| This study describes the cultural and intellectual context of the free school movement, an unprecedented episode in the history of American education during which several thousand dissident educators, students and parents rejected the established system of public education and founded hundreds of alternative schools. Using the interdisciplinary approach of American Studies, the author interprets the historical meaning of the texts (including books, newsletters, school promotional literature) associated with the movement in order to explicate the core ideology shared by most of those involved. The study reviews historical scholarship on the protest movements of the 1960s to establish the cultural context that gave rise to free schools, and draws from literature in educational philosophy, primarily the work of John Dewey and his followers, to define and critique free school ideology.; The emergence of widespread social, political and educational dissent between the mid-1960s and early 1970s gave rise to a holistic critique of modern industrial culture that Theodore Roszak labeled the “counterculture.” Within this context, a group of radical educational thinkers, including Paul Goodman, A. S. Neill, John Holt, Jonathan Kozol and George Dennison, found a popular audience for their writings and inspired thousands to launch experimental schools where freedom, self-expression, personal authenticity, and social equality replaced what were perceived as conventional educational goals of conformity, competition and social hierarchy. This dissertation examines the historical relevance of this educational ideology and traces its influence on later developments in American education, such as public alternative and charter schools and the homeschooling movement.; The author maintains that the promoters and followers of free school ideology, like others in the New Left and counterculture, were primarily opposed to the spread of technocracy in modern American culture, that is, the increasingly impersonal, mechanistic operation of political and economic institutions without regard for the personalities of individuals or the diverse needs of communities. The reaction against technocratic values gave rise to radical educational practices, such as an extreme emphasis on personal freedom, that challenged both conservative and liberal ideologies, and which proved to be unsustainable after the counterculture faded in the early 1970s. |
