The Open Classroom

by Herbert R. Kohl

unabridged book

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Teaching

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Educator best known for his advocacy of progressive alternative education and as the author of more than thirty books on education. He founded the 1960s Open School movement and is credited with coining the term "open classroom."

Reviews

[Spoust1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

the open classroom: a PRACTICAL guide to a NEW WAY of teaching

I saw this on the bargain shelf while checking out at an anarchist bookstore in Philadelphia, The Wooden Shoe, and thought I'd pick it up. (By the way, if you are ever in the area check out The Wooden Shoe. It's on South Street and is an excellent selection of radical political theory - especially some of the newer literature.) It was $2. One of the my best buys ever.

"The Open Classroom" shares with "The Pedagogy of the Oppressed" the sense that traditional, Anglo-style education is essentially authoritarian. I have not yet finished the latter book; it did not speak to me as "The Open Classroom" did, though now I think I will begin to read it again.

A comparison between the books by Kohl and Friere would be an interesting project. Both are strongly informed by philosophy - very explicitly in "The Pedagogy of the Oppressed," which makes mention every other page or so of Hegel, Marx, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, etc. On the other hand, "The Open Classroom" consists solely of Kohl's words. He is a simple writer, and I was able to finish this book in probably less than two hours. But he is incredibly thoughtful. Kohl could have taught Foucault about the structures of power in education, and his knowledge comes from experience.

I capitalized above the words "practical" and "new way." That is because Kohl is practical, and honest: the system does not like open classrooms and the teachers and students who desire them. Rather than pretending that one could escape from this reality into an ideal teaching setting, he shows how it is possible to work within even the harshest conditions - if, that is, one is capable of doing so. And that is another point: he does not expect of teachers invincibility; for the notion that the teacher should keep his emotions and troubles away from his work is itself authoritarian. Dealing with state mandated tests can even be a learning experience. Can we parody it? he asks. Can we treat it as a cultural document? Hope and despair are dialectically related. Kohl gives into the latter and finds the former.

Kohl's philosophy is in the background, unlike Friere's. But it seems to me that Kohl's work has a certain Foucauldian flavoring to it. Kohl thinks about the space of the classroom, how its elements can be rearranged to make open spaces and how they are arranged to make authoritarian spaces; he recognizes that disciplinary and scholastic records have normalizing effects. I included him in my "Foucault" section because his analysis of how time is "allocated" in schools, essentially treated like space, and his writing (already mentioned) on the use and creation of space in the classroom could certainly be looked at as an application of some of the ideas Foucualt espouses in "Discipline and Punish." Kohl saw Power/Knowledge at work before the term become one of Foucault's trademark ideas: he wrote "The Open Classroom" six years before Foucault even published "Discipline and Punish."

If I have done this book an injustice with my review, if I have simply rambled, circled around it, I apologize. Books like this are difficult to write about, in part because they are so brilliant, in part because they inspire a certain paralyzing enthusiasm in certain readers, of which I am evidently one. I will end with a quote from the book - its last paragraph.

This is quite unlike the rest of the book - more prophetic, more political, more grandiose. The rest of the book is more subtle, more humble, more practical. But this quote functions well out of context, and Kohl earns the right to proclaim it:

"Our schools are crazy. They do not serve the interests of adults, and they do not serve the interests of young people. They teach 'objective' knowledge and its corollary, obedience to authority. They teach avoidance of conflict and obeisance to tradition in the guise of history. They teach equality and democracy while while castrating students and controlling teachers. Most of all they teach people to be silent about what they think and feel, and worst of all, they teach people to pretend that they are saying what they think and fell. To try to break away from stupid schooling is no easy matter for teacher or student. It is a lonely and long fight to escape from believing that one needs to do what people say one should do and that one ought to be the person one is expected to be. Yet to make such an escape is a step toward beginning again and becoming the teachers we never knew we could be."

[Oriyah N · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an interesting read. Being that it was written in the late 60's, it's relevance to today is not as pertinent as it was in its time. At the same time, I think it does have something to contribute to today's educators, and, while taking it within its context, should be on the MUST READ list for anyone studying education.

Kohl wrote this book as an attempt to revolutionize the schools and teaching styles of his time. He introduced new and radical concepts that were in stark contrast with the very rigid and narrow styles of education that existed in that period. Much of what he suggested has since been incorporated, and is still being incorporated, into the educational system. At the same time, it seems that his theories of the ideal school were merely in reaction to what was the status quo at the time - he didn't fully think through the ramifications of his ideals. For example, he stresses the importance of not enforcing a curriculum on the students. He seems to suggest creating an environment rife with learning opportunities, then allowing the students to educate themselves through their own interest and motivation, the teacher acting as a sort of facilitator and casual role model. What he describes seems to be a sort of intense microcosm of the world at large. He doesn't seem to place enough attention or focus to the idea that school is meant to ensure that students have basic skills in areas such as spelling, grammar, and math - only a brief mention of this comes too little and too late (in my opinion) at the end of the book.

Kohl was clearly leaping off of the existing extreme of his time, and attempting to get to the other extreme. I am curious as to whether he published after this work, and how his views changed both as he saw his ideals unfold in certain school settings and as he watched society evolve.

Regardless of the efficacy of his overall ideal, I think this work should be treated as a classic. He certainly brings up points that would shake up the accepted knowledge and expectations of anyone who deals with children. I would consider this book a must-read for any critically thinking parents, teachers, teachers-in-training, and administrators.

[Ms. McDonald]

I read this book a few years ago, when I first began teaching in high school and stopped teaching college. This book is great for college teaching, but in no way useful for any other grades. The problem with it is the fact that it was written in the 1970s, during the postmodern movement and advocated that children should be in charge of what they learn. I can understand this in certain respects, but coming into the classroom on the first day and having the students create guidelines for everything, from the rules to what they want to learn to how they should be graded is ridiculous and near impossible. I attempted to do this in private school, wherein I simply had the students set up their consequences and the days on which they would receive a quiz. It turned into a giant fiasco, and the students were still arguing about everything right through the 3rd quarter. I have since discovered that students CRAVE structure and constantly look towards the teacher for guidance and knowledge. Where they take that knowledge or how they apply it towards their work or life is where, I believe, the "open classroom" can essentially fit. Thus, I believe that one should read this book for ideas, but more so to gauge themselves on WHAT NOT TO DO... Especially when classroom practices are being established.

[Antoniolarsongmail.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent starting point for breaking down authoritarian and soul poisoning classroom control.

I'll try to add more comments later