NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Alternative education

Alternative education, also known as non-traditional education or educational alternative, describes an education that is modified or particularized for those having singular needs, such as maladjusted people and gifted children. These approaches can be applied to all students of all ages, from infancy to adulthood, and all levels of education. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 532 KB)a alternative high school in New York Copyright (c) 2005 (Jessica). ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 532 KB)a alternative high school in New York Copyright (c) 2005 (Jessica). ... Great Neck Village School also known as VS is an alternative high school located in Great Neck, New York, United States, as part of the Great Neck School District. ... Great Neck is a village located in Nassau County, New York in the USA. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 9,538. ... Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area Ranked 27th - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 kmÂ²) - Width 285 miles (455 km) - Length 330 miles (530 km) - % water 13. ... Mental Illness is a concept in psychiatry and other mental health professions referring to mental abnormality associated with distress and/or dysfunction. ... Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. ... A human infant The word Infant derives from the Latin in-fans, meaning unable to speak. ... See Adult. ...

Educational alternatives are often the result of education reform and are rooted in various philosophies that are fundamentally different from those of traditional compulsory education. While some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, others are more informal associations of teachers and students dissatisfied with certain aspects of traditional education. Education reform is a plan, program, or movement which attempts to bring about a systematic change in educational theory or practice across a community or society. ... Philosophy of education is the study of such questions as what education is and what its purpose is, the nature of the knowing mind and the human subject, problems of authority, the relationship between education and society, etc. ... Compulsory education is education which children are required by law to receive and governments to provide. ... Politics is the process by which groups make decisions. ... Scholarly method - or as it is more commonly called, scholarship - is the body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public. ... Socrates (central bare-chested figure) about to drink hemlock as mandated by the court. ... Students attending a lecture at the Helsinki University of Technology The word student is etymologically derived through Middle English from the Latin second-type conjugation verb stÅdÄ“rÄ•, meaning to direct ones zeal at; hence a student is one who directs zeal at a subject. ... Traditional education is usually the absence or target of destruction by Education reform. ...

Educational alternatives, which include charter schools, alternative schools, independent schools, and home-based learning vary widely, but emphasize the value of small class size, close relationships between students and teachers, and a sense of community. Sense of community (or psychological sense of community) is a concept in social psychology (or more narrowly, in community psychology), which focuses on the experience of community rather than its structure, formation, setting, or other features. ...

Today, especially in the United States, the term alternative refers to educational settings that are intended to provide for any student who would like to experience school differently. Other words used in place of alternative by many educational professionals include non-traditional, non-conventional, or non-standardized, although these terms are used somewhat less frequently and sometimes have negative connotations as well as multiple meanings. Within the field of educational alternatives, words such as authentic, holistic, and progressive are frequently used as well, however, these words each have different meanings which are more specific or more ambiguous than simply alternative. Holism (from holon, a Greek word meaning entity) is the idea that the properties of a system cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its components alone. ...

[edit] Overview

Over the 200-year course of compulsory education, various widely-scattered groups of critics have suggested that the education of young people should involve much more than simply molding them into future workers or citizens. 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 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. Humanitarianism is an informal ideology of practice, whereby people practice humane treatment and provide assistance to others. ... Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (January 12, 1746 â€“ February 17, 1827) was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer. ... Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that emerged in the New England region of the United States of America in the early-to mid-19th century. ... Amos Bronson Alcott (November 29, 1799â€“March 4, 1888) was an American teacher and writer. ... Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 -April 27, 1882) was an American author, poet, and philosopher. ... Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 â€“ May 6, 1862; born David Henry Thoreau) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, and philosopher who is most well-known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance... Educational progressivists believe that education must be based on the fact that humans are social animals who learn best in real-life activities with other people. ... John Dewey (October 20, 1859 â€“ June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, whose thoughts and ideas have been greatly influential in the United States and around the world. ... Francis W. Parker (1837-1902) Francis Wayland Parker (October 9, 1837 â€“ March 2, 1902) was a pioneer of the progressive school movement in the United States. ... Maria Montessori Maria Montessori (August 31, 1870 â€“ May 6, 1952) was an Italian educator, scientist, physician, philosopher, feminist, and humanitarian, and the first early childhood educator to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. ... Rudolf Steiner. ... The current version of the article or section reads like an advertisement. ... A moral is a one sentence remark made at the end of many childrens stories that expresses the intended meaning, or the moral message, of the tale. ... Emotion, in its most general definition, is an intense neural mental state that arises subjectively rather than through conscious effort and evokes either a positive or negative psychological response . ... Human anatomy or anthropotomy is a special field within anatomy. ... Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. ... Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. ...

