'Open Schools' Made Noise In The 70s, Now They're Just Noisy
'Open Education' was a big idea half a century ago. Kids were supposed to move around, learning in groups or exploring on their own. But, within a few years, the movement faded. So, what happened?
It's a perennial debate in American education: Do kids learn best when they're sitting in rows at their desks? Or moving around, exploring on their own?
Back in the 1960s and '70s, that debate led to a brand new school design: Small classrooms were out. Wide-open spaces were in. The Open Education movement was born.
Across the U.S., schools were designed and built along these new ideas, with a new approach to the learning that would take place inside them.
It was a response, historians say, to fears that the U.S. was falling behind in key subjects like science and math. The approach "resonated with those who believed that America's formal, teacher-led.
