What if students were to design their own school? Would it help students learn more? or would the school fall apart because of the lack of authority? A video was made by Charles Tsai who spread the word about a pilot program in Monument Mountain Regional High School, this program was named The Independent Program. In the Independent Program students created their own learning environment and decided on what they wanted to learn, teachers within this program acted as mentors instead of instructors.
This video was eye-opening and a totally different take on education. The main point of this video was to showcase to everyone that maybe change is good, maybe if we let the students choose what they want to study they would enjoy going to school more. “It’s crazy that in a system that is meant to teach and help the youth there is no voice from the youth at all.” This quote was placed in the beