"Open education" revisited: Promise and problems in American educational reform (1967-1976)

Teachers College Record

Volumn 99, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 371-415

  Smith, Lydia A H ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0031283838     PISSN: 01614681     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (143)

1. Charles H. Rathbone, ed., Open Education: The Informal Classroom (New York: Citation Press, 1971), p. xvi. Cf. also Roland S. Barth and Charles H. Rathbone, eds., A Bibliography of Open Education (Newton, Mass.: Education Development Center, 1971).
2. Charles H. Rathbone, ed., Open Education: The Informal Classroom (New York: Citation Press, 1971), p. xvi. Cf. also Roland S. Barth and Charles H. Rathbone, eds., A Bibliography of Open Education (Newton, Mass.: Education Development Center, 1971).
3. Jonathan Kozol, Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1967); John Holt, How Children Fail (New York: Pitman, 1964); and Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society (New York: Harper & Row, Colophon Books, 1970).
4. Jonathan Kozol, Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1967); John Holt, How Children Fail (New York: Pitman, 1964); and Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society (New York: Harper & Row, Colophon Books, 1970).
5. Jonathan Kozol, Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1967); John Holt, How Children Fail (New York: Pitman, 1964); and Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society (New York: Harper & Row, Colophon Books, 1970).
6. Mario D. Fantini, ed., Alternative Education: A Source Book for Parents, Teachers, and Administrators (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976), p. 9.
7. Cf. ibid., Introduction, pp. xv-xvii.
8. From interview with Charles H. Rathbone, by permission.
9. James B. Macdonald, "Perspective on Open Education: A Speculative Essay," in Studies in Open Education, ed. Bernard Spodek and Herbert Walberg (New York: Agathon Press, 1975), p. 45.
10. Cf. the classic study by Seymour B. Sarason, The Culture of the School and the Problem of Change (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1971).
11. The study was conducted with support from the Spencer Foundation and the Rockefeller Archive Center, and is now being devleoped into a book.
12. Charles H. Rathbone, Roland S. Barth, and Maurice Belanger. From interview with Charles H. Rathbone, by permission.
13. Charles H. Rathbone, "Examining the Open Education Classroom," School Review, August 1972, p. 547, footnote 9.
14. Harold Howe II, Openness: The New Kick in Education (New York: Ford Foundation Reprint, 1972), p. 8.
15. It never caught on in England, where the term open had a purely architectural meaning, emphasizing schools with plenty of open space for children's projects, often "purpose-built," an English term.
16. Edward Yeomans, Education for Initiative and Responsibility (Boston: National Association of Independent Schools, 1967), p. 11. Although he was specifically referring to schools he had seen in Leicestershire, his comment applies to the full range of similar practices in the United States and the United Kingdom.
17. Cf. Lawrence A. Cremin, The Transformation of the School: Progressivism in American Education, 1876-1957 (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1964).
18. Macdonald, "Perspective on Open Education," p. 52.
19. Fantini, Alternative Education, p. xvi. Emphasis in original.
20. Ibid., p. 8.
21. Ibid., p. 4.
22. Ivan Illich, "The Alternative to Schooling," in ibid., p. 34.
23. Cf. Evelyn Lawrence, ed., Friedrich Froebel and English Education (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1952).
24. His (or Her) Majesty's Inspectors, a group of experienced educators who had visited - "inspected" - schools all over the country for years. They were independent of the Department of Education and Science, and answerable only to the Crown. Their function was to evaluate schools' achievements and to make recommendations for improvement. At one time, a teacher's salary depended on the results of these inspections. At the time of this study, there was a remarkable core of HMIs who carried ideas about informal practices from one school to another in many counties of the United Kingdom. Cf. John Blackie, Inspecting and the Inspectorate (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970).
25. David Armington, "A Plan for Continuing Growth," in Open Education: A Sourcebrook for Parents and Teachers, ed. Ewald B. Nyquist and Gene R. Hawes (New York: Bantam Books, 1972), pp. 63ff.
