There are several similar schools here in Australia, too. One has continued
from the 1930's, from what is often called locally the 'first wave of
progressivism', and several were developed in the late 60's and early 70's.
However, the problem in relation to democratic education is: who has access to
these schools? In Australia, it is almost exclusively the upper middle class
because of the high fees necessitated by the excellent resourcing and the size
of the groups. The parents seem also mainly to come from social locations in
what Basil Bernstein calls the field of symbolic control. Is this also the
case in the US?
Geoff Williams