DOCUMENT RESUME ED 356 930 RC 019 107 AUTHOR Leue, Mary M., Ed. TITLE Challenging the Giant: The Best of SKOLE, the Journal of Alternative Education. REPORT NO ISBN-I-878115-05-7 PUB DATE Jan 92 NOTE 511p. AVAILABLE FROMDown-to-Earth Books, 72 Philip Street, Albany, NY 12202 ($12.95). PUB TYPE Books (010) Collected Works General (020) EDRS PRICE MF02/FC21 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Childrens Rights; *Community Control; Community Schools; Educational Change; *Educational Environment; Elementary Secondary Education; Experiential Learning; Folk Schools; *Home Schooling; *Nontraditional Education; Participative Decision Making; *Small Schools; Theory Practice Relationship IDENTIFIERS *SKOLE (Journal) ABSTRACT Beginning in the mid-1960s, thousands of small alternative schools sprang up across the United States and Canada. These schools varied widely in programs and policies, but common factors among them were a disenchantment with conventional schooling, a desire to reform education, and (frequently) the belief that schools should be controlled by the population served, including children. The National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools was formed in 1976. Its journal from 1985 to 1990 was SKOLE (from a Greek word for the type of dialectical activity conducted by Socrates). This volume contains selected articles published during that period. Six articles profile small alternative schools: Shaker Mountain School (Burlington, Vermont); Sudbury Valley School (Framingham, Massachusetts); Metropolitan School of Columbus (Ohio); the Free School (Albany, New York); L'Ecole d'Humanite (Goldern, Switzerland); and Central Park East (New York, New York). Other articles and reprints discuss teaching the American Constitution; child-adult relationships in learning situations; alternative schools in early America; a high school student's perspective on alternative versus conventional education; community-building processes in a national coalition of educators; homeschooling, experiential learning, and the vision of John Holt; children's theater as education; refuting Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences; peace education; what's wrong with public education; the outdoors as "school"; movement education; teaching, learning, and schooling in the works of Piaget, Skinner, and Dewey; and comparisons of learner outcomes of children schooled at home and in school. Also included are four poems and three book reviews. (SV) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** CH ALLENGI e wa 4. -4-; fr!714E BEST OFEK0A14 The Yawned- of :Alternative 1BE . ,;01,t ..,,,4171- , U DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 4,0,n i+elevt: and ,,,,o,av,0"! ". ). E SCuRCES.NrOPMATION NtEPEPIC. er Is ^as Dean 2 13 Ar,rn -r r.jar, a On ror, made',: ^P,Ove ""0' .^11Ne3 00,0(1.0.0r (ICC, 1,0,ti ,(..nuS ')ft.cel 3,". CHALLENGING T HE THE BE ST OF MK OAE The Yocariat of filitErnatiaa' Venial:kW Maly M. lime, Editor DOWN-TO-EARTH BOOKS 72 PHILIP STREET ALBANY, NY 12202 Il Other books by the author: Jessica Dragonette's Fiery Breath Love Songs for the Irishwoman Rushing to Eva Looking for One's Shadow at Noon, 1 & 2 The flying Bird Brings the Message India Journal If CM11/A\LLErSIORNO THE, WANT v24-1 ofIMT)Ela tks jotainalla ® allturatiative eitueirthaa TABLE OF CONTENTS (COMMIETIT's Why EKOAE? Statement of Principles Behind the Name and its Role In the History of Alternative Schooling, by Mary Leue, Editor of EKOAE ii First Days of Shaker Mountain School, by Jerry Mintz 1 Subleties of a Democratic School - Sudbury Valley School, by Dan Greenberg 14 Metropolitan School of Columbus: A Twenty Year Perspec- tive on Alternative Schools, from One Person's Experience, by Lucia Vorys 39 The History of the Free School, by Mary Leue 53 L'Ecole d'Humanite; Learning Without Fear, by Ernst Scagnet.. 106 Central Park East: an Alternative Story, by Deborah Meier 122 'To Live (and Thus to Learn) These Truths': Teaching the American Constitution, by Dave Lehman 137 Learning, Relationships and 'Burnout,' by Rosalie Angela Bianchi 151 Alternative Schools In Early America, by Ron Miller 161 Alternative and Conventional Education from theViewpoint of a User, by Sam McPheeters 168 Coalition as Community, by Chris Mercogliano 172 Homeschooling and John Holt's Vision, by Pat Farenga 198 Robots Building Robots? by Mary Leue 217 J Children's Theater, by Chris Mercogliano 233 Refuting Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, by Dave Lehman 240 Educating for Peace, by Phil Gang 257 IROIPIRI075s Why Schools Don't Educate, by John Gatto 263 The Energetic Starvation of Children, by Alan J. Schwartz 277 A Humanitarian is Always a Hypocrite, by Terry Doran 295 Children at Risk, by Jonathan