Alternative Schools

An alternative school is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional. Such schools offer a wide range of philosophies and teaching methods; some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, while others are more ad hoc assemblies of teachers and students dissatisfied with some aspect of mainstream or traditional education.

Some schools are based on pedagogical approaches differing from that of the mainstream pedagogy employed in a culture, while other schools are for gifted students, children with special needs, children who have fallen off the track educationally, children who wish to explore unstructured or less rigid system of learning, etc.

Alternative Programs: At Risk, Alternative Classrooms, School within-a-school, Juvenile Justice Centers, Conflict Resolution Training, Substance Abuse Prevention, Emotional, Eating Disorder, Sexual Abuse, Homeless Education, Summer School, Life Skills Training, Dropout Prevention, GED Classes, Teen & Pregnant Mothers

Alternative Schools: Democratic Schools, Krishnamurti Schools, Reggio Emilia Schools, Progressive Schools, Sudbury Schools

Democratic Schools: Democratic education is an educational ideal in which democracy is both a goal and a method of instruction. It brings democratic values to education and can include self-determination within a community of equals, as well as such values as justice, respect and trust. Democratic education is often specifically emancipatory, with the students' voices being equal to the teacher's.

Essential Schools: Schools characterized by personalization, democracy and equity, intellectual vitality and excellence, and graduates who experience success in all aspects of their lives: educational, professional, civic, and personal.

Montessori Schools: The Montessori method is characterized by an emphasis on self-directed activity on the part of the child and clinical observation on the part of the teacher. It stresses the importance of adapting the child's learning environment to his or her developmental level, and of the role of physical activity in absorbing abstract concepts and practical skills.

Online Schools: Cyber Schools, Distance Education Programs, On-line Schools

Progressive Schools: Progressive education is a pedagogical movement which emphasizes on learning by doing - hands-on projects, expeditionary learning, experiential learning.

Reggio Emilia Schools: Reggio Emilia is an educational philosophy focused on preschool and primary education. The aim of this approach is teaching how to use these symbolic languages (eg., painting, sculpting, drama) in everyday life.

Special Education Schools: Special education is the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, accessible settings, and other interventions designed to help learners with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and community than would be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.

Sudbury Schools: Sudbury school is for the K-12 age range where students have complete responsibility for their own education, and the school is run by direct democracy in which students and staff are equals.

Waldorf Schools: The Waldorf approach emphasizes the role of the imagination in learning, developing thinking that includes a creative as well as an analytic component. Schools and teachers are given considerable freedom to define curricula within collegial structures.

Coming Soon:
Homeschooling/Unschooling