Abstract
Deb O’Rourke’s exploration of a 45-year-old elementary school, ALPHA, shows that democratic schooling is difficult work. This is to be expected: Democracy itself is hard work. It is also the western tradition, the basis of our social ethic, and guardian of long-struggled-for human rights. The author sees systemic opposition to alternative education as a manifestation of this ongoing struggle for rights and freedoms. Not all are expected to agree that children are ready for democracy. But for nearly a century, free schools have been consensual learning laboratories for willing parties: what Dewey and Neill called demonstration schools. The author sees their inclusion within public systems as a valuable counterweight to the bureaucracies’ antidemocratic tendencies: to the systems’ discomfort, but also to their enrichment.
I think my ideal world would have a million little ALPHAs in it. Each one small and kind of different.
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O’Rourke, D. (2017). Alpha Alternative School: Making a Free School Work, in a Public System. In: Bascia, N., Fine, E., Levin, M. (eds) Alternative Schooling and Student Engagement. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54259-1_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54259-1_2
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