新左派是推动美国六十年代社会运动的一股重要力量，主要由青年学生组成。在保罗·古德曼的自由教育理念的引导下，不满于日渐组织化、体系化的教育现状的新左派青年在美国北方和南方分别开展了自由教育运动，试图重拾教育的民主理念。在北方，他们建立了不同于传统大学的自由大学，在南方，他们建立了面向黑人儿童的自由学校。新左派尝试将教育作为民主化的直接手段，但是在实践过程中，民主化逐渐被推向极致，呈现出了民粹化倾向。这种教育理念与时代背道而驰，因此最终走向衰落。

American New Left, which was mainly composed of young students, was an important force in the American social movement in the 1960s. Under the guidance of Paul Goodman's concept of freedom education, the new left who were dissatisfied with the increasingly organized and systematic education situation carried out freedom education movement both in the north and south of the United States, trying to regain the democratic idea of education. In the north, they established freedom universities, which were different from traditional universities. In the south, they established freedom schools for black children. The New Left tried to take education as a direct means of democratization, but in the process of practice, democratization was gradually pushed to the extreme, presenting a trend of populism. This educational concept against the development of times, so it eventually declined.