Alternative Schools: Better Guardians than Family or State?

Abstract

Alternative schools have become increasingly popular in this country in the last few years, at least as measured by the amount of attention focused on them by magazines and TV networks. A whole new genre of books has emerged, too, beginning with Paul Goodman's Compulsory Mis-Education and followed by the Kozol-Holt-Herndon series on the failings of most public A. S. Neil's Summerhill and Maria Montessori were rediscovered; Jay Featherstone publicized the British Infant School model; and George Dennison described his experiences with a new school for poor inner-city children. Alternative schools began appearing as well, growing in the last five years from perhaps twenty-five to over 600. Over 200 were founded in the past year alone,1 and these statistics do not reflect the growing number of public schools which have been remodeled drastically enough to deserve the label alternative schools. This is not to suggest that demands for alternatives to public schools are new. Rather, there have been strong clashes between families and the state over how to educate children since