More recently, social critics such as John Caldwell Holt, Paul Goodman, Frederick Mayer and Ivan Illich have examined education from more individualist, anarchist, and libertarian perspectives, that is, critiques of the ways that they feel conventional education subverts democracy by molding young people's understandings. 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. A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole and typically on a radical basis. ... John Caldwell Holt (April 14, 1923 - September 14, 1985) was an American author and educator, one of the best known proponents of homeschooling, and a pioneer in youth rights theory. ... Paul Goodman (1911–1972) was a poet, writer, public intellectual. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Ivan Illich Ivan Illich (Vienna, September 4, 1926 - Bremen, December 2, 2002) was a Croatian development critic. ... Individualism is a term used to describe a moral, political, or social outlook, that stresses human independence and the importance of individual self-reliance and liberty. ... Anarchism is the name of a political philosophy or a group of doctrines and attitudes that are centered on rejection of any form of compulsory government (such as the state)[1] and support its elimination. ... Libertarianism is a political philosophy advocating that individuals should be free to do whatever they wish with their person or property, as long as they do not infringe on the same liberty of others. ... Paulo Freire Paulo Freire (Recife, Brazil September 19, 1921 - SÃ£o Paulo, Brazil May 2, 1997) was a Brazilian educator and influential theorist of education. ... Herbert Kohl is the author of more than thirty books on education, including the acclaimed 36 Children, The Open Classroom, The Discipline of Hope: Learning from a Lifetime of Teaching, Growing Minds: On Becoming a Teacher, I Wont Learn from You: And Other Thoughts on Creative Maladjustment, and Should... Jonathan Kozol at Pomona College April 17, 2003 Jonathan Kozol (born 1936 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a non-fiction writer, educator, and activist, best known for his books on public education in the United States. ... Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... The term Radical (latin radix meaning root) has been used since the late 18th century as a label in political science for those favoring or trying to produce thoroughgoing or extreme political reforms which can include changes to the social order to a greater or lesser extent. ...

In the indian context one can see from the early part of the 20th century itself many thinkers have talked and introduced radically different ways of education. For example, Shantiniketan of Rabindranath Tagore, the ideal of basic school by Mahatma Gandhi etc are primary examples. Any one interested in alternative initiatives in India also may read articles in the following link http://multiworld.org/taleemnet/vernedu/v_educators.html In recent years, some of the major initiatives are schools like sarang, sita school, Kanavu, timbaktoo collective, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanavu etc where formal schooling is not the objective. Similarly even at higher levels of education one does find initiatives like multiversity.com that have built upon the ideal of open knowledge. in the last few decades something that has coupled education is environment. In such a situation, education is seen more wholistically than just factory schooling system. an article on Kanavu has been published in EPW under the title - Kanavu â€“ Where Learning Happens A discussion of the ethnography of an alternative school/commune, Kanavu in Wayanadu district of Kerala, that explores the diverse learning spaces and methodologies that have been incorporated into its system, where learning happens...

Another quality that distinguishes educational alternatives from their traditional counterparts is their diversity. Unlike traditional privately run and publicly run schools which are remarkably similar in many aspects to one another, most alternatives do not subscribe to a "one model fits all" approach. Each educational alternative attempts to create and maintain its own methods and approaches to learning and teaching. Practitioners aspire to realize that there are many ways of conceiving and understanding the needs of the whole child in balance with the needs of the community and society at large. Thus, each alternative approach is founded upon, sometimes drastically, different beliefs about what it means to live, learn, and grow in today's society.

One aspect that distinguishes educational alternatives from each other is the curricula taught within their respective settings. Across these alternatives, we find that traditional subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics are not always taught separately but integrated into the overall learning experience. Other subjects like environmental education, ecology, or spirituality, which are often not found in more traditional school curricula, emerge from the interests of learners and teachers in a more open-ended learning community. For the most part, however, subject matter is only indirectly related to the root philosophies and educational approaches utilized in many alternative education systems. Often alternative approaches to education will vary considerably within a single type of alternative from one cultural or geographic setting to another. In education, a curriculum (plural curricula) is the set of courses and their contents offered by an institution such as a school or university. ... Reading is a process of retrieving and comprehending some form of stored information or ideas. ... A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, known today as the father of geometry; shown here in a detail of The School of Athens by Raphael. ... Environmental education refers to organized efforts to teach about how natural environments function and, particularly, how human beings can manage their behavior and ecosystems in order to live sustainably. ... Ernst Haeckel coined the term oekologie in 1866. ...

[edit] Modern forms

A wide variety of educational alternatives exist at the elementary, secondary, and tertiary levels of education. These generally fall into four major categories: school choice, alternative school, independent school, and home-based education. These general categories can be further broken down into more specific practices and methodologies. Primary or elementary education consist of the first years of formal, structured education that occurs during childhood. ... Secondary education - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Students attend a lecture at a tertiary institution. ...