26. Ibid., pp. 69ff.
27. Ibid., p. 70.
28. Lillian S. Stephens, A Teacher's Guide to the Open Classroom (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1974), p. 27.
29. Like today's "portfolio assessment" method.
30. From interview and later correspondence with Molly Watt, by permission.
31. From interview with Deborah Meier, by permission.
32. David Hawkins, "I, Thou, and It," in his The Informed Vision (New York: Agathon Press, 1974), p. 48.
33. Macdonald, "Perspective on Open Educaiton.
34. From interview with Deborah Meier, by permission.
35. Hawkins, "I, Thou, and It," pp. 48ff.
36. From interview with John Emanuel and Chris Athey, by permission.
37. Edward O. Wilson, Naturalist (Washington, D.C.: Island Press/Shearwater Books, 1994), pp.11-12.
38. In England, the Nuffield science materials were making good progress as well, and many American educators had the opportunity to see them being used.
39. Bill Hull from the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Mass., and David Armington from the Hawken School in Cleveland, Ill., who was visiting Shady Hill at the time. They were prompted by Zoltan ("Zed") Dienes, of the University of Leicestershire, who was a student of Max Beberman and had invented and used the mathematical "Dienes blocks" in Leicestershire schools with considerable success.
40. From interview with Bill Hull, by permission.
41. Cf. Kathleen Devaney, Developing Open Education in America (Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1974); and Ruth Dropkin and Arthur Tobier, eds., Roots of Open Education in America: Reminiscences and Reflections (New York: The City College Workshop Center for Open Education, 1976).
42. Cf. Kathleen Devaney, Developing Open Education in America (Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1974); and Ruth Dropkin and Arthur Tobier, eds., Roots of Open Education in America: Reminiscences and Reflections (New York: The City College Workshop Center for Open Education, 1976).
43. Yeomans, Education for Initiative, p. 3.
44. From interview with George Baines, by permission.
45. Children and Their Primary Schools: Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) ("The Plowden Report") (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1967), para. 2.9 and para. 507.
46. Joseph Featherstone, "The Primary School Revolution in Britain." The New Republic, August 10, 1967, p. 10. He continued his report in two subsequent issues. Also in 1967, Yeomans published through the NAIS his own account of some Leicestershire schools (Education for Initiative and Responsibility). While less widely read, it was also an important early document since independent schools had the flexibility to try new ideas, and generally led the way in doing so..
47. Joseph Featherstone, "The Primary School Revolution in Britain." The New Republic, August 10, 1967, p. 10. He continued his report in two subsequent issues. Also in 1967, Yeomans published through the NAIS his own account of some Leicestershire schools (Education for Initiative and Responsibility). While less widely read, it was also an important early document since independent schools had the flexibility to try new ideas, and generally led the way in doing so..
48. Joseph Featherstone, "Open Schools I," The New Republic, September 11, 1971, p. 20.
49. Cf. Lydia A. H. Smith, Activity and Experience: Sources of English Informal Schools (New York: Agathon Press, 1976).
50. Handbook of Suggestions for the Consideration of Teachers (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1918), Prefatory Note, p. 1.
51. Report of the Consultative Committee on the Primary School ("The Hadow Report") (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1931), p. 1. Emphasis added.
52. From interview with Dorothy Glynn, by permission.
53. From interview with Edith Moorhouse, by permission.
54. From interview with Ruth Foster, by permission.
55. From interview with Sir Alec Clegg, by permission.
56. From interview with Rae Milne, by permission.
57. From interview with Sir Alec Clegg, by permission.
58. Smith, Activity and Experience, p. 19.
59. From interview with Christian Schiller, by permission.
60. Cf. Lydia A. H. Smith, To Understand and to Help: The Life and Work of Susan Isaacs (1885-1948) (Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Presses, 1985).
