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The Free School Movement As a Social Movement

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The Free School Movement As a Social Movement Abstract Title of Dissertation: AN ARCHIPELAGO OF THINKERS: THE FREE SCHOOL MOVEMENT AS A SOCIAL MOVEMENT Dani Biancolli, Doctor of Education, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Ethan Hutt College of Education, Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership The Free School Movement of the 1960s was a short educational reform effort that grew out of the anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian ideas of the counterculture. This group of radical thinkers included individuals like Jonathan Kozol, George Dennison, and John Holt and built upon the rich history of education reform in the United States. This study investigates whether the framework created by sociologist Charles Tilly to study social movements can be applied to education reform efforts like the Free School Movement. The goal of the study is twofold. First, it is to determine whether the Free School Movement can be termed a social movement using Tilly’s framework and thus, if the framework can be used to create a common language for the study of educational reform efforts. Second, the study situates the Free School Movement within the larger stream of American educational history. Ultimately, the study concludes that the Free School Movement can be termed a social movement according to Tilly’s definition. In determining this, the study also shows that Tilly’s framework can, with a few modifications, be used to study education reform efforts and to provide a basis for comparison and analysis. In addition, the study is able to demonstrate that the Free School Movement wrestled with the same tensions common to many educational reform efforts in American history. While those who participated in the Free School Movement believed that they were attempting something new and different, this study shows that the Movement was part of a long struggle to determine if education should be viewed as a public or private good. AN ARCHIPELAGO OF THINKERS: THE FREE SCHOOL MOVEMENT AS A SOCIAL MOVEMENT by Dani Biancolli Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education 2015 Advisory Committee: Dr. Ethan Hutt, Chair Dr. Helene Cohen Dr. Thomas Davis Dr. Olivia Saracho Dr. Margaret McLaughlin ©Copyright by Dani Biancolli 2015 Dedication To my family, who supported me throughout this arduous process. Thank you for never doubting that I could do this. To Mom, research assistant extraordinaire, for her expertise as a photographer, her patience as a sounding board and her firmness as a taskmaster. Thank you for always being on my side. I would have never finished this without you. ii Table of Contents Chapter 1 ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................................. 1 Purpose of Study ..................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................................................ 4 Research Questions ................................................................................................................................................................ 4 Significance of the Study ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 Definition of Terms and Individuals ................................................................................................................................ 7 Chapter 2 ....................................................................................................................................................................... 8 What was a Free School? ..................................................................................................................................................... 9 What were the roots of Free School ideas? ................................................................................................................. 15 How did the Free School Movement rise and fall? .................................................................................................. 22 Chapter 3 .................................................................................................................................................................... 31 Purpose of Study .................................................................................................................................................................. 31 Importance of the Study .................................................................................................................................................... 31 Conceptual Framework ...................................................................................................................................................... 33 Research Questions ............................................................................................................................................................. 42 Design of the Study ............................................................................................................................................................. 42 IRB, Human Subjects and Confidentiality .................................................................................................................. 49 Limitations of the Study .................................................................................................................................................... 49 Chapter 4 .................................................................................................................................................................... 51 Question 1 .............................................................................................................................................................................. 52 Question #2 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 59 Question #3 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 70 Chapter 5 .................................................................................................................................................................... 85 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................. 94 References ............................................................................................................................................................... 107 iii Chapter 1 Introduction In the United States, the 1960s was a decade of great upheaval and change. It was a decade when the traditions of the past were called into question and the youth of America began to experiment with new ideas. It was a decade that endured challenges to institutional structures such as the government and the military. And, it was also a decade that saw great changes in education. For example, public education began introducing curricular reforms such as “new math” and “new English” in an attempt to break from the traditions then under assault by those seeking change (Long, 1973, p. 3). Yet for some of the most ardent reformers, these changes were not enough. For these individuals, the belief that the American educational system was “based upon a paradigm that was largely consistent with behaviorist psychology and an assembly line view” made wholesale change a necessity (Wheatley, 2009, p. 32). In American Alternative Education: Ideals in Action, Claire Korn writes that “the upheavals in American society from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, through the heated times of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement, stirred antagonism towards authority and stimulated the growth of non- traditional schools” (Korn, 1991, p. 2). If the 1960s was a decade that changed America, then 1968 was a year that changed the nation, a year when tensions reached their zenithwith the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the shock of the Tet Offensive and the collapse of Lyndon Johnson’s dream of a second presidential term (Newmann, 2003, p. 90). It was also the year when sales of A.S. Neill’s Summerhill, a small book about an experimental school in England, reached one 1 million copies sold, and the Free School Movement1 was born (Newmann, 2003, p. 91). While Neill’s Summerhill would form one plank of the Free School Movement platform, his writings were joined by the works of Jonathan Kozol, Herb Kohl, Nat Hentoff, George Dennison, and John Holt. For these reformers, education was understood as “an inherently political process, involving helping students demystify the everyday world that they inhabit to reveal both the power relations and interests that structure it and the commonsense beliefs that support such
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