The Counterschool Approach

...Let's hope so Not because they are better than other schools, for while a few are very good indeed, many are wretched, even when assessed by their own standards Nor should they survive because they presage the shape of things to come Although some counterschool practices, notably open structuring of the primary years, have prospered in more conventional settings, most have proved less hardy Transplanted, they mold-er briefly, then quickly succumb to the rot of gigantism Thus they provide a dubious model at best for broad popular reform In any case, public school systems can aspire to better things, and should Even so, the services rendered by counterschools are irreplaceable They serve sizable populations rejected by existing institutions—rejected, at least, in their own view It should be no surprise that some new schools provide asylum to victims of the ambiguous diseases of our time alienation, ennui and disaffection They shelter those adolescents to whom conventional schools cannot mimster and for whom no other alternatives exist except perhaps life on the streets begging, whoring, dealing, tripping (Whether the same holds true for some counterteachers is a fair question ) That counterschools cannot heal despair is beside the point, that they are ill-designed for their tasks is equally irrelevant No other institution is any more effective And these schools, if they do nothing else, confer a semblance of legitimacy upon the lives of their students If not within the mainstream, they remain at least on its banks Options are held open which, growth and luck permitting, may still allow these unhappy children a fruitful adulthood Reducing the pain of adolescence is one service of counterschools, redressing the grievances of parents is another AS Neill, founder of Sum-merhill and hero of free schools, has repeatedly observed that few parents will choose happiness above success for their children Although those goals may be less incompatible than Neill believes, his observation is astute The ethic of success, pervasive m conventional schools, receives wide support from parents Those of an opposite persuasion have resentfully seen their children entered in the competition Such parents, often young themselves, welcome the opportunity to act on their convictions Their children, especially small ones, constitute a second population importantly represented m counter-schools Other aggrieved parents, notably those of black, Spamsh-speakmg, and American Indian origin, make up a substantial third contingent But these are groups whose special interests, though urgent, may be transitory Alternative schools also answer a broader need, one that suggests more potent reasons for encouraging and sustaining them In a sense they act in behalf of the great majority of the school population Children, after all, vary astonishingly in talent, interest and capacity, they come from families equally heterogeneous in aims, values and aspirations To suppose that any single pattern of schooling can accommodate this splendid diversity would seem to be folly Yet the common school is a cherished bit of Americana, now much inflated and embellished, it survives in a national school system of persistent umforrmty Counterschools respond to this contradiction, they represent an incursion of pluralism into an institution that has rarely welcomed it But it is a regrettably hesitant plurahsm The range of counter-schools remains too cramped to encompass the varied national school population A rich and complex multiplicity of choices is called for, as inventive and diverse as the children who will mhabit them The abrasive presence of counterschools serves mainly as a rermndei of possibilities waiting to be realized However unsettling to established institutions, a pinch of skepticism can be salubrious Vigorous and cogent criticism keeps school bureaucracies alert and flexible, it questions assumptions and pricks inertia, it prevents today's accepted practice from calcifying as tomoi row's bad habit Unfortunately, counterschool partisans have often been more shrill and less incisive adversaries than popular education deserves Still the new schools themselves represent a kind of mute argument, embodying m concrete form the propositions which might be advanced by their supporters That these arguments are being heard is confirmed by the increased volume of educational debate Insofar as counterschools provoke rational discussion of crucial pedagogical issues, they serve the interests of the entire school population and, indeed, of the nation at large The civics course—for many people one of the more dismal memories of high school—has been a central subject in most systems of education, formal and mformal, throughout history Almost every society has expected the young to learn not only the skills for survival and the rituals of faith, but how to recognize their rights and responsibilities in relation to other members of the community With the spread of democracy, 19th-century America attached special importance to the need for citizenship training After property qualifications for ofhceholding and voting were dropped, every man was eligible to be a magistrate and...

