Predominant Theory Existing in Public Schools Versus Theories Used in Alternative EducationCurrently, public schools primarily operate under an entirely different system of educational philosophy than free or alternative schools. Teachers employed in public schools tend to operate largely under an essentialist philosophy. This philosophy dictates using more traditional frameworks and teaching styles to teach only basic skills to students. Only information deemed relevant to a student's success in their academic career is taught in class. Further reinforcing this philosophy, information is delivered to students in the most efficient and timely manner – often in the form of lectures and notes. In order to transmit the maximum of what is considered by these teachers as essential, effective knowledge, order and discipline must be maintained (Gutek, 2011). Free and alternative schools maintain educational philosophies that are very distinct from those of their public school counterparts. Entering an alternative school would result in extremely different observations than public schools. Teachers and students would act differently, classrooms would be organized in different ways, and lessons would even sound different. These schools are guided by various sets of philosophies unique to essentialist theory. However, as this study focuses solely on one alternative school, only its educational philosophy will be used as the theoretical framework for this article. As previously stated in the above discussion of Blue Mountain School in Floyd, the school follows a progressive and contemplative educational philosophy. By stating this as their educational philosophy, Blue Mountain...... middle of paper ...... ssive education theory, this philosophy will become the theoretical framework for this study. As noted above from various sources, progressive education tends to be much more child-centered rather than teacher-centered and uses real-world activities to teach information to students. The classrooms of a school based on progressive education have the potential to be noisier and messier than those of their public school counterparts, with the teacher taking on the role of facilitator rather than dictator. This chapter described the existing traditional public school philosophy in relation to the progressive education theory attributed to the Blue Mountain School. Progressivism was defined using several references to better understand the theory in general and in relation to this study. Chapter 3 will describe the qualitative methods used for data collection in this analysis..