Welcome from the Guide

this text is taken from the Guide to Educational Alternatives, N. NJ ed.

WELCOME
…to the second edition of the Guide to Educational Alternatives.
We’re back, talking about education! We originally wrote this book to get the word out about the many alternative educational choices available to us in Northern New Jersey. Luckily we have been able to expand our listings. We live in a region with great public schools that many of our neighbors are very proud of. To some extent it is easy to find a good public school. Maybe part of your decision to settle in a particular town was based on what you had heard about the school system. For many families their public school is a perfect fit, but sometimes it isn’t. Maybe your child isn’t flourishing, or maybe your families’ values aren’t reflected in your local school or maybe you just want an educator with a progressive child centered philosophy. Who do you ask? Think of us as that mom on the playground, passionate about education, who also has a decidedly “outside the mainstream” vibe.

Ideally this booklet will be an introduction to what exists in alternative education, and you will use the included resources to lead you further. We have tried to highlight the major alternative movements in education (that are available in our region) with examples of these schools in our area, and some slightly beyond our area. In the second half of the book we have included profiles of alternative schools that we recommend, or have been recommended to us—these are highlighted in boldface in the AREA SCHOOL listings. There is also a handy map of profiled schools on the Guide’s inside back cover.

As mentioned above, we are a region with many school choices, yet many of us have been dismayed to arrive at the (traditional) schooling phase of our child’s life and not see more options in a region as rich as ours. Luckily this is changing; in the last two years new schools have opened or are in process of opening, and our homeschool community is growing each year. This is only a starting point.

We all want what is best for our children. Yet, if you put ten parents in a room you may get ten different answers about the best method of education, because all children are different and the needs of each family are different. Even children within the same family may thrive in different educational environments. Only by knowing our options can we make informed choices that help our children succeed.