The idea began in the spring of 2012. Sandy Charlap attended a lecture moderated by
Sam Chaltain (
@samchaltain)
at Vassar College. Inspired by his proposition that schools should
pose "what if" statements rather than mission statements, she began to
ponder how institutions might revolutionize practice and theory.
Exploring Chaltain's website during the summer, she stumbled across a
video. Recorded on-site at
Monument Mountain High School
in Great Barrington, MA, the film followed several students as they
joined forces with faculty advisors to form a self-directed education
program called "The Independent Project." Ms. Charlap felt spellbound
while watching the video, and the feeling did not leave her afterwards.
She and a colleague had a hunch that this program could give Kildonan's
students a unique opportunity, so they began to work toward
implementing it almost immediately.
Thus, IP was born.
Over the three years that IP has been in operation, we have
found that faculty members and students agree with Ms. Charlap's initial
"feeling." IP has allowed students the opportunity and freedom to
shine a light on their passions and to pursue them like locomotives.
Fantastic learning experiences have followed, and this year in
particular, our students have been accepted to noteworthy institutions
of higher education. Our students have shown that IP does indeed assist them as
they prepare for college.
In the process, however, our community - faculty and students
alike - have realized that the name, "Independent Project," no longer
reflects our philosophy or our day-to-day reality. As one student pointed
out, the IPians do not work "independently." Yes, they launch
individual pursuits that take them in directions that are, in a sense,
theirs and theirs alone. That said, this student went on, the IPians
are always collaborating with one another, always learning from and
supporting each other as they move forward. In this way, the community
members are very much "dependent." Despite its claim to "independence,"
then, IP is a richly "social" experience.
We have also found that "project" no longer describes our
status at Kildonan or our primary educational focus. First, having
grown over the past three years, IP is no longer a “project,” or pilot
program, at Kildonan. Additionally, because we support our students as
they conduct multiple outcomes, or "projects," these pieces have grown
beyond their inherent importance to become indicators of our learners'
educational journeys, or "processes." One student's "projects" are the
result of the research and personal growth that he/she creates for
himself across several months. One final piece at the end of the year,
then, is neither accurate of, or the raison d'etre for, our existence.
With this name change, we hope to shift our concerns. We wish to position our
students in the debate concerning "project"- vs. "process"-based
learning, and we assert that our students direct both features as they revolutionize learning away from a
teacher-centered model.
Therefore, the time has come. Earlier this month, the IP faculty
published a post announcing that the program would witness a name
change. After much consideration, and after securing the approval of
our students and administration, we found the perfect option. This
choice that will allow us to (1) remain
edgy, (2) give our students a
leading edge, and (3) function on the
cutting edge of innovation in learning and education. From here onward, the program will abandon acronyms and adopt the new name:
Edge.
