Holistic Ways of Learning at a Community School: A Critical Narrative Exploration of the Alternative School Experience

Cover Endorsement Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Foreword 1 Introduction, Prologue to the Story, and the Alternative School Movement Research Questions Purpose of the Study Limitations Theoretical Framework—Holistic and Critical Educational Sustainability Present Day, the Kids Are Not Alright Back to School Means Back to Stress Alternative Schools The Free School Movement The Influence of John Holt The First Street School Looking Back—The Deeply Personal and Deeply Political Becoming a Teacher The Hall-Dennis Report Summerhill Influences Free Schools Making It Relevant The Equinox School and North Star References 2 Holistic Theory and Critical Pedagogy Holistic Education What Is Holistic Education? Indigenous Education Transcendentalists Wholeness and Interconnectedness Soul/Sacredness Leading With the Head The Interconnected Holistic Educator The Holistic Learner, Freedom, and Self-Direction Holistic Theory—A Pedagogy of Privilege? Begin With Identity A Note On the Researcher-Educator-Learner Critical Pedagogy Defining Critical Pedagogy Frankfurt School Influences Critical Pedagogy Today Value Neutrality, the Great Equalizer, and Other Myths of Mainstream Schooling Critiques of Critical Pedagogy Questions of Gender and Othering Beyond Either/Or Thinking: Schools as Sites of Oppression and Liberation? References 3 Methodology Narrative Inquiry Narrative and Autoethnography as Critical Methodology Methods Participants Participants Then and Now Interviews Ethics and Consent Narrative Privilege Memory Thematizing and Characterizing (Data Analysis) Insider Status and Reflexivity Hearing and Sharing Multiple Voices References 4 The Newcomers Context—What Brought the Adults Here Barney—Community School Founder, Where It Began Kathlyn and Dennis Sylvia Bernadine Ish and Kathy Kathy Ish Other Community Members Note References 5 Education Is Too Important to Be Left to Professionals Philosophies of Education Being Brutalized By the System Factory Schooling Serious Undertaking Child-Centred Changing On the Fly: Auto Mechanics Is Just Not Their Thing When Passionate Views Lead to Conflict Reading and Telling Time Telling Time Learning to Read—According to Rudolf Steiner The Report of the Commission On Private Schools in Ontario “Real” School and Real Conflict How Did You Know They Were Learning? How Could You Not Know? References 6 Getting There Is Half the Fun Transportation: Getting There Is Half the Fun Travel By Car A Typical School Day—Was There Such a Thing? Animals: Horses and Geese and Sheep, Oh My! Gymkhana: Games On Horseback The Author’s Gymkhana Experience—Reflections On Memories Survival Week The Beaver Pond Yoga Meditation History References 7 A Beautiful Little School Like Family—For Better and for Worse Chores—This Is School? Transitions Between Mainstream and Community School Fitting In? That Is a Different Question Altogether Looking Back References 8 Conclusion Epilogue to the Story References Index