Without well-defined criteria for success, all radical innovations are doomed to failure. To facilitate successful experimentation the following are necessary: an outside agency to conduct evaluation; criteria of success acceptable to innovators and critics; and, in control and comparison groups, assessment and accounting of the initial versus…

A teacher in a junior high school outside San Francisco recounts his attempts to introduce unconventional subject matter, methods of teaching, and classroom procedure over several years. Starting out with the belief that children can learn better if they have freedom to explore areas that interest them and if they are free from petty school…