundswell of anger against educators of all kinds... It is a mistake to reform the educational system without revising our sense of ourselves as
learning beings, following a path from birth to death that is longer and more unpredictable than ever before... The avalanche of changes taking place around the world, the changes we should be facing at home, all come as reminders that of all the skills learned in school the most important is the skill to learn over a lifetime those things that no one, including the teachers, yet understands... The world we live in is the one we are able to perceive; it becomes gradually more intelligible and more accessible with the building up of coherent mental models. Learning to know a community or a landscape is a homecoming. Creating a vision of that community or landscape is homemaking."
Mary Catherine Bateson, Peripheral Visions: Learning Along the Way (p. 212-213, HarperCollins Books, New York, 1994)
In this class we will explore various alternative education and school reform movements, including philosophy, politics, implementation, financing, and historical context in order to help us answer some of the following questions. What is the nature of alternative schooling? Do alternative or non-traditional programs have anything in common? To what are they an "alternative?" What can these programs teach us about pedagogy and the creation of a positive teaching/learning environment?
Texts: Leue, Mary. Challenging the Giant, Delpit, Lisa et.al. Rethinking Schools: An Agenda for Change and Manual of readings - all at bookstore
Credit evaluation: Regular attendance, informed participation in class discussions and on the listserv, group and individual projects which reflect an understanding of the issues in alternative education.
Assignments ••••Marie do the first post and require ALL to answer it••••
1. On-going reaction to readings: Use campus listserv to participate in discussion. Each student will be assigned one set of readings to develop questions about to post to the list. Questions must be posted no later than the class discussion prior to the one dealing with that material. The questions should "point" directly to the text as at least a starting point. Each class participant should respond to at least five postings during the quarter. Responses should be at least 2-3 paragraphs and should respond to, enlarge, challenge, or add to the question or point of view raised by the poster, or by other respondents to the question, and should also ‘point’ back to the text (or other readings). DUE: Six times (one question posting and five responses) during quarter as assigned or chosen.
2. Site visit: Visit at least one alternative education site (public or private). In addition to observing, get and read any printed promotional materials and/or their mission statement. Develop short written response paper to your visit. Describe the setting, the demographics of the school and class, and the class or teacher observed. Address at least the following questions: What makes this site an alternative education site - which of the characteristics of alternative education which we have discussed or read about did you see in action? What questions were raised by this visit? What aspects of the philosophy which underpins this site were clearly visible in the activities, materials, curriculum design, teacher/student interactions? Were there discrepancies between the mission statement/promotional materials and what you saw. DUE: May 20.
3. Final project: Prepare a plan for an alternative school or other alternative educational setting. This plan should include (but is not limited to) a clear statement of the group or population you expect to serve, admission/selection criteria, mission and underlying philosophy, site, planned activities or curriculum model, strategies for handling discipline or other management problems, and a sample day in your program. Your project should reflect an understanding the aspects or issues in alternative education discussed during the quarter, and should be appropriate for sharing with the class during a 15 minute presentation. Presentations might include: videos, models, role play, skits, photo display, proposed curriculum manuals, sample projects from your "students," a sample lesson you might do with your "students" etc.) DUE: As scheduled from May 27 to June 3.
April 1 Listserv group: What is "alternative" education? "Alternative to what?"
Generate list of questions to ask people we visit during the quarter.
Readings: Manual - Why blame schools?; 6 Lesson Teacher; Speaking up: Students’ perspectives on school; A new educational paradigm.
April 6 Continue discussion on what is alternative
Readings: SKOLE: Why schools don’t educate, Robots building robots; Children at risk. Manual - Critical Pedagogy: A look at the major concepts
April 8 Ethnocentric/single sex Site visit to Lummi Tribal School. We will car pool.
Readings: Manual - A gender at risk; How schools fail girls; Programs for African-American males...and females; African-American immersion schools in Milwaukee: A view from inside.