[edit] School choice

The public school options include entirely separate schools in their own settings as well as classes, programs, and even semi-autonomous "schools within schools." Public school choice options are open to all students in their communities, though some have waiting lists. Among these are charter schools, combining private initiatives and state funding; and magnet schools, which attract students to particular themes, such as performing arts. School choice, sometimes called public choice, describes any one of several forms of publicly-funded alternative education program that allows students to choose to attend any of various participating private and public schools, usually based on a system of vouchers, tax credits, or scholarships. ... School choice, sometimes called public choice, describes any one of several forms of publicly-funded alternative education program that allows students to choose to attend any of various participating private and public schools, usually based on a system of vouchers, tax credits, or scholarships. ... Charter schools are publicly funded elementary or secondary schools that have been freed from some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools, in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each charter schools charter. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... The performing arts include theater, motion pictures, drama, comedy, music, dance, opera, magic and the marching arts, such as brass bands, etc. ...

[edit] Alternative school

In education, the phrase alternative school, sometimes referred to as a minischool, or remedial school, is any public or private school having a special curriculum, especially an elementary or secondary school offering a more flexible program of study than a traditional school. A wide range of philosophies and teaching methods are offered by alternative schools; some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, while others are more ad-hoc assemblies of teachers and students dissatisfied with some aspect of traditional education. Today, alternative schools are intended to provide for any student who would like to experience school differently. There are similar programs that exist in higher education settings that serve adults returning to school. Great Neck Village School, an alternative school in Great Neck, New York in the United States In 1970, there were only a few alternative schools in operation in the United States. ... Traditional education is usually the absence or target of destruction by Education reform. ...

[edit] Independent school

Independent, or private, schools have more flexibility in staff selection and educational approach. The most plentiful of these are Montessori schools, Waldorf schools (the latter are also called Steiner schools after their founder), and Friends schools. Other independent schools include democratic, or free schools such as Sands School, Summerhill School and Sudbury Valley School, Krishnamurti schools, open classroom schools, those based on experiential education, as well as schools which teach using international curriculum such as the International Baccalaureate and Round Square schools. An increasing number of traditionally independent school forms now also exist within state-run, public education; this is especially true of the Waldorf and Montessori schools. The majority of independent schools offer at least partial scholarships. An independent school is a school which is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operation and is instead operated by tuition charges, gifts, and perhaps the investment yield of an endowment. ... Montessori School in Torreon, Mexico The Montessori method is both a methodology and educational philosophy. ... The current version of the article or section reads like an advertisement. ... Rudolf Steiner. ... This article is a list of schools associated with the Religious Society of Friends. ... A democratic school is a school that centers on democratic principles and participatory democracy with full and equal participation from both students and staff. ... Sands School was set up by Sean Bellamy and Sybillia Higgs in 1987 Visit the website for more information. ... Summerhill School Summerhill School, founded in 1921 in Hellerau near Dresden, England by A.S. Neill. ... The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts. ... Jiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti (May 11, 1895â€“February 17, 1986), was born in Madanapalle, India and discovered, in 1909, as a teenager by C.W. Leadbeater on the private beach at the Theosophical headquarters at Adyar in Chennai, India. ... An open classroom is a student-centered classroom design format popular in the United States in the 1970s. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a group of three educational programmes, as established by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). ... Round Square The Round Square Conference of Schools is a worldwide association of schools whose students share a commitment, beyond academic excellence, to personal development and responsibility through service, challenge, adventure and international understanding. ... The current version of the article or section reads like an advertisement. ... Montessori School in Torreon, Mexico The Montessori method is both a methodology and educational philosophy. ... Scholarship is the pursuit of academic research, whether in the arts and humanities or sciences, and in all such fields means deep mastery of a subject, often through study at institutions of higher education. ...

This article is a list of schools associated with the Religious Society of Friends. ... The following schools follow the Sudbury model of non-compulsory, democratic education, pioneered by Sudbury Valley School: // Australia Booroobin Sudbury Democratic Centre of Learning, Booroobin, Queensland Belgium De Vlinder, Gent, Belgium Canada Indigo Sudbury Campus, Edmonton, Alberta The Beach School, Toronto, Ontario The Fairfield School, Wolfville, Nova Scotia Denmark N... A list of Waldorf Schools (also known as Steiner schools) from around the world, organized by continent, with the USA is listed separately at the end due to its number of schools. ...

[edit] Home-based education

Families who seek alternatives based on educational, philosophical, or religious reasons, or if there appears to be no nearby educational alternative can decide to have home-based education. Some call themselves unschoolers, for they follow an approach based on interest, rather than a set curriculum. Others enroll in umbrella schools which provide a curriculum to follow. Many choose this alternative for religious-based reasons, but practitioners of home-based education are of all backgrounds and philosophies. Home education, also called homeschooling or home school, is the process by which children are educated at home rather than in an institution such as a public or private school. ... Home education, also called homeschooling or home school, is the process by which children are educated at home rather than in an institution such as a public or private school. ... Unschooling (also sometimes referred to as natural learning, child-led learning, discovery learning, autodidactic learning, or child-directed learning) is the term that means being responsible for your own education. ... Umbrella school is an alternative education school which serves to oversee the homeschooling of children to fulfil government-mandated requirements regarding education. ...

