YOU Can change Education
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  • Home
  • About
    • About Me
    • Values
    • Why this is Important
    • What I think
    • A Revolution in Education
    • Publications
    • Podcasts
  • Inspiration
    • Teachers in their Classroom >
      • Lee Cabe
      • Rebecca Henderson
    • Programs >
      • BVCAPS
      • J-Term at Lyndon Institute >
        • J-term 2020 Videos
        • J-term 2020 Pics
        • J-Term 2019 Interviews
      • Rivers & Revolutions
      • The Independent Project
    • Schools >
      • Big Picture Learning
      • High Tech High
      • IowaBig
      • One Stone >
        • Welcome to One Stone
        • What Students Gained from their One Stone Experience
      • Tri-County Early College
      • The Tacoma Schools
    • Outside of School >
      • Project Sprout
    • TED Talks >
      • Ken Robinson
      • Sam Levin
      • Dave Eggers
    • Books
  • Resources
    • Web Sites
    • Organizations
    • Chris Unger's Offering >
      • My Trip to Shenzhen >
        • About Shenzhen
        • Innovation Design Studio
        • SIS Keynote
        • AEA Talk
  • The Purpose of Education
  • Going from Point A to Point B
    • From Point A to Point B Video Snippets
  • PZ-Australia Learning that Matters
 The Independent Project

​This is one of my FAVORITE endeavors ... and a remarkable story.  And I wish one that was happening in many, many more schools.

Sam Levin came home to complain about school once again.   He wasn't doing badly, but was upset that it wasn't engaging or hold much meaning for him ... or his friends.  

One last time, complaining to his mother – a noted developmental psychologist at Williams College – bemoaning the state of learning for him and his friends, his mother said, "Why don't you start your own school."  And that was that.  

It didn't happen over night, but the story is remarkable, and the independent project has lived on now for several years for small groups of students across a few schools.  I wish more.

Thankfully, there is now a book that he and his mother wrote about the school and its start up.  And here are several videos that have been around for awhile telling the story.

If you think you want to create such a program ... GO FOR IT!  What is stopping YOU!!!!!
Picture
A School of Our Own

​Everyone deserves the opportunity to discover the transformative power of a good education. Our high schools are not providing those opportunities. But they could. Susan Engel, a developmental psychologist and Samuel Levin, a doctoral student in biology tell the story of the first student-run high school in the US, which Sam started when he was in high school himself. They argue that student-run high schools are the simplest, most powerful way to transform education in this country, and they outline how others can do the same thing. Mother and son also co-authored a book, "A School of Our Own: The Story of the First Student-Run High School in America and a new vision for Education."​
An interview with Michael Powell

​Michael was the Guidance Counselor at Monument Mountain Regional High School that Sam approached with the idea of starting a student-run school within a school.  As one would assume would be the case in most places, one can easily imagine how a high school counselor would say something like, "Oh, that's nice.  But, really, that's not going to happen here."  Instead, Michael tells the story about how Sam came into his office with an idea, and he said ... "Let's talk about it."  And they began to map out what it could look like.   And, fortunately, Sam was in a high school where the principal (Marianne Young) too was supportive of the students and school thinking about such a possibility!

Here is the interview I did with Michael back in the summer of '16.

​A Conversation with Sam Levin

​Sam, now getting his doctorate in Zoology at Oxford, shares many thoughts about the Independent Project at what it takes to sustain, how it can take on many forms, and what he hopes to see happen as a result of it.
Links to articles about the Independent Project
This Is What a Student-Designed School Looks Like
in Mind/Shift
by Luba Vangelova
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