...The Counterschool Approach BY BARBARA LEONDAR A LUSH educational undergrowth has possessed the North American continent over the last five years In each of the 50 states as well as m Mexico and Canada, thickets of experimental schools have sprouted everywhere Although most cluster m urban complexes and around the great universities, some have rooted in suburbs and small towns while others have settled on the open land, on wilderness tracts and abandoned farms They enroll both the militant poor and the dissenting elite, and they flourish both within public school systems and alongside them Even the Federal bureaucracy has taken notice at last, with the creation in 1970 of an Experimental Schools Section, the Office of Education extended its official recognition Among the remarkable features of this experimental surge are its range and variety If the many new schools are united by common themes and afflicted by common plagues, they nonetheless resist capitulation to a single ideology Perhaps they are most nearly unanimous in defining themselves as counterrnstitutions, as schools whose mtent it is to differ from accustomed models They include massive units and kitchen kindergartens The largest are as oppressively large as any familiar mid-town trade school, the smallest, sometimes enrolling fewer than a dozen pupils, border on the precious Virtually all are the offspring of serious and self-conscious reformers, often visionary but rarely unreflec-tive or frivolous The decision to differ can be variously manifested An alternative model may, for instance, propose unorthodox educational goals and purposes, as exemplified m the exploding number of free schools patterned after Summeihill Oi it may, like some ethnic schools m urban ghettos, embody a social philosophy distinct from, even hostile to, the dominant one It may differ in its view of the processes of learning, in its curriculum selection or emphasis, m its distribution of power and authority, in its relation to the local community and the broader society, etc Certain variations, of course, need have no direct effect upon what is taught or how Again Summerhill-style free schools provide a case in point Rejecting adult control in favor of governance by students, they can still, without inconsistency, retain a thoroughly conventional course of study It is useful, therefore, to remember that the curriculum m counterschools may well incorporate math and grammar Despite their msistent bias against conformity, counterschools also exhibit some discernible regularities, or at least fit within some broad categories In part this results from a growing, albeit reluctant interdependence Like other pioneers, experimental schools have had to seek mutual aid and sustenance Indeed, the first counterschool systems are already laboring to be born out of loose confederations in New York, Boston-Cambridge and Berkeley-San Francisco Increased similarity is promoted, too, by a growmg communications network Ed-Centric, the bulletin of the National Student Association, the New Schools Exchange News-lettei out of Santa Barbara, the Sum-meihdl Society Bulletin of New York, and the New School of Education Journal of Berkeley all provide national coverage Regional information exchanges have established themselves m New England, in the Washington-Baltimore complex, and on the west coast Employment services are offered by the Teachei Drop-Out Center of the University of Massachusetts and by the Educational Switchboard ot San Francisco Producers of avant-garde educational materials have followed suit What began as a tiny Utopian band has expanded to a multitude, and is assuming the disquieting proportions of an industry It is, however, an industry unsullied by profit or prosperity The inciease m numbers has been accompanied by neither the corruptions of affluence nor the vices of stability Except for those within public school systems, counterschools are sustained chiefly by the fund-raising efforts of participating families Foundation grants have been rare and endowments rarer still It is no surprise, then, to learn fiom the New Schools Network of Berkeley that the typical life span of a school in its vicinity is 18 months In less benign climates, wheie friends are fewer and heating bills higher, attrition ensues even more precipitateiy Partisans tend to be testy about the truncated lives of counterschools "As if," complams a recent editorial, "that were proof they should never have been attempted" Yet such uncertainty over their continued existence may yield dubious educational effects For one thing, it quickly skims the froth from new schools Their characteristic verve and buoyancy, standing m welcome contrast to the usual institutional chill, decline rapidlv into pinched anxiety as funds shrink and debts accumulate Poverty, in fact, has already transformed some of the movement's energy into selt-destroying wrath A lecent convocation heard with astonishment an impassioned faccuse hurled at the Holts and Kozols whose books have given school reform a national voice They were charged not only with armchair advocacy, but with "ripping off" funds which pioperly belong to impecunious schools Invited to plow back a share of their profits, John Holt, George Denmson, Neil Postman and Jonathan Kozol politely declined Their refusal may signal the end of a Woodstock era of joyous harmony among counterschool supporters THE STRUGGLE for economic survival has molded alternative schools in ways more decisive and possibly more damaging to childien than proponents are ready to admit Instability is a major component ot many a curriculum Children learn that one term they go to school in a storefront, the next in a church basement, and a year hence (if the administrators have not thrown in the towel) in the homes of parents In schools fortunate enough to own country