IALA » Alternatives

Gardner, Advocate for Educational Pluralism

Wayne Jennings — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 21:52:00 +0000

Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard and well known for his books including Multiple Intelligences and Five Minds for the Future, writes of the importance of a variety of educational programs to fit different students. In a recent article, he writes that after studying various approaches such as Reggio Emilia (a program he particularly likes), Montessori, Waldorf, traditional and other types of schools he is more convinced than ever of the importance of “educational pluralism.”

Obvious as it is, schools have insufficiently acted upon the fact that all children do not learn the same. Hence, the need for a variety of educational programs to meet the diverse needs of students. He states, ” The lessons I have learned over the decades are: (1) to be ever open to new and powerful ways of educating and (2) to shun those who block the roads of individualized pedagogy as well as those who seek to impose a uniform way of presenting material.”

Posted via email from waynebj’s posterous

Range of Alternatives

Wayne Jennings — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:01:28 +0000

We recently created the outline below showing the kinds of choices available to students in some parts of Minnesota. This may be similar to other states. By no means are all of these alternatives available to all students in all places but it represents a major shift in what parents had to choose from in 1970 which was almost nothing in the public sector. In that sense it represents major progress in the IALA mission of leading, promoting and supporting learning alternatives in education to better match needs of every child. Of course, much remains to be done to reach the policy that every state and the federal government provide a choice of different programs for each child.

Minnesota Options for Students

1. State approved alternative programs (SAAP)

Area learning centers (ALC)
Contract schools
Alternative programs

2. Charter schools

3. Online/distant learning schools

4. Traditional schools

5. Magnet schools

6. Post secondary enrollment options (early college enrollment)

7. Open enrollment

8. Nonpublic schools

9. Programmatic schools

Open education
Core knowledge
Subject: performing arts, science
Experiential and community based
Project based
Waldorf
Montessori

10. Recovery schools

11. Democratic schools

Democratic Schools Paper

Wayne Jennings — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:58:30 +0000

Arising from discussions with Politeia, Brazil’s democratic education institute, at the 15th International Democratic Education Conference last summer in Sao Paulo a new work “A History of Democratic Education in American Public Schools” by democracy advocate and IALA member John Harris Loflin is now available.

Supported by IALA, this comprehensive 161 page paper aims at persuading American urban public classrooms and schools to become more democratic. In doing so, he encourages public schools to enter solidly into the 21st century by questioning, rethinking and providing alternatives to 20th century concepts particularly for under-served children and youth.