61. Bill Hull, "The Case for the Experimental School," unpublished 1971 document, used by permission, p. 6.
62. Two of the best examples are Lillian Weber and Tony Kallet. Dr. Weber spent a year in England, visiting schools and working with Dorothy E. M. Gardner of the Institute of Education, University of London. Her book is a classic in the field: The English Infant School and Informal Education (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971), and she was later responsible for setting up the "Open Corridors" program for teachers at C.C.N.Y. Tony Kallet went to Leicestershire and was soon hired by Stewart Mason as a roving adviser to the primary schools of that county, where he spent several years. He became involved with the Hawkinses in Boulder, Colorado, at the Mountain View Center for Environmental Education, and from 1970 to 1986 was the editor of an important (if not well enough known) periodical, Outlook.
63. Bill Hull, "Personal Research," in Psychological Research in the Classroom: Issues for Educators and Researchers , ed. Teresa Amabile and Margaret Stubbs (New York: Pergamon Press, 1981), p. 1299
64. Cf. Joseph Featherstone, "Open Schools: Tempering a Fad," The New Republic, September 1971, p. 17.
65. From interview with Rae Milne, by permission.
66. Hull, "The Case for the Experimental School," p. 3.
67. The Ripley School, Concord, Mass.
68. Head teacher, Tower School, Oxfordshire, UK.
69. The Wheeler School, Concord, Mass., now a senior citizens' center.
70. Howe, Openness, p. 8.
71. Stephanie A. Cleverdon, "Unpacking Educational Change," Outlook 11 (Spring 1974): 30-31. Emphasis added.
72. Kathleen Devaney and Lorraine Thorn, Exploring Teachers' Centers (San Francisco: Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, 1975).
73. Workshop participant, quoted in John Harkins, Box-Breaking (Philadelphia: Friends Committee on Education,1969), preface.
74. Ibid.
75. Ibid., p. ii.
76. Cf. David Tyack and Larry Cuban, Tinkering toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995).
77. For a searing historical analysis and critique of attempts to measure human intelligence (and thereby human moral character as well), see Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981).
78. Edward A. Chittenden and Anne M. Bussis, "Open Education: Research and Assessment Strategies," in Open Education, ed. Nyquist and Hawes, p. 361.
79. Prospectus for The Prospect School, (North Bennington, Vt.), n.d., p. 2
80. Cf. Patricia F. Carini, "The School Lives of Seven Children: A Five Year Study," Monograph for the North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation (Grand Forks.: Center for Teaching and Learning, University of North Dakota, 1982).
81. The Prospect Archive and Center for Educational Research, North Bennington, Vt., has a large collection of individual children's work collected during their attendance at the school.
82. Vito Perrone, Foreword to Edward Yeomans, When the Voice of the Teacher Is Heard in the Land, Monograph for the North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation (Grand Forks: Center for Teaching and Learning, University of North Dakota, 1986).
83. Anne M. Bussis, Edward A. Chittenden, and Marianne Amarel, Beyond Surface Curriculum: An Interview Study of Teachers' Understandings (Boulder, Col.: Westview Press, 1976).
84. Ibid., p. 2.
85. First described in an interim report for the USOE: "Analysis of an Approach to Open Education," in August 1970, and later more extensively in Beyond Surface Curriculum.
86. Bussis et al., Beyond Surface Curriculum, p. 3.
87. Hull, "Personal Research," pp. 117, 131.
88. Ibid., p. 120.
89. Introduction to Molly Watt, Thinking about Thinking: A Description of a Seminar for Supporting Teacher Growth (Brookline, Mass.: Brookline Teacher Center, 1979).
90. Ibid., p. 1.
91. Ibid., p. 15.
92. Ibid., p. 14.
93. Cf. Featherstone, "Open Schools: Tempering a Fad." Cf. also, inter alia, Diane Ravitch, "Reformers, Radicals, and Romantics," in her The Troubled Crusade: American Education 1945-1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1983), chap. 7; and Bernard Spodek, "Open Education: Romance or Liberation?", in Studies in Open Educatuon, ed. Spodek and Walberg, p. 3.
