Alternative Education In The 1960's: An Analysis

Earlier education enthusiasts of alternative education, John Dewey, and Francis Parker promoted the progressive educational movement, a movement that emphasized on the needs of the individual child. In addition, theorist like, Jean-Jacques, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Jerome Bruner, believed education should support a child’s natural growth although society influences the child’s development. The progressive movement of the 1940’s was replaced with significant historical events that emphasized advancement of technology, superiority of weapons, and the race in space, the “Cold War Era,” had quickly uprooted much of the ideology of the progressive movement for the time being. The launching of Sputnik in 1957 brought forth a political drive for technological superiority furthering the distance from the progressive movement (Young, 1990).
The emergence of the 1960’s version of alternative education has been altered to meet the current demands of high accountability levels in academic achievement over the years. By the 1960’s alternative education was embedded with political and social justice movements within social and civil rights. The public school system was scrutinized for being discriminatory to minorities, low-socioeconomic …show more content…
In addition, significantly, the purpose of these schools were to prevent students from leaving the school district and offering the student other options for their post high school goals and objectives. Lehr (2008) indicates that alternative schools were designed to prevent students from dropping out of high school (Lehr,