acres, the first year's course of study may consist entirely of yurt-bmlding or the acquisition of agncultural skills Schools in college towns may emphasize production of elementary craftwork—candles, paper flowers, punched leather headbands—all eminently salable in local boutiques Some residential schools simply shut down for the winter and disperse students to apprenticeships in warm climates In any case, only after the rent has been paid or the buildings constructed can students turn to other pursuits No doubt many counterschools have learned to capitalize on their misfortunes If the recurrent search for cheaper quarters generates anxiety in some children, it may also, like almost any novelty, exert a powerful affirmative effect Children who don't know what's coming next?whose established expectations are regularly shatteied—must perforce remain alert and fluid The result is not unlike that of loosing a house pet to forage for itself, the lethargic grow quick and tough but the delicate will sometimes turn edgy or mean Similarly, the winter nomads released by boarding schools may learn much from soaking up the sun of unfamiliar places Construction projects, landscaping (dressed up these days as ecology), and agriculture may appeal both to the spirit of adventure and to the need for competence Such ploys attest to the success of ingenuity in reducing the penalties of poverty Nevertheless, wit alone cannot evade those penalties entirely, and much of what happens m counterschools is an ad hoc response to indigence Still, the lessons of survival vary importantly from school to school The great majority ot counterschool students are children of the middle and professional classes Their gleaming hair and transparent complexions denote good doctoring and a rich diet, the Lord & Taylor labels on their tatterdemalion gear have been carefully obliterated For them poverty is voluntary and part-time At the close of the day or during school vacations they return to silk-lmed homes And their schools, though sometimes lacking winter heat, frequently boast very high fi, expensive photographic equipment, and an assoitment of motorized vehicles from Lambrettas to Ski-Doos For these children the instability and unceitainties of school are cushioned, and the endless fund-raising can be a laik By contrast, the black and bilingual schools in midtown ghettos and the Indian schools on destitute reservations face more somber circumstances Poverty there is real and unyielding, the search for funds desperate and exhausting When such a school collapses, an already battered community suffers one more in a selt-perpetuatmg sequence of defeats That lesson is not lost on its children Like the long-range trajectory, the daily moments of schooling are also shaped by economic constraints Many schools are too small, and therefore too vulnerable to abrasive human encounters Whether for the sake of principle or necessity, counterschools often promote a relentless sociability Where this produces openness, tolerance and coopeiative enterprise, it can scarcely be faulted But just as often it operates to deny privacy, silence and sustained purpose Or if not denied, those luxurles must be protected by a system ot rules no less onerous foi being self-imposed In institutions enrolling a wide age range, the youngest children are likely to be repeatedly summoned before the school judiciary for petty infractions of quiet hours and silent zones Teachers, of course, are subject as much as students to interruption, harassment and distraction Consequently, those adult models of persistent and disciplined purpose which might invite emulation are seldom evident In the literature ot school reform a reiterated theme concerns the evils of the "hidden curriculum," the set of values, attitudes and expectations implicit in the organization and tacschool, a rich and inviting array of self-teaching materials supplants more tormal instruction Summerhill advocates scorn this seductive milieu, regaiding it as an alternative form of coercion To this charge, the partisans of open structure retort that the random environment of a Summeihill is no less coercive, only more impoverished This debate, a favorite topic of reformers, erupts regularly in the counterschool press WHEN SCHOOLS publish a planned curriculum, the catalog can be unintentionally misleading Course lists, descriptions and bibliographies are deceptively commonplace Despite an tics of schools In counterschools the consequences of poverty, uncertainty and instability constitute a similarly covert lesson plan, and a nearly universal one On the other hand, the explicit or published curriculum is far less uniform Rather than converging on a common course of studies, counterschools reveal their likenesses in a shared attitude toward learning and in a set of strategies derived therefrom Some schools, of course, eschew planned courses on principle In most Summerhill-style schools, where spontaneity and improvisation are paramount values, the student who wants systematic instruction may have to arrange for it himself Elsewhere, in open-structure institutions patterned on the British infant occasional novelty ("Sex Roles in Literature," or "Magic, Voodoo and the Occult") and a marked bias in favor of recency, the intellectual disciplines stand conventionally arrayed Omissions, though, are revealing What has been deleted, in the arts and humanities especially, is that portion of the traditional curriculum which treats the world and its furnishings as neutral, objective and public Gone are demographic and documentary history as well as skills like map and chart reading, gone are grammar and exposition, gone are the history, theory and analysis of music and the visual arts Classroom observation tells more Even a few hours in counterschool classrooms reveal a tacit commit-ment on the part