Our New Name

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.