Crucial issues in secondary education

Abstract

During the past decade, three major critical views of secondary education have been advanced. The deschoolers (e.g., Ivan Illich, Paul Goodman, Theodore Roszak, Everett Reimer) have called for the abolition of compulsory education and of schooling. The compassionate critics (e.g., John Holt, Herbert Kohl, George Dennison, James Herndon) have condemned traditional schools and have called for education based on the interests of learners. The reform committees and commissions of the mid-1970s (e.g., Youth: Transition to Adulthood; The ReForm of Secondary Education; Chairman's Digest of National Panel on High Schools and Adolescent Education) have urged increased community participation by youth and alternate transitions to maturity. Each view has contributed to debate on secondary education and has influenced educational theory and practice. But none of the three views has chosen to identify and consider broadly and comprehensively the several inescapably interrelated crucial issues in secondary education. None has treated all four of the issues con-