IALA » Reform

Blueprint School

Wayne Jennings — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:00:53 +0000

I’ve waited for years for this marvelous book, Lives of Passion, School of Hope: How One Public School Ignites a Lifelong Love of Learning. It tells a story of a K-12 progressive school (Jefferson County Open School, Colorado) that combined the best features from research and practice such as: strong advisory system, personal learning plan, learner centered environment, world as classroom, service learning, travel study and competency based graduation. I began such a school in 1971 but it did not have sustained progressive leadership after my first seven years as principal. Nor has it documented its successes, both immediate and long term in the graduates’ lives. This book does all that with statistics and a rich assortment of anecdotes. If ever we needed a blueprint about schooling, one could hardly do better than this book. Every student is expected to become an effective communicator, a complex thinker, a responsible citizen, an ethical person, and a quality worker. How’s that for a set of outcomes? This is one of the most important books I have read and I highly recommend it. The author, Rick Posner worked in the school and has produced a most readable and essential book for educators and the public.

Constitutional Law Change Proposed

Wayne Jennings — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:21:41 +0000

David Bly, former President of the Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs and a co-founder of IALA has written a powerful booklet, The Middle Class Amendment, which you can read online. Bly, a Representative from Northfield, is a member of the Minnesota Legislature. While IALA does not make political endorsements, we think the topic of interest to alternative educators and students because Bly like many of us believe education change is nearly impossible. Thus, Bly proposes a constitutional amendment.

Learning Outside the Ivy Walls

Wayne Jennings — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:42:12 +0000

Recently, I attended the Macalester College celebration and was struck by the number of community based and service learning opportunities touted as powerful for their students. In fact, there was little mention of conventional educational practices of courses, classes and lectures. Mentioned were international experiences with businesses, embassies, human rights, peace organizations, world hunger and local experiences with environment, law, government, education, community service, medical and many nonprofit groups. Students spoke of the life-changing influence of such experiences.

Of course, similar activities are available to K-12 schools but not used nearly to the extent possible by most school districts who have little recognition of the power of service, community based and experiential learning. The reluctance to adopt such practices has given rise to the need for alternatives and is a major factor in our calls for choice.

Choice of Education Is Advancing

admin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:53:58 +0000

Peter Groff, chair of the Colorado Senate wants to see 100 new schools for students to choose from. The Initiative called Get Smart Schools will be launched shortly. Already two new schools will open next fall: Envision and Atlas. Chicago and New York are cited as having opened new schools (55 and 88 respectively) in the last few years. Florida has just passed a sweeping requirement that all districts must offer full time online learning programs for their K-12 students.

New schools have a better chance of reform or making changes. It’s been long noted how difficult it is to change existing schools in any substantive way. New schools offer an institutional bypass.

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.