Alternative education, also known as non-traditional education or educational alternative, includes a number of approaches to teaching and learning separate from what is offered by mainstream or traditional education. Educational alternatives are often rooted in various philosophies that are fundamentally different from those of mainstream or traditional education. While some alternatives have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, others are started by informal associations of teachers and students dissatisfied with some aspects of mainstream or traditional education. Educational alternatives, which include charter schools, alternative schools, independent schools, and home-based learning vary widely, but often emphasize the values of small class sizes, close relationships between students and teachers and a strong sense of community.
Terminology
Alternative education refers to any type of education which does not match the conventional standard. The public school system frequently sets this standard, although public schools use alternative approaches in some cases, as well. Other words used in place of "alternative" include "non-traditional," "non-conventional," or "non-standardized," although these terms are used less frequently and may have negative connotations or multiple meanings. Those involved in forms of education which differ in their educational philosophy (as opposed to their intended pupil base) often use words such as "authentic," "holistic," and "progressive." However, these words have different meanings which are either more specific or more ambiguous than the term "alternative."
Origins
"Alternative education" presupposes a kind of tradition to which the "alternative" is opposed. In general, this limits the term to the last two or three centuries, with the rise of standardized and, later, compulsory education at the primary and secondary levels. Many critics during this period suggested that the education of young people should be undertaken in radically different ways than the one in practice. In the 19th century, the Swiss humanitarian Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi; the American transcendentalists Amos Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau; the founders of progressive education, John Dewey and Francis Parker; and educational pioneers, such as Friedrich Fröbel, Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner (founder of the Waldorf schools); among others, all insisted that education should be understood as the art of cultivating the moral, emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of the developing child.Anarchists such as Leo Tolstoy and Francisco Ferrer Guardia emphasized education as a force for political liberation, secularism, and elimination of class distinctions. After World War II alternative approaches to early childhood education were developed in Reggio Emilia, Italy; this is known as the Reggio Emilia approach.It was started by Loris Malaguzzi.
More recently, social critics such as John Caldwell Holt, Paul Goodman, Frederick Mayer, George Dennison and Ivan Illich have examined education from more individualist, anarchist, andlibertarian perspectives, that is, critiques of the ways that they feel conventional education subverts democracy by molding young people's understandings[citation needed]. Other writers, from the revolutionary Paulo Freire to American educators like Herbert Kohl and Jonathan Kozol, have criticized mainstream Western education from the viewpoint of their varied left-liberal and radical politics. The argument for an approach that caters more to the personal interest and learning style of each individual is supported by recent research that suggest that learner-responsible models prove to be more effective than the traditional teacher-responsible models.[1] Ron Miller has identified five core elements common to many contemporary educational alternatives:[2]
- Respect for every person
- Balance
- Decentralization of authority
- Noninterference between political, economic, and cultural spheres of society
- A holistic worldview
