Alternative Education

Alternative Education includes a number of approaches to teaching and learning that differs to more mainstream education. Alternative Education is often rooted in various philosophies that fundementally differ from the mainstreamas in that is a positive, proactive responses to the needs of student's and families for whom existing school structures are a bad fit. Some alternative school have strong associations with political, scholarly or philiosophical beliefs, some schools are very informal and have close associations between teachers and students that have become dissatisfied with the way the mainstream educational system functions. Alternative education is often viewed by many as a last chance or a punitive response to behavioral difficulties in the public school.

However, this is not always the case alternative education should be viewed as a more progressive form of education then just a last chance dumping ground. Alternative education systems are very flexiable in dealing with the students needs first unlike the mainstream system. Some students in the alternative education system are there by court appointment but other students choose to enter the alternative system typically because their needs are not met in regular school.

There are many different types of alternative education school's these include charter schools, independent schools, alternative schools and some student even prefer to be educated in home-based learning environment. Class size in the alternative education system are often small which allows for a more natural relationship between teacher and student that promotes a sense of community. The alternative education system focuses on different elements from mainstream such as:

• credits,
• careers,
• community,

As presented the alternative education system draws on a closer relationship between students and teachers, and this can lead to a sense of community and a want to learn. Whereas mainstream standard education model's do not offer so much a sense of community and want. It is this weakness in the mainstream system that serve to decrease the value of the learning process itself. Whereas the alternative education system functions to serve the needs of the student first mainstream system does not and that might ultimately push the individual student away from the very system people depend upon.

Articiles to read.

Alternative Education: From a "Last Chance" to a Proactive Model
National Centre For Education Statistics

Institute of Education Sciences
National Center for Education Statistics