An observer's views of open-informal education and its central issues are presented in view of increasing interest in opening up classroom procedures and activities. The problems in defining Open Education are noted, but, in general, the events, relationships, activities and materials in the classroom are seen as being neither standardized nor routinized. Dimensions of classroom practices take into account space, activities of children, locus of activity selection by teacher or child, content or topics, time, and teacher-child relationships. The teacher's role is seen to be an authoritative one. The open-informal methods' promise of co-occurring achievements of academic, intellectual, and personal growth in children is considered to be of major significance. Proposals for research and development efforts include focusing on preschool and primary education, opening classes which are now traditional or formal rather than opening up new experimental schools and classes, and examining the teacher role and attitudes more closely. (LH)