Alternative education

Alternative education, also known as non-traditional education or educational alternative, includes
a number of approaches to teaching and learning other than 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 have strong political, scholarly, or
philosophical orientations, others are more informal associations of teachers and students
dissatisfied with some aspect 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 value of small class size, close relationships between
students and teachers, and a sense of community.


Terminology

Alternative education refers to any type of education outside of the conventional standard,
frequently referenced to the public school system, though in some contexts public schools use
alternative approaches. 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 may have negative connotations and 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 as well. However, these
words each have different meanings which are more specific or more ambiguous than the term
alternative.

Origins

While pedagogical controversy is very old, "alternative education" presupposes some kind of
orthodoxy to which the alternative is opposed. In general, this limits the term to the last two or
perhaps three centuries, with the rise of standardized and, later, compulsory education at the
primary and secondary levels. Many critics in this period have suggested that the education of
young people should be undertaken in radically different ways than ones 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 y 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.

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, 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. 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. Ron Miller has identified five core
elements common to many contemporary educational alternatives:
 1. Respect for every person
 2. Balance
 3. Decentralization of authority
 4. Noninterference between political, economic, and cultural spheres of society
 5. A holistic worldview


Alternative school

An alternative school is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are
nontraditional.

Many such schools were founded in the United States in the 1970s as an alternative to mainstream or
traditional classroom structure. 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
mainstream or traditional education. In 2003 there were approximately 70 alternative schools in the
United Kingdom. In the UK public funding is not available for alternative schools and therefore
alternative schools are usually fee-paying institutions. In the USA an increasing number of public
school systems are offering alternative streams (language immersion, Montessori, Waldorf), but the
majority of alternative schools are still independent and thus without financial support from the
government.