Rethinking Schools: Part I: Multiculturalism and Antibias Education
April 13 NO CLASS - work on projects
Readings: Rethinking Schools: Part II/Overview & Social Studies
April 15 Open classroom/Progressive Education: Sharon Wagner, Puget Sound Primary School
Readings: SKOLE: Alternative and conventional education from the viewpoint of a user
Rethinking Schools: Part II/Language Arts
April 20 "Free Schools" - Summerhill/Sudbury/Wellspring
Readings: SKOLE: Subleties of a democratic school; The art of doing nothing; The history of the Free School.
April 22 Experiential Education: Daniel Kirkpatrick, Explorations High School
April 27 Charter Schools
Reading - Manual: A class of their own; Charter Schools; Charter Schools: In search of the new world of education.
April 29 Alternatives within the system. Susan Zoller and public school panel
Reading - Manual: Educational Options and alternatives in WA State
Rethinking Schools: Part IV/Beyond the Classroom
May 4 Pedagogical options - Bruce Larsen
May 6 Steiner/Waldorf/Montessori
May 11 Steiner/Waldorf/Montessori
May 13 Home schooling
Reading - SKOLE: Homeschooling and John Holt’s vision; A comparison of schooling and home schooling. Manual: Home sweet school; Some go to school at home.
May 18 What’s next
Reading: Rethinking Schools: Part V/Building a Community
May 20 TBA/Catch up
May 25 No Class: Memorial Day
May 27 Student presentations
June 1 Student presentations
June 3 Student presentations
June 8 Self-evaluation due
Alternative Education Bibliography (definitely not definitive!)
Philosophical Background
Archambault, Reginald. John Dewey on Education. New York: Random House. 1964.
Elkind, David. Giant in the Nursery: Jean Piaget. Sunday New York Times Magazine. May 26, 1968.
Featherstone, Joseph. The Primary School: Revolution in Britain. New Republic. August 19, September 2, September 9, 1967.
Leue, Mary. Challenging the Giant : The Best of the Journal of Alternative Education. Down to Earth Books. 1992. ISBN: 1-878115-05-7
Neill, A. S. Freedom - Not License! New York: Hart Publishing Co. 1966.
Neill, A. S. Summerhill, 1962.
Piaget, Jean & Inhelder, Barbel. The Psychology of the Child. New York: Basic Books. 1969.
Rogers, Vincent. Teaching in the British Primary School. New York: Macmillan. 1970.
*Rousseau, Jean Jacques. His Educational Theories selected from Emile, Julie and Other Writings. New York: Barron’s Educational Series, 1964.
Whitehead, Alfred North. The Aims of Education and Other Essays. New York: Macmillan. 1929.
Public School Reform
Coons, John & Sugerman, Stephen. Education by Choice: The Case for Family Control. University of California Press. 1978.
Fiske, Edward. Smart Schools, Smart Kids: Why Do Some Schools Work? New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. 1992.
Howe, Harold. Thinking About Our Kids: An Agenda for American Education. Free Press. 1993.
Nathan, Joe. Free to Teach: Achieving Equity and Excellence in Schools. Winston Press. 1984.
Pedagogy
*Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: The Seabury Press. 1968.
Gardner, Howard. The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think & How Schools Should Teach. New York: Basic Books/Harper Collins. 1991.
Holt, John. How Children Learn. New York: Dell. 1967.
*Kohl, Herbert. The Open Classroom: A Practical Guide to a New Way of Teaching. New York: Vintage Books. 1969.
*Nyquist, Ewald & Hawes, Gene. Open Classroom: A Sourcebook for Parents and Teachers. New York: Bantam Books. 1972.
Shor, Ira & Freire, Paulo. A Pedagogy for Liberation: Dialogues on Transforming Education. Massachusetts: Bergin and Garvey. 1987.
*Silberman, Charles. The Open Classroom Reader. New York: Vintage Books. 1973.
Torrance, E. Paul & Safter, H. Tammy. The Incubation Model of Teaching: Getting Beyond the Aha!. Buffalo, New York: Bearly Limited. 1990.
