Alternative Education
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Contents |
[edit] Alternative Education
[edit] Intent
The intent of this article is to display the flaws of Traditional and Public Education as well as show how the alternative education movement began and how it is evolving.
[edit] What Alternative Education is
Alternative Education is a form of education where the students needs are greater than the institution that does the education. Alternative Education encourages the growth in individual learning styles as well as individual personality and leaves off the importance of time, space and even educational requirements in favor of competence and performance. Alternative Education is important because, rather than laying a blanket curriculum and educational system over many students, it allows for greater understanding and explorations of the same subjects to individual students, as well as leaving behind the constraints of time that Traditional Education must strive to teach within
One of the main arguments against home schooling is socialization. Proponents of many different types of Alternative Education claim that students who are not in the traditional Education system are not being socialized enough. With Traditional Education students have ample chances to interact with peers and practice interpersonal relationship skills for the formative years of their life. Traditional Education is well rounded as well, each student becomes versed in most subjects, as well as many extra curricular activities that can be done after school. In this way students get at least a basic education in what are deemed “crucial” subjects to be educated in. Traditional Education is standardized as such, the progress of a child's education is easily observed, marked, and fixed if it is not up to par with what is deemed acceptable. Alternative Education counteracts the down falls of Traditional Education. The Learning style for each student is individual and tailored to fit the student. It covers everything from learning and intelligence style to personality and home life. Almost every aspect of a student's life is taken into consideration when they are immersed in the alternative education life style.
Though, Education isn't the only thing that is fostered in this form of learning. A student will learn much about themselves and how they learn, as well as beginning to look into their own personalities to see where their strengths and weaknesses lie.
The Alternative Education model teaches students real world skills and information by putting things into context and real world situations, allowing the students to see when, where, and how such information and knowledge would be useful to the student.
Alternative Education allows students to learn at their own pace, letting the learning curve take a more natural time to develop, and giving students more time to adjust to, and absorb new information so that it stays with them longer than it would other wise.
There are several types of Alternative Education. One of which is home schooling. A student who participates in home schooling is essentially doing school at home, either with a parent, or with books and videos that the parent orders form larger cooperations that support traditional education. This allows parents to be more involved with the child in all aspects. Everything from what they are learning, to what they are eating, and who they are talking to.
The Only downside to home school is the lack of socialization, although that is quickly changing with many parents and families bring their children together on annual time lines to learn and play with other home schooled children. Also, community programs, like Youth groups or 4H that allow socialization as well.
Unschooling is another large and popular method of alternative Education. In Unschooling there is no set curriculum there is no set anything. In Unschooling, the student is the source of the questions that need answering. Those that Participate in Unschooling believe that learning is a natural process and that any sort of set and organized education actually makes the learning process more difficult for students. So, starting at the youngest of ages, they wait for children to bring them questions, and instead of simply telling the students the answer, they set out to explore the question from any and every angle possible, until they have the answer.
The Internet had become a powerhouse in Alternative Education, allowing both teachers and students access to information both creditable and free (or at least cheap.)
The Internet is allowing students and parents to exchange experiences and information, as well as educate across distances that would normally keep two or more people apart. This is being known as distance learning, and more and more are trying it out.
One-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many, and all sorts of combinations are allowing for students to communicate with many other students and teachers while doing assignments at the same time over the the net.
[edit] How Alternative Education Came to Be
In the 1900's Public Education, and those that standardized it, came to the consensus that the best means of education was the kind that trained its children to be socially efficient, meaning that the education system groomed and prepared the students in such a way that they would be beneficial to the work force, without enough of a realized identity to be trouble to the economic machine, and smart enough to think that they were ahead of the rest. Alternative Education started in response to this, though it did not become a widespread movement until the 1960's when student protest, teacher strikes, and a deep questioning of traditional assumptions gripped the system, and shook it to its core. It took only a few years for over 500 free schools to be founded.
In 1983 President Reagan's Commission on Excellence in Education sent waves of traditional goals of American public schooling into the education system in place. What followed was a stampede of political grandstanding, legislative mandates, and frantic restructuring mainly intended to produce better disciplined citizens and workers for a competitive global economy. Within the past 20 years, bills like George Bush's "America 2000" agenda that became Bill Clinton's "Goals 2000" program, now enacted into law reinforced traditional values of social efficiency that have made their way into public education once again, and are now represented and believed in strongly.
[edit] How Traditional Education Created the Need for Alternative Education
Traditional Education is a system of education that dominates the county now, so using it does not require the struggle of Alternative Education to set up, populate, format and test that instituting a new education system centered around the style of Alternative Education would. Also, with Traditional Education is already established. The information is all fact checked, and the sources are all sited so, information can be delivered to all, at the same level and the information is known to be creditable. Help is there as well. Many schools have after school programs and tutors that are active and in place so that students who are struggling can get help during times set aside during classes before school, or after school, all on their own schedule.
With all of the Strong points of Traditional Education it is easy to forget the points that led to the advent of Alternative Education in the first place. Do not forget that the reason that schooling exists as we know it today is because it was made to overcome diversity of every kind and to bypass personal uniqueness in order to create a loyal population and an effective workforce for the industrial system. Also, the Teacher is the holder of power, knowledge and authority, instilling in children from the very beginning that there will always be someone better than them, telling them what to do, and they ought to expect that they'll be receiving nothing more than what they need to know from that day on. Students are governed by being kept in a constant state of fear of revocation of privileges as well as being fearful of scorn from the teacher. There is, as well, no place for a whole student, only a student's intellect. A student may receive wonderful marks and grades by memorizing and then dumping once they no longer need to know the information. Or, Vice Versa. A student may know all the required information, but be a poor test taker.