of students and teacheis alike to a new epistemology a conception ot knowledge as nrevo-cably personal History is treated as autobiography, hteiature as a mode of experiencing The natural and social sciences and mathematics favor the immediate and the utilitarian "Mathematics of Everyday Life," "Problem Solving," "Control of Technology,' "Human Reproduction," and so forth What counts in the arts is their appeal to a unique and particular sensibility Relevance prevails, accompanied by a decline of interest in the nature of evidence and verification, m the establishment of geneial principles or objective measurements Third person has yielded to first, analysis to lyric, assessment to affirmation In the light of this prevaling consensus, the miscellany of curriculum strategies visible in counter schools acquires a surprising intrinsic coherence The open lab, the all-elective program, the appienticeship, and the Wandeijahi, all familiar elements of alternative pedagogy prove to be manifestations ot a single principle The open laboratory, for instance, extends British infant school practice into secondary education In schools thus organized, the science labs, art and music studios, media center, departmental libraries, shops and gyms and Home Economics kitchens—in short, the entne plant minus classrooms—remain open to everyone, without restriction, for the entire school day and often beyond Students seem to dispose themselves equitably around the available equipment, and to work without supervision in accord with their own internal clocks In the raie school prosperous enough to purchase closed-circuit television, expert help is as close as the nearest dial At Timberlane, an electronic extravaganza tucked into the New Hampshire foothills, the student in need of instruction (how to thread the sewing machine, how co slice a frog, how to solve an equation) can summon up the appropriate videotape in seconds, often without leaving his seat This kind of school offers the student its full panoply of lesources while respecting his idiosyncratic preferences All-elective programs arrive at the same destination, but via a different route Not only may students select at will from a prepared course list, but as a rule they may append to that list any class for which they can find an instructor Among the diverse populations of metropolitan centers and university towns, that task is easy, children as young as 10 or 11 can sniff out mdigenous talent Graduate students, retired craftsmen, night-shift techmcians have all been drafted, and even from time to time a credenhaled teacher In one Italian community the local Mafia chief was persuaded to contribute Obviously these programs rely heavily on unpaid volunteers, often recruited by shameless flattery Schools are no longer surprised to discover how eagerly the ordinary citizen dons the teacher's role In fact, more than a few schools have had to invent techniques for disengaging superfluous candidates BECAUSE it permits choice while concealing a measure of adult control, the all-elective program is favored by schools edging gingerly into innovation One school, though imposing no restraints on selection, offers a range of options so impoverished as to nullify its effect Another with more varied offerings requires two courses from the humanities and social sciences, and another pair from math and the natural sciences each year In this way control of the catalog and of distribution requirements allows a cautious school to masquerade as more permissive than it is In Philadelphia's Parkway Program, and in such successors as Chicago's Metro School and Boston's Copley, what might be labeled an apprentice model merges with the elective program The apprentice model disinters the venerable prejudice that those who can, do, while those who can't, teach It seeks to place students under the tutelage of skilled practitioners in an updated version of the ancient guild relation Hence, Parkway disperses its pupils to study journalism in city rooms, chemistry in industrial labs, art history in museums, and statistics in actuarial offices A second example of the same model can be seen m numeious suburban counterschools where professionals, craftsmen and other specialists are imported from adjacent urban centers to teach a class or two A third variant, recreating a familiar umversity pattern, flourishes in some rural schools where artists or other practitioners are installed for a year's tenure Just as apprenticeship emphasizes first-hand acquaintance, a similar enchantment with direct experience has sparked mcreasmg numbers of travel programs At the Study-Travel-Community Schools scattered over northern New England, the Wandeijahr resembles an exploded Parkway Program Students convene at school for some weeks of planmng under staff guidance, then, as autumn temperatures decline, the community disperses in pursuit of warm-weather apprenticeships and other exploratory projects Spring once again gathers in the migrants to share their experiences On the west coast a bellwether of the counterschools movement, Pacific High School, attempted a year in India in search of Eastern art, mythology and mysticism And an occasional group invests in a bus instead of a building, the better to keep school on the open road By no means mutually exclusive, these strategies of counterschoohng reinforce each other and coexist comfortably within a single institution, even within a single classroom They give concrete form to the most pervasive convictions of alternative education a belief in the perspecti-val nature of knowledge, and a consequent msistence on its relativity and privacy Born of these primal assumptions, the instructional tactics of counterschools, however various their surfaces, necessarily emphasize personal choice and firsthand experience Do counterschools have a future...