[edit] Correctional Education

[edit] Other

There are also some interesting grey areas. For instance, home-educators have combined to create resource centers where they meet as often as five or more days a week, but their members are all home-educated. In some states publicly run school districts have set up programs for homeschoolers whereby they are considered enrolled, and have access to school resources and facilities. Gray Area n. ... School districts are a form of special-purpose district in the United States (amongst some other places) which serves to operate the local public primary and secondary schools. ...

Also, many traditional schools have incorporated methods which might be considered alternative into their general approach, so the line between alternative and mainstream education is continually becoming more blurred.

[edit] Internationally

[edit] Canada

[edit] Toronto

In Toronto the alternative movement has been adopted and functions within the framework of the Toronto District School Board. An example, is Mountview Alternative School which shares space with the much larger Keele Elementary School in Toronto's High Park-Junction. An example are the Triangle Program, Canada's only high school program designed especially for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. Toronto District School Board, also known as TDSB, is the English-language public school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ... Looking down upon the Hillside Gardens and Grenadier Pond. ... The Junction, or West Toronto, is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that derives its name from a junction of four railway lines in the area known as the West Toronto Diamond. ... The Triangle Program is a special needs education program in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, designed for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students who are at risk of dropping out or committing suicide because of homophobic harassment in regular schools. ... LGBT (or GLBT) is an abbreviation used as a collective term to refer to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people. ...

Then there are schools like Divine Class, a holistic non-school that guides and certifies average people (aged 18+) how to read people, situations, and events through alternative methods such as Tarot, psychic ability, and esoteric systems.

[edit] Quebec

In Quebec the Universal School of Life has been around for more than 23 years and is focused on Indigo Children and Families and has created a way of life for Indigo Families. see: http://universalschooloflife.com

[edit] England

Sands School is an alternative school in the UK. It has only 65 students, with a high ratio of teachers. The students learn at their own pace in a supportive environment. The school is run democratically, with the students having as much say in how the school is run as the staff. Decisions are made by voting in a weekly school meeting, where matters ranging from what colour the new carpets should be, to the employment of new staff. The school offers a full range of subjects, and attendance to lessons is negotiated, not compulsory. The school also educates students on a larger range than most schools, and gives students choice in what they can learn. Their interests form a large part of what is offered in the curriculum. Sands School was set up by Sean Bellamy and Sybillia Higgs in 1987 Visit the website for more information. ...

[edit] Australia

[edit] United States

Terra Bella Academy, in Mountain View, CA is a publicly funded alternative public school for 8th through 12th grades with about a 1/12 student teacher ratio. The academic curriculum is affiliated with the University of Santa Clara (Santa Clara, CA, USA) and includes social interactive and team building activities.

[edit] See also

Unschooling (also sometimes referred to as natural learning, child-led learning, discovery learning, autodidactic learning, or child-directed learning) is the term that means being responsible for your own education. ... A free school is a decentralized network in which skills, information, and knowledge are shared without hierarchy and the institutional environment of formal schooling. ... Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) is self-education or self-directed learning. ... Students in Rome, Italy. ... Great Neck Village School, an alternative school in Great Neck, New York in the United States In 1970, there were only a few alternative schools in operation in the United States. ... Gifted education is a broad term for special practices, procedures and theories used in the education of children who have been identified as gifted or talented. ... Special education is the education of physically or mentally handicapped students whose needs cannot be met in an ordinary classroom. ...

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Resources

[edit] External links

Categories: Alternative education | Education Goddard College is a private college located in Plainfield, Vermont which grants BA and MA and MFA degrees. ... Shimer College is a liberal arts college in Chicago, Illinois which is best known for its small enrollment and its Great Books curriculum. ... Image File history File links Nuvola_apps_bookcase. ... A kindergarten classroom in Afghanistan. ... Image File history File links Nuvola_apps_bookcase. ... This article is in need of attention. ... A kindergarten classroom in Afghanistan. ... A large elementary school in Magome, Japan. ... Middle school (also known as intermediate school or junior high school) covers a period of education that straddles primary education and secondary education, serving as a bridge between the two. ... Secondary education - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... ... A blacksmith is a traditional trade. ... The University of Cambridge is an institute of higher learning. ... In some educational systems, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a Bachelors degree. ... Degree ceremony at Cambridge. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Home education, also called homeschooling or home school, is the process by which children are educated at home rather than in an institution such as a public or private school. ... Libraries are a useful resource for adult learners. ...

Encyclopedia > Alternative education

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