Teachers in complementary schools are often assumed to be using outmoded teaching strategies and an authoritarian approach to discipline. However, it is rare for mainstream teachers to have visited these community-run after-school or weekend classes, which remain on the margins of educational provision. This paper argues that complementary…

This article argues that whilst there have been substantial advancements in the ways in which learning is conceptualised, theoretical understandings of assessment, and practices that contribute to meaningful statements of learners' achievements, have not mirrored these changes in certain learning contexts. The authors challenge contemporary…

A Tuscarora farmer reminisces about growing up on the farm and discusses agricultural practices and food preservation then and now, the central place of corn in Indian culture, community gatherings to accomplish large farm tasks, and teaching his children both agriculture and traditions through hands-on experience. (SV)

The founder of Bread and Puppet Theater discusses the use of puppetry and theater arts to build community, educate the public about environmental and sociopolitical issues, and provide a setting for group consciousness raising; grassroots reclaiming of art as part of everyday life; and ceremony as a powerful element of performance and as part of…

The renowned teacher, writer, and psychiatrist discusses the influences on his life; the importance of helping students develop morally and emotionally as well as cognitively; the importance of connecting ideas to our own lives or the lives of others; and how children, through their stories related, remembered, and conveyed, teach us as we teach…

This Paper argues that the learning opportunities needed by pre-school children and adolescents beyond school have much in common: both confront what the pioneer of youth work Josephine Brew (1943) named the key problem of the "whole man": combining "social fellowship, recreation and education in one organisation". For both…

Three authors describe their motivations to write and influences on their writing careers, including love of reading, desire to escape other occupations, and influential teachers. Advice for teachers includes using the writers' workshop model; encouraging editing and revision; steering students toward literary, rather than mass media sources;…

The simplicity activist defines voluntary simplicity as critical thinking and discusses its relationship to the environment, consumerism, excessive wealth, alternative education, and democracy. Voluntary simplicity involves discovering what matters, and study circles allow small groups of people to explore an "examined life." Contains…

Former New York governor Mario Cuomo discusses the inequities of public schooling, the trend toward charter schools, and the importance of making education a national priority. Richard Lewis, founder and director of the Touchstone Center (New York City), discusses children's literature, the intrinsic motivation that children have for learning, and…