Hannah Emmanuele
In 2010, Monument Mountain Regional High School in Massachusetts supported a diverse group of students on a journey to design and run their own school. The ‘school within a school’ was inquiry-based and the students taught each other and evaluated themselves. The curriculum had elements of independent and collaborative work. No grades, no tests, no class schedule. Their experience was transformative. Read more about their impressive work and aggressive curriculum here and here and here. Eighty schools from twenty states and five countries have contacted the students since 2011 to implement a similar program.
As Susan Engel reported in the New York Times:
Schools everywhere could initiate an Independent Project. All it takes are serious, committed students and a supportive faculty. These projects might not be exactly alike: students might apportion their time differently, or add another discipline to the mix. But if the Independent Project students are any indication, participants will end up more accomplished, more engaged and more knowledgeable than they would have been taking regular courses.
We have tried making the school day longer and blanketing students with standardized tests. But perhaps children don’t need another reform imposed on them. Instead, they need to be the authors of their own education.