94. Cf. Featherstone, "Open Schools: Tempering a Fad." Cf. also, inter alia, Diane Ravitch, "Reformers, Radicals, and Romantics," in her The Troubled Crusade: American Education 1945-1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1983), chap. 7; and Bernard Spodek, "Open Education: Romance or Liberation?", in Studies in Open Educatuon, ed. Spodek and Walberg, p. 3.
95. Cf. Featherstone, "Open Schools: Tempering a Fad." Cf. also, inter alia, Diane Ravitch, "Reformers, Radicals, and Romantics," in her The Troubled Crusade: American Education 1945-1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1983), chap. 7; and Bernard Spodek, "Open Education: Romance or Liberation?", in Studies in Open Educatuon, ed. Spodek and Walberg, p. 3.
96. Hawkins, "I, Thou, and It."
97. Elizabeth Lawrence, The Origins and Growth of Modern Education (New York: Penguin Books, 1970), p. 12. Cf. also, inter alia, Cremin, Transformation of the School, and his 3-volume work American Education (New York: Harper & Row, 1970, 1980, 1988); and Tyack and Cuban, Tinkering toward Utopia. Note: In Cremin's magisterial history, the term open education does not even appear in the index.
98. Elizabeth Lawrence, The Origins and Growth of Modern Education (New York: Penguin Books, 1970), p. 12. Cf. also, inter alia, Cremin, Transformation of the School, and his 3-volume work American Education (New York: Harper & Row, 1970, 1980, 1988); and Tyack and Cuban, Tinkering toward Utopia. Note: In Cremin's magisterial history, the term open education does not even appear in the index.
99. Elizabeth Lawrence, The Origins and Growth of Modern Education (New York: Penguin Books, 1970), p. 12. Cf. also, inter alia, Cremin, Transformation of the School, and his 3-volume work American Education (New York: Harper & Row, 1970, 1980, 1988); and Tyack and Cuban, Tinkering toward Utopia. Note: In Cremin's magisterial history, the term open education does not even appear in the index.
100. Elizabeth Lawrence, The Origins and Growth of Modern Education (New York: Penguin Books, 1970), p. 12. Cf. also, inter alia, Cremin, Transformation of the School, and his 3-volume work American Education (New York: Harper & Row, 1970, 1980, 1988); and Tyack and Cuban, Tinkering toward Utopia. Note: In Cremin's magisterial history, the term open education does not even appear in the index.
101. Cf. John Dewey, "The Child and the Curriculum," in Dewey on Education, ed. Martin Dworkin (New York: Teachers College Press, 1959), p. 91.
102. John Dewey, "My Pedagogic Creed," in ibid., p. 21.
103. Summarized in Charles E. Silberman, Crisis in the Classroom (New York: Basic Books, 1970), p. 220, from John Dewey's Lectures in the Philosophy of Education (New York: Random House, 1996) p. 47.
104. Summarized in Charles E. Silberman, Crisis in the Classroom (New York: Basic Books, 1970), p. 220, from John Dewey's Lectures in the Philosophy of Education (New York: Random House, 1996) p. 47.
105. Wilson, Naturalist.
106. Hawkins, "I, Thou, and It," pp. 186-87.
107. John Dewey in Dewey on Education, ed. Dworkin, p. 108.
108. Ibid., p. 240.
109. Deborah Meier, The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995), p. 156. The Central Park East Schools were founded in 1974 by Dr. Meier and have gained national recognition for success in an urban setting.
110. Deborah Meier, The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995), p. 156. The Central Park East Schools were founded in 1974 by Dr. Meier and have gained national recognition for success in an urban setting.
111. Philippe Aries, Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1962); and Lloyd DeMause, ed. The History of Childhood (New York: The Psychohistory Press, 1974). Note that they were speaking of Western civilization only.
112. Philippe Aries, Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1962); and Lloyd DeMause, ed. The History of Childhood (New York: The Psychohistory Press, 1974). Note that they were speaking of Western civilization only.
