Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511150084
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: E3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN K. WHITE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It is the same amusement I felt a few years ago when the high-powered education entrepreneur, Christopher Whittle, confidently announced, with great media fanfare, that he was launching a corporation to establish a string of private schools that would provide high-quality education at tuition rates within the reach of the middle class - and make a profit to boot! Sounds interesting, but many remain highly skeptical about whether this vision can become reality.
Is there anything we can say about alternative education that is based not just on hopes, however sincere, but rather on experience? What if I told you that there has actually been a successful experiment with one kind of alternative education right in this region?
It is not supported by state tax dollars, and thus does not divert funds from existing public schools. It is not subsidized by any religious denomination and does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, or ethnicity. And it provides high-quality education at a price affordable to middle-class families.'
Now, you may be thinking, it is your turn to smile incredulously.
In 1996, the Blacksburg New School will be a quarter-century old. Founded in 1971, it is dedicated to the ideas of parental involvement and a creative, cooperative environment for primary-level education. A small staff of dedicated, professional teachers is willing to accept salaries lower than the public schools offer in return for enhanced pedagogical flexibility and space for curricular creativity. For everything except the full-time teaching - from cleaning the toilets, to being teachers' aides, to formulating the yearly budget - the parents are responsible.
Each parent contracts to perform a certain minimum amount of work each week for the school. As with any cooperative enterprise, the school works best when parents actually volunteer beyond the minimum. But the system of contracts does allow tuition to stay at a reasonable rate: $3,200 for 1995-96. That is clearly beyond the means of a lot of families; thus it would be inappropriate to offer this model as a panacea. However, this level of tuition is within the range of many who would define themselves as middle-class.
Classes are small, six to 15. Grades are often combined. Even when not formally mixed, different age groups work together on common projects. Although academic standards are very high, no grades are assigned. Rather, each student is evaluated by the accumulation of an extensive "portfolio" of work.
These and other curricular innovations have been in place for many years. They were once considered abnormal; today they are being increasingly accepted by a wide spectrum of educators. The basic point has been to instill enthusiasm for learning, evoke individual creativity and nurture both a sense of respect for others and a disposition to cooperate with them in common activities.
If these foundations are laid, high achievement on standardized tests takes care of itself. The academic performance of children after they have left the New School has been uniformly high.
A few years ago, the local fire marshal arrived for an inspection. When he found a minor violation, he asked in an official tone: "Who is in charge here?" The answer he got: "No one and everyone."
Today, when there is so much talk about enhancing grass-roots democracy and returning power to the local level, how many of us have actually had much involvement with an organization in which the members have complete, direct, democratic responsibility for everything? I often think the New School is as much an adult education in Democratic Life 101 as it is a unique alternative for kids.
Too often in education today, parents launch blanket condemnations of administrators and teachers, when they themselves do little to help. And administrators and teachers sometimes hide behind entrenched positions or mazes of regulations to blunt criticism. In our kind of school, we have met our heroes and disasters, and they are us. The buck stops in front of everybody.
What credentials do I have for telling you all this about alternative education? I am not an education expert, consultant or "outraged taxpayer." I am merely a parent with several years of hands-on, practical knowledge such as any parent gets at our school. Our quarter-century experiment has not been easy. Most schools of this sort start with great enthusiasm, but run out of steam after a few years and are dissolved. We have sputted from time to time, but extraordinary efforts have always pulled us through.
Last spring, as the parent body discussed our upcoming anniversary, one participant noted that it is perhaps kind of silly to still be calling ourselves the Blacksburg New School. After a few moments of silence, another responded that we should retain the name; after all, she said, "we create our institution anew every year."
New parents, new involvement, new energy, new possibilities. That nicely sums up the practical wisdom we have gained about one sort of alternative education.
Stephen K. White is a parent of two children at Blacksburg New School and is a professor of political science at Virginia Tech.
by CNB