Alternative school systems: pros and cons

Reasons for choosing an alternative school:

-dissatisfaction (pupils need to comply with new requirements at work, hi-tech, school should be tailored to the interests and growing demands of the society)

Nowadays parents choose to opt out of the State system and send their children to private schools. They are opposed to mixed schooling or comprehensive system, believing that mixed-ability classes don’t make the best provision for the most and least able children.

PROS + To gain certain social advantages + parents believe they can give their children a good start in life The City-as-School idea in New York + The programme is individually tailored to the students’ needs and interests + it’s a useful alternative way of dealing with final and troublesome school years + school without walls and its classrooms is the city itself + students spend their days in the theatres, museums, government offices + business is in a program of part-time apprenticeships + students are individually tailored to their interests and needs + students are accepted after an interview, the only academic requirement is two years of basic math and science at high school + credits are given for satisfactory completion of each assignment + the students stand as good a chance of getting into an American college

CONS Misleading name, expensive   - there’re still doubts whether this kind of life experience can totally replace the academic development acquired in a classroom

The idea of Summerhill-American example of alternative school

Important pedagogical ideas:

-The school must fit not only mental but psychological abilities of the child

-it must take into account all the peculiarities (principle love breeds love)

-the strict punishment for those pupils is to do nothing, to stay alone

In Belarus -specialized schools in languages, computer science, gymnasiums, lyceums, specialized classes that cater for particular group of students.

Conventional school in Belarus: pros and cons

School’s mission- to promote intellectual growth in students providing a healthy emotional atmosphere, developed by positive interpersonal relationships b/w the stuff, students and community

Conventional school means traditional, through a teacher-centered approach

1) Lecturing as a way of transmitting information

2) Test examination system as a way of knowledge control

The R of Belarus’s a highly developed system of education, which proves adult literacy rate. However the system of school teaching’s become the subject of multiple critiques.

Drawbacks of our conventional school system:

1. extra curriculum activities are not paid much attention, truancy

2. financial problems(low teacher’s salary, lack incentive and inspiration to give off their best, this tough work should be paid accordingly, not just pea-nuts for such hard work)

3. disrespect to teacher’s work, our attitude to it should change

4. school equipment is poor, textbooks aren’t good enough, old school furniture

5. deteriorating health of the pupils, problems with eyesight, awful feeding at school canteens

6. the problem of not conducting extra curriculum sport activities

7. continuing school reform-centralized testing, pupils never know to what kind of tasks they should prepare and what kind of knowledge they should possess; preparation for these tests isn’t enough(tutors)

8. the growing demand of employers, of their expectations

9. no matter how you studied at school if your parents can pay you’ll be a student

10. doesn’t well foster the child’s potential, stifles curiosity and kills motivation, children are regarded just as numbers.

Ways of improving the situation:

to make education more learner-centered based on pedagogy of cooperation where the learner shares the responsibility for decisions in the learning process

To minimize pressure upon the students, give them more freedom to express their thoughts

To put the emphasis on creative thinking

To shorten the amount of student in each classroom, thus to establish a contact with each child

To create the atmosphere of trust, to make teacher’s schedule less taxing without the detriment to their wages, emphasis on universal human values, the development of personality, democratization, creative thinking.

Conventional education should be geared to all aspects of life, including employment, parents and the state should integrate in order to build an educated society.