In this article, the author profiles Charles Dickens Elementary School in Vancouver, British Columbia, a school that dares to be different from the rest. This elementary school operates on a child-centered, multi-aged framework that is based on belief in an orientation towards continuous progress, appropriate evaluation of progress, schoolwide…

This innovative high school gives no grades and students satisfy graduation requirements through unique combinations of classes, apprenticeships, independent study, work, and travel. Funding is mostly public and flexible. A benefit has been low turnover in the principalship. The school is an important community resource. (PB)

When parents and educators are dismayed by the younger generation's declining skills, future orientation, and interest in success, they should direct their concern to the interplay between "video Valhalla," narcissistic consumerism, and open education in today's enculturative processes. (Author/IRT)

Despite commission reports and journal articles advocating mastery learning and effective instruction, grassroots influence is conspicuously missing from the current reform movement. Creative teachers continue to leave the profession, and top students refuse to enter it. Teachers remain essentially powerless, while open education enthusiasts await…

School reformers have not been too radical, but have been unable to sustain their reforming energy and innovative thinking. Reformers are not "tinkering toward Utopia," but are relapsing into habit, meandering back into mediocrity. A remarkably coherent tradition of rethinking schooling is yielding to the forces of inertia,…

The school described here operates on the principle that play for the sake of play, without unsolicited adult intervention, entails the acquisition of skills and knowledge. Sudbury Valley School promotes cultural acquisition in a manner harmonious with the child's biological self-education system, without age segregation, grading, or academic…

Horizon High School combats student dropout rates in Bakersfield (California) by maintaining a small enrollment, high community involvement, close student-teacher relationships, flexible scheduling, and attention to individual students' educational needs and interests. Student attendance, graduation rates, and standardized test scores are…

Describes the current crisis in public education and proposes a new paradigm of holistic education aimed at increasing students' abilities to direct their own lives and learning. Students would experience directed, assigned, self-directed, and open learning every year, and the twelfth year would be self-designed and managed. (MJL)