A School of Our Own

by Samuel Levin

  The teachers’ job in the Independent Project is nuanced and slippery. They have to guide without leading, help without pushing. They must use their judgment about when to step in and when to step back. They should use their zest for and mastery over their own subject to model how to work in that field.

  This new role for teachers is much more challenging than a more traditional version. But it’s also filled with less tedium, less trudging, and fewer requirements. There’s more freedom for them to do their real job, which is to teach. Just as the students are free to learn any way they like, teachers would be free to help them any way they deem best. This requires a full-time investment from teachers, which the IP didn’t have. But if this role is executed well, the potential for learning would shoot through the roof.

  However, in a school like the IP, it’s possible that even knowledgeable, wonderful teachers will find themselves helping with a topic about which they know little. A biology teacher might be asked to assist a student designing a study in genetics, for which she is woefully unprepared. An English teacher might be asked to support a student trying to interpret graphic novels, though he has never read one. What can teachers offer in cases like that? How can students apprentice themselves to teachers who are not masters of the domain in question? Here we come to one of the most potent benefits of student-run schools. We have said all along that a truly well-educated student is the one who can teach him- or herself new things. But learning how to teach yourself new things can be hard—it takes planning, ingenuity, persistence, and the ability to self-monitor. A good teacher can model good learning. Any teacher who is too worried about being asked questions to which he does not know the answer shouldn’t be in a room with students. The best thing a teacher can offer is to model the process of learning new things. The teachers who are likely to be a good fit for an IP are the ones who feel confident enough in their field to tackle something unfamiliar and to make visible to the student how they go about it.

  Shifting the dynamic between teachers and students is trickier than one might think. Even the teachers most committed to playing a different role can have trouble sticking with it. Recently, some teachers at Green River sent out a survey about the Independent Project, now ending its fifth year. They were looking for ways to change and improve it. Ms. Isaacs, one of the staunchest and most eloquent advocates of the IP from day one, reached out to Susan, seeking input. She explained that the program was going through a transition. Some of the teachers, it seemed, were fed up, and felt that too many of the IP students were screwing around, not taking the work seriously, or using the IP as a cover for doing whatever they wanted. She wanted suggestions for how to make the students more accountable and how to ensure that the program would once again have its former rigor. Ms. Isaacs asked, “What do you think about how the grading should be done? Should a teacher in each subject area grade the students’ work each week? Do you think certain teachers should evaluate the program each year?” She listed a few other options the faculty and principal had come up with for holding the program to a high standard. Each suggestion sounded reasonable enough. But Susan couldn’t help but think of the court jester in Many Moons. “What do the students think you should do?” she asked. Ms. Isaacs paused. “Hmm,” she said. “We haven’t asked them.”

  The most essential component of our guide is the one Sam started with. Your school must be devised by students and, with help from adults, managed by students as well. Equally important, when problems come up, and they will, it must be the students who figure out what to do. After all, it’s their school.

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  Samuel Levin is the founder of two innovative, student-centered programs at his school in Massachusetts. He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he is pursuing a doctorate in zoology.

  Susan Engel is a professor of developmental psychology at Williams College, where she is also the founder and director of the Williams Program in Teaching. She is the author of The Stories Children Tell, Context Is Everything, Real Kids, Red Flags or Red Herrings?, and The End of the Rainbow (The New Press). She lives in New Marlborough, Massachusetts.

  PUBLISHING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

  Thank you for reading this book published by The New Press. The New Press is a nonprofit, public interest publisher. New Press books and authors play a crucial role in sparking conversations about the key political and social issues of our day.

  We hope you enjoyed this book and that you will stay in touch with The New Press. Here are a few ways to stay up to date with our books, events, and the issues we cover:

  Sign up at www.thenewpress.com/subscribe to receive updates on New Press authors and issues and to be notified about local events

  Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/newpressbooks

  Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thenewpress

  Please consider buying New Press books for yourself; for friends and family; or to donate to schools, libraries, community centers, prison libraries, and other organizations involved with the issues our authors write about.

  The New Press is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. You can also support our work with a tax-deductible gift by visiting www.thenewpress.com/donate.