Getting Started

Last summer, Sandy Charlap sent me an email with a link to a YouTube video about a small group of students who had successfully built a “school within a school.”  They called it “The Independent Project.”  The idea was simple:  break down the system of isolated classes and allow high school students to focus on one question at a time, for one week at time; simultaneously work on an individual endeavor so large in scope it would take you the entire year to complete.  For me, it was love at first sight.  I couldn’t let the idea go.  So I sent her an email back... “Let’s do it!”

What started as a couple of teachers exchanging ideas on education grew into a mammoth proposal for a curricular overhaul.  I spent the summer with my laptop (literally!) on the beach with me.  I was emailing folks back in Amenia multiple times a day, contacting the school who had piloted the program featured in the video, and tweaking the ideas to fit our student population.  There were issues of standards, staffing, funding, space, and logistics that I didn’t know existed.  But I was in love with the idea, so I kept pushing.  When the school year started, I was presenting to administration, faculty, parents, and students in a dizzying cycle of auditoriums, offices, and classrooms.  The excitement was growing, but a few big questions remained.  Could Kildonan pull this off?  Were our high school students and faculty ready to take on such a dramatic shift in mindset?  Were we equipped for the challenge?

I’m a strong believer that learning happens through experience, and I’m lucky to work for a school that shares that belief.  So we’re giving it a go!  As I write this, we are one day away from a week-long trial of the program.  The entire high school is dropping everything and asking one question.  Math teachers are serving as advisors on history questions, literature teachers are getting involved in financial planning, and language tutors are weighing in on nutritional regiments.  Our roles are shifting, our expectations are expanding, and the school is giving it a try.  Some of us will experience success in ways we haven’t before.  Some of us will experience failure in our attempt to try new things.  However, all of us will learn.  Of that, I am sure.