Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

96 The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology
Unfortunately Ferrer was promoting his ideas of education in Spain during a very tumultuous
time and both the government and the church in Spain did not view them very favorably. Eventually
Ferrer was accused of conspiring against the government and encouraging an uprising and was
arrested, charged, and given a mock trial where no solid evidence of these activities could be
brought forward. Regardless of this lack of evidence he was found guilty and executed in 1909.
This created an enormous outcry in the rest of the Western world among social activists and
educators and in many regions schools bearing his name sprang up in honor of him, specifically
supporting and attempting to emulate his educational philosophy. It was in this country that Emma
Goldman became such a strong supporter of Francisco Ferrer and his Modern School movement.
Several Modern Schools were organized in the United States and some stayed relatively active
up to the early 1950s.
The Modern School was not seen as just a school, but a community of learners that included
teachers as well as students. The students were the central important aspect of the educational
process, not standardized tests that are mandated by governmental figures. The students’ rights
were valued and their growth was highly regarded, with emphasis placed on the dignity of the
child. One main aspect of the Modern School, and one of the reasons that Emma Goldman was so
supportive of its philosophy, is its rejection of overt and centralized authority. It is this rejection
of overt and centralized authority that signifies the psychology of the Modern School philosophy.
Individual psychological growth was greatly encouraged in the Modern School. Ones ability to
learn was based on that individual’s own personal developmental stage, not on a developmental
stage that was mandated by the educational institution, teachers, or theories subscribed to by that
institution. If a student was not doing well in a certain area or was not as interested in a certain
subject, then emphasis was placed on the students learning ability and what they were ready to
learn. Students were not coerced or forced into learning something they were not ready to learn or
not interested in. They were also not evaluated or labeled if they were not ready to learn a certain
topic or subject. Students were however encouraged to develop individually and independently
within a community of learners.
With the philosophy of developing individuality within each child there is also this sense of
communalism; this is where students learn to work together in the educational environment as
opposed to being so competitive. Grades, tests, and class rankings were all abolished in the
Modern School and learning became a spontaneous event where one could learn from other
students, teachers, and learn together in groups. It was through this process that educators of the
Modern School felt that allowing the student to learn and grow in an open and free environment
brought out the true and unique character of each child. Another important aspect of the Modern
school was that learning did not end at a certain point in a person’s life, that learning was an
ongoing and lifelong process. So you may have a class at one of the Modern Schools where
students and teachers were learning a subject together. It was also the belief in the Modern School
setting to provide as much material as possible for students, not to limit or restrict them to just
certain subjects, and to show the connections of those subjects to each other. Through the Modern
School, learning became more than just internal or external. It became both—learning became
experiential.
POSTFORMAL EDUCATION
The Modern School attempted to break away from formal education and tap into the essence of
who the student was and this mirrors the ideas that Joe Kincheloe and others would call postformal
education, or education that goes beyond the formal framework. Postformal thinking attempts
to break away from this notion of using a developmental model and behavioral psychology as a
reference for the educational process. When education is so inextricably connected with scientific