Featuring guest Dr. Mary Anne Raywid
(Recorded on September 28, 1978)
~ Introductory Text by John Sherin ~
In this segment the question “What is an Alternative?” is examined with questions related to multiple student advantages and factors of cost. Expanded recently to a two-year program, panelists share evolving goals after graduation and speak to available options within the public school system. Admitting to refining views of education, they share discoveries of latent talents and abilities, as well as how they’ve overcome obstacles, encountered threats, experienced name calling, and confronted controversy with recent scientific findings and proven data.
Acknowledging that the fear of change and what’s different is an unfortunate motivating factor in local opposition, all seem to hold to the view that schools of the future will be even more, not less flexible, and thus increasingly adaptable in the face of challenges ahead. It is, according to one view expressed, through self-immersion in school that students can invest in their future.
Listening, we’re reminded just how little public education has changed in three decades and how far “back to this future” we need to go if we’re to ride the tide to a New American Century. Certain current movements may well be seen as demands for more openness, flexibility and change wherein a one-size-fits-all educational model belongs appropriately not to the future, but to the 19th and 20th Centuries from whence it came.
MARY ANNE RAYWID SCHEELE / 1928-2010
For more information about Dr. Raywid's work and helpful links, click here.