113. DeMause, The History of Childhood, pp. 1-3.
114. Ibid., p. ii. Emphasis added.
115. Aries, Centuries of Childhood, pp. 10-11.
116. Ibid., p. 61.
117. Ibid., cover jacket.
118. Samuel B. C. Jackson, Quiet Turbulence (Cleveland: The Cleveland Council of Independent Schools, 1971), p. 12.
119. From interview with Edith Cranitch, by permission.
120. From interview with Dorothy Glynn, by permission.
121. Vito Perrone, "Effective Schools, Teaching and Learning," Outlook, Winter 1983, p. 36.
122. These comments come from my own experience as a teacher educator for over thirty years.
123. Cf., inter alia, Jean Piaget and Barbel Inhelder, The Psychology of the Child (New York: Basic Books, 1969). Translated from the French by Helen Weaver.
124. Cf., Bill Hull, "Leicestershire Revisited," in Open Education, ed. Rathbone, p. 31. Also Hull's unpublished documents, "Learning Strategy and the Skills of Thought" (1958), "Islands in the Seas: Reflections on Learning and Understanding" (1968), "The Case for the Experimental School" (1971).
125. Cf., Bill Hull, "Leicestershire Revisited," in Open Education, ed. Rathbone, p. 31. Also Hull's unpublished documents, "Learning Strategy and the Skills of Thought" (1958), "Islands in the Seas: Reflections on Learning and Understanding" (1968), "The Case for the Experimental School" (1971).
126. Cf., Bill Hull, "Leicestershire Revisited," in Open Education, ed. Rathbone, p. 31. Also Hull's unpublished documents, "Learning Strategy and the Skills of Thought" (1958), "Islands in the Seas: Reflections on Learning and Understanding" (1968), "The Case for the Experimental School" (1971).
127. Cf., Bill Hull, "Leicestershire Revisited," in Open Education, ed. Rathbone, p. 31. Also Hull's unpublished documents, "Learning Strategy and the Skills of Thought" (1958), "Islands in the Seas: Reflections on Learning and Understanding" (1968), "The Case for the Experimental School" (1971).
128. Cf. also Hawkins's 1974 collection, The Informed Vision.
129. Cf. Patricia Carini, "The Art of Seeing and the Visibility of the Person," Monograph for the North Dakota Study Group of Evaluation (Grand Forks: Center for Teaching and Learning, September 1979).
130. Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York: Basic Books, 1983).
131. Howard Gardner, The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think and How Schools Should Teach (New York: Basic Books, 1991), inter alia.
132. Bernice McCarthy, 4MAT System: Teaching to Learning Styles with Right/Left Mode Techniques, (Oak Brook, III.: EXCEL, Inc., 1980).
133. Cf. also Leslie A. Hart, Human Brain and Human Learning (New York: Longman, 1983); and David A. Kolb, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (Englewood Cliffs, .N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1984).
134. Cf. also Leslie A. Hart, Human Brain and Human Learning (New York: Longman, 1983); and David A. Kolb, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (Englewood Cliffs, .N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1984).
135. A few examples: Deborah Meier's Central Park East Schools in New York, Theodore Sizer's Coalition of Essential Schools based in Providence, R.I., EDC in Newton, Mass., a graduate program for teachers in critical and creative thinking at the University of Massachusetts, Project Zero at Harvard University, and many more elsewhere.
136. Chris Athey, Extending Thought in Young Children: A Parent-Teacher Relationship (London: Paul Chapman, 1990).
137. Now the Roehampton Institute of Education, one of five constituent teacher-education institutions.
138. Athey, Extending Thought in Young Children, p. xi.
139. Ibid., p. 73.
140. Mary Field Belenky et al., Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind (New York: Basic Books, 1986), pp. 193, 229.
141. Ibid., p. 224.
142. Hawkins, "I, Thou, and It."
143. Armington, "A Plan for Continuing Growth," p. 70