Alternative Education Models

Is your child struggling in school? Are you not understanding why she is having difficulty learning in a classroom setting? Does she hate going to school instead of wanting to go eagerly every day? Are her teachers requesting conferences with you to discuss the situation? These and many other signs should alert you to the fact that you need to give your child some extra attention. As one parent to another, I can tell you that admitting that your child has learning differences or special needs is not an easy thing to deal with. We had to deal with this situation ourselves. One child had great difficulty reading. Another had serious problems with mathematics. I will focus on the more common learning differences such as ADHD and dyslexia in this article. Special needs encompass a wide range of syndromes, some of which we will examine in companion articles.

At the first sign that their child has a learning difference, many parents panic and withdraw into a state of denial. That may help you. But it will not help your child. Your child's teachers know what to look for. The signs of a child with learning issues are fairly obvious, as a rule. While teachers may not know how to treat the disorder professionally, they are trained to alert both parents and the school administration when they suspect that your child has a learning issue.

Public schools must implement Individualized Education Programs (IEP) for students with

The question and answer on the Bay Area Private Schools site says it all:

Q. Is there a ranking on California private schools?

A. There is no ranking on private elementary schools. Since the key to rewarding private school education is finding a good match for your child's specific needs, parents should not make their decision solely based on test scores and reputation.

So, the answer to every parent's question "Which is the best school for my child?" is a very ambiguous attorney's answer: "It depends!" What does it depend on? It depends on your requirements.

This video offers an overview of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C.

What are your requirements?

You and your child will have different requirements, of course. You will be looking at test scores of a school's graduates, the colleges to which they matriculate, the quality of the faculty, how competitive the admissions are, and so on. Typical adult benchmarks.

She's more concerned with what kind of kids go to the school, what her social life will be like, whether she can bring her horse to school, how much homework there is, and how difficult the work is. Typical teenage concerns.

What you must do to determine the best school for your child is to examine and discuss all the things which matter to you both. This is not a discussion that can take place while stopped at a traffic light

Disclaimer: My eldest daughter attended the Waldorf School of Garden City back in the 70s. We liked the gentle approach that allowed children to explore and learn to think critically. ~Rob Kennedy

Waldorf schools offer a well-thought-out approach to K-12 education. Unlike Montessori schools, which focus on the primary grades, Waldorf schools cover all the grades. The Waldorf movement got its start with the writings and philosophy of Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925). Pictured on the right, Steiner was an Austrian-born philosopher who founded a movement known as anthroposophy.

One of the key aims of our method of educating is to help the child toward developing the faculty of free imagination. So, for example, we generally tell stories without offering printed pictures. Our words provide the raw materials. The child has to “clothe” the story with his or her own images. (Mt Barker Waldorf School Parent Association 2001)

This video from the Spring Garden Waldorf Schools gives an overview of a Waldorf education.

The essence of the Waldorf approach to education is its emphasis on developing a child's imagination and creative side. The Waldorf pedagogues prefer that young children never be exposed to popular entertainment such as television, popular music, and computers. Competition is replaced with cooperation. Eurythmy, an expressive music cum dance art form, plays a central role in developing a child's artistic expression. The whole child is engaged

Sooner or later you ought to consider a single sex school as opposed to a traditional coeducational school. Why? For several reasons. First of all, coeducational schools have only become 'traditional' or commonly accepted in the last several decades. Private education has its roots in single sex education, both in this country and in England.

Indeed, if you look at the history of most of the legendary prep schools in America, you are likely to find that they began as a single sex institutions. For example, Phillips Academy Exeter began as a boys' school. It only began admitting girls in its summer sessions in 1961 which was fifteen years after it dropped the two year Latin requirement - horrible dictu! It would be another nine years before Exeter admitted girls in its regular sessions.

So, what's really happening here? American private schools like Exeter have always pretty much mirrored the society which they seek to serve. Back in the late 1700's and early 1800's when many of these schools got their start, educating girls was not considered as important as educating boys. Those views changed over the centuries as the young republic grew and matured. So did views about education. In the 1960's and '70's single sex schools gradually fell out of fashion. In order to survive, some boys' and girls' schools merged to form coeducational schools. Others, like Exeter, saw the handwriting on the wall and moved with the times by admitting girls.

In the 21st century