A Common Vision Realized: Holistic Educators’ and Utopian Visionaries’ Ideas Brought to Life

Abstract

This article will explore the common educational vision of two distinct groups — holistic educators and American utopian authors of late-19th to mid/late-20th century — and then propose that this joint vision, along with its actualization in a variety of forms of alternative education (e.g. unschooling, democratic free schooling, Montessori and Waldorf schools, etc.) is positive evidence of a “self-organizing revolution” (Miller, 2008).  This revolution is working to challenge dominant educational paradigms, and should serve as a source of hope for many who despair that more idealistic visions of education will never come to be in our country.