Kozol 300 The Pulse of Learning, by Robert Lewis 303 The Art of Doing Nothing, by Hanna Greenberg 309 An Education Money Can't Buy, by Gene Lehman 316 Movement In Education, by David Boadella 320 Lake Forget-Me-Not, by Dardis McNamee 340 :Panfi Grandmother, by Jenlfer Miller 344 Mandi Bus Station, by Mary Leue 345 Where Do I begin, by Meighan Carivan 346 Fanon Frazier, David Daniels, Libby Carivan 346 Jean Piaget, B. F. Skinner and John Dewey, a Study of Learn- ing, Teaching and Schooling, by Rosalie Angela Bianchi 347 A Comparison of Schooling and Home Schooling, by Brian Ray 429 Rachel and tier Children, by Jonathan Kozol 478 Learning Is: A Moving Experience, by Teresa Benzwie 481 Child's Work, by Nancy Wallace 486 comEilmianna IT M Et CM /3, TPlhce IRegsa aZ /KOAE 'II1 oVeviunasili elf mnamatiwa leacesaakal Down-to-Earth Books 72 Philip St. Albany, New York 12202 First printing: January, 1992 Printed in the United States of America ISBN :1-878115-05-7 TrIRCIDIUCTNIOK2 This collection of writings from the alternative education community represents six years of the little journal EKOAE, which was born at a fall, 1985, gathering of northeastern members of the National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools, and 'vas Its official organ until the fall of 1990, at which time the Board of the Coalition decided they wanted a more In- house publication representing them. The editor/publisher has always felt that those six years of publication of EKOAE represents a far more impressive witness to the unique value for the general publicand for the teachers, administrators and families alike of children in the public schools - than its relatively small readership might suggest. Consequently, the deciskin was made to put together a volume of some of the more challenging and yet broadly based of those articles, hoping that they will prove to be of value to non- alternative readers, coming, as they do, largely from 'inside' the alternative community, from the people actually 'doing' alternative schooling, whether school- or home-based. The number of contributors to EKOAE has never been as varied as one might wish for, perhaps because the alternative school movement has relatively few theorists in its midst, most being actively engaged in teaching, problem-solving, and working with children, with very little leisure time for formulating in print what they have been doing. We hope this fact need riot deter our readers from recognizing the ring of truth emanating from the experiences of the few! i 311))1111VIEHAI CCHEM:n-1°s WHY EKOAE? STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES BEHIND THE NAME AND ITS ROLE IN THE HISTORY OF ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLING by Nary M. Leue, Editor of EKOAE The following editorial Is reproduced from the Winter, 1988 issue ofEKOAE,being a statement of the philosophical principles adopted by the little group that originally proposed this Journal and gave it Its name at that gathering of the northeastern branch of the NCACS in the summer of 1985. Since the name EKOAE has apparently felt mysterious to some of our subscribers, I thought it might help to reproduce the earlier statement. Thislittle periodical is now entering its third year of life, having begun with the Fall, 1985, issue - although presently biannual rather than quarterly. Looking back to that first issue, it is apparent that the scope of our publication has gradually enlarged to include educational issues wider than simply a focus on the development of children's skills and sensibilities - and properly so, it seems to this observer. After all, the nameEKOAE("Sko-lay") originated in ancient Athens as a term designating the kind of dialectical activity first conducted by Socrates by buttonholing passers-by wherever he found himself and engaging them in a process known as the "Socratic method" of question and answer, gradually wring- ing from them either a confession of ignorance or a final definition of the subject under discussion that would hold water. This process gradually evolved into the method of engaging in friendly conversation interspersed with question and answer which we can still follow in Plato's dialogues - the Academy - founded some twenty years after Socrates' death. Plato's Academy became, according to B.A.G. Fuller (A History of Philosophy, Holt, 1955) "the first university in Europe," focusing on his notion of The Republic as "an ideal commonwealth, of whose constitution it was a fundamental article that the rulers should be men of philosophic training - ai and vision, conversant with the immutable principles upon which all real being and all right action rest. The curriculum of the Academy covered a wide variety of subjects ranging from politics to metaphysics,