What’s Wrong With Traditional Education
Gatto, John. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers. 1992.
*Goodman, Paul. Compulsory Mis-education and the Community of Scholars.. New York: Vintage Books. 1964.
Holt, John. How Children Fail. New York: Dell. 1964.
Holt, John. The Underachieving School. New York: Dell. 1969.
Illich, Ivan, et. al. After Deschooling, What? New York: Perennial. 1973.
Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. New York: Crown Publishing. 1991.
Sadker, Myra & Sadker, David. Failing at Fairness: How America’s Schools Cheat Girls. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1994.
*Spring, Joel. A Primer of Libertarian Education. New York: Free Life Editions. 1975.
* In Fairhaven Library.
Research Possibilities:
British Infant Schools
Learning and Play
Experiential Education
PANEL ON OPEN CLASSROOM
Sharon Wagner - 328-1942 JAN 25?
Scott 733-1024
Sioux 1417 Huntley Road, Bham
Carolyn Brown 733-1637
PANEL ON CHANGES IN ED/PUBLIC SCHOOL Feb 6
Larry Brown -administrator
Merril Bevin - student
Jennifer Eckel - student
Richard Scholtz - parent
Terry Cravins - teacher
Noal Ayers - teacher
HOME SCHOOL Feb 15
Julie Sessions 733-0141
Monday Feb 6 - 676-6481
WALDORF 733-3164 Feb 8
Wellspring 671-5433
Alternatives in Education:
Inside and Outside the System
Fairhaven 311
Spring 1998
Marie Eaton
READINGS
WHAT’S WRONG AND RIGHT WITH SCHOOLS?
1. Why blame schools?
2. The 6-Lesson
3. Speaking up: Students’ perspectives on school
4. Teachers and Students
NEW PEDAGOGIES
5. Critical Pedagogy: A look at the major concepts
6. A new educational paradigm.
SPECIAL SCHOOLS FOR SPECIAL POPULATIONS?
7. A gender at risk
8. How schools fail girls
9. Programs for African-American males...and females
10. African-American immersion schools in Milwaukee: A view from inside.
NEW MODELS
11. A class of their own
12. Charter Schools
13. Charter Schools: In search of the new world of education.
14. Educational options and alternatives in Washington State
HOME SCHOOLING
15. Growing without schooling
17. Home sweet school
18. Some go to school at home.
19. Bibliography
20. Internet Resources
Internet Resources
School for Designing a Society, Urbana, Illinois
The School for Designing a Society, in its sixth year, is a project of teachers, performers, poets, and activists. It is an ongoing experiment in making temporary living environments where the question "What would I consider a desirable society?" is given serious playful thinking discussion, and taken as input to creative projects.
http://delphi.beckman.uiuc.edu/people/chyn/sds/
The National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools
The National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools is a non-profit coalition of schools, groups, and individuals committed to participant control of education.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8187/ncacs.htm
Alternative Education Homepage
This site is dedicated to teaching professionals involved in alternative education. Our Fresh Ideas page is for information on new approaches being taken by educators, share yours with us! We are also interested in Papers you have written on alt-ed, classroom management, or instructional methods.
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Campus/2800/
About Charter Schools
A site with multiple links and articles about the current status of the Charter School Movement.
http://edreform.com/charters.htm
Charter Schools 1995: A Survey and Analysis of the Laws and Practices of the States
Including State-By-State Summaries, Cross-State Comparisons, Descriptions of Existing and Proposed Schools, And Lessons Learned. This report is the result of a group project undertaken by Tom Mauhs-Pugh's class in Policy and Politics in American Education at Dartmouth College during March-May of 1995. Specific attribution of authorship will be given in the text for relevant sections.
http://olam.ed.asu.edu/epaa/v3n13/index.html
Homeschooling & Alternative Education Books
A comprehensive and hand-picked selection of books to help you learn about homeschooling.
http://www.life.ca/books/deschooling.html
Jon’s Homeschooling Resource Page
http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/
Higher Education - Alternative Degree Programs
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1573/altedu.html