Alternative education

Dr Fiona Beals

Understanding Alternative Education

What is ‘alternative’ education?

What is it ‘alternative’ to?

“If you happen to be a little innovative, or maybe you forgot to come to school one day because you were reading a book or something, that’s a tragedy, that’s a crime – because you’re not supposed to think, you’re supposed to obey, and just proceed through the material in whatever way they require”

(Chomsky, 2003, p.28)

The Classroom can be a Space for Liberation

What’s Holding It Back• History

– Aristotle– Mass Schooling – Education Act 1877

• Purpose– Philanthropic– Economic– Ideological– Social Control

Primary School

Technical HS

College University

Working Class Jobs

Middle Class Jobs

MaoriSchool

Technical HS

College University

Working Class Jobs

Middle Class Jobs

Primary School High School

University

Primary School

AS NCEA University

ITO/PTE Working Class Jobs

Middle Class Jobs

High SchoolUS NCEA ITO/PTE

The Economic, Ideological and Social Control Purposes of SchoolingCreates a Problematic Foundation

Ivan Illich• Experiences of

school• The role of faith• A person of three

folds:– Iconoclast– Polymath– Apophatic theology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Illich

Deschooling Society• Any form of

schooling actually ‘dumbs’ people down

• Hope and expectation

• Knowledge and society

• The alternative

Deschooling SocietyTo reiterate, deschooling argues for:• Less ‘schools’ not more• Unlimited alternatives• Learning that focuses on competence before

qualifications• Technology that is publicly controlled - toward a

transparent society• Social ‘goods’ before economic gain• Trust between older and younger, teacher and

student• Schools weaken people’s sense of place, self,

other people• The rejection of compulsory schooling

“Learning is like breathing, it is a natural human activity: it is

part of being alive. Aperson who is active, curious,

who explores the world using all his or her senses, who

meets life with energy and enthusiasm - as all babies do - is

learning. Our ability tolearn, like our ability to breathe does not need to be improved

or tampered with.”(John Holt)

John Taylor Gatto• Organic intellectual• School teacher and

social activist• Brought together

the arguments of social control, social stratification, and social control

• Attempted to redefine teaching

“Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique

individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges; it

should allow you to find values which will be your road map

through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who

loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach

you what is important; how to live and how to die”

(John Taylor Gatto)

Let’s Go Alternative• A.S. Neil and

Summerhill School• Out with

socialisation – in with exploration

• Focus on flexible curriculum

• Built on progressive pedagogy

“Obviously, a school that makes active children sit at desks studying mostly

useless subjects is a bad school. It is a good school only for those who believe

in such a school, for those uncreative citizens who want docile, uncreative

children who will fit into a civilization whose standard of success is money…

When my first wife and I began the school, we had one main idea: to make

the school fit the child – instead of making the child fit the school”

(Neill, 2006, p.6, authors italics)

The Policy of Summerhill• Providing choices and

opportunities to young people (individualisation not socialisation)

• Compulsory assessment is not the benchmark standard

• Encourages free play• Provides students with

the freedom to express and experience all feelings

• Focuses on using a democratic process

“Do you think that non-compulsory lessons were an advantage or a disadvantage?An advantage with a big A because the pressure in compulsory lessons is ridiculous. If somebody is telling you that you have to go and that getting exams is the most important thing in the world then it is a lie.”

Carla

The Summerhill Movement - Metro• The onslaught of

the Hippy Era• Freedom Schools• Freire, Ilich and the

Latin American Thinkers

• Metro High School starts in 1977 – 4,000 students apply for 120 places

“The Auckland Metropolitan College, as a redefinition of the form of the school, frees the student from the “dehumanisation” found in the isolation of the traditional school from the community and in the restriction of the timetable which predefines when learning will

occur.”(Hoskins 1975a: 42 in Vaughan,

2001)

The Death of Metro• Key Problem –

State Funded so bound to policy

• Tomorrow’s Schools• Alternative

becomes a cabbage label

• ERO gets the reports out

The school has become a school of last resort for students and parents…The school has retained its original philosophy and structures and has tried to make such students fit them. It has not successfully adapted its programmes, management style or teaching methods to meet the needs of its present students. (Education Review Office 1996, November: 5)There is little evidence that the majority of students are being educated as intended for all State school students. The school has failed to meet the terms of its charter. (Education Review Office 1996, November: 12).

Concluding thoughts??

“Real education is about getting people involved in thinking for themselves – and that’s a tricky business to know how to do well, but clearly it requires that whatever it is you’re looking at has to somehow catch people’s interest and make them want to think, and make them want to pursue and explore”

(Chomsky, 2003, p.27, author’s emphasis)