Last week in class, we watched a video that Ms. Lees posted on her blog. It was about some seniors in a high school who instead of classes, got to work on, learn about, and posess a skill on whatever their heart desired.
I was quite intrigued by this video. I've always thought about what school would be like if there were no teachers, and how things would work, but i never expected there to be an actual program as unique as this.
In a way, I thought the kids were the students because they are learning and expanding their horizons (as normal students would), but they are also the teachers, because there are no rules or guidelines, only ones they make for themselves (the group). I was really inspired by the fact that they all stuck by their own rules, because if someone didn't do their homework, they're not just letting themselves down, but everybody else as well.
There were good sides, as well as bad sides to this whole idea:
I really liked the fact that this whole situation is a way for the students to express themselves. Nobody has to tell them what curriculum they have to learn. This system does put a lot more pressure on the students though, because they have to present in front of their classmates, and demonstrate all the new things they've learned. One person cannot slow the rest down.
There are also a few points that i think could be tweaked slightly...
I know the whole purpose of the independent project is for students to learn freely, but is that such a good idea?
If this were to spread around to other schools, how would the staff ensure that all the kids are doing their part and learning efficiently? Maybe once in a while they could also present what they have learned about so far to the school staff. But, I don't really think that most seniors would slack off like that on the independant project because they aim to do a good job for their college applications.
So all in all, I believe this to be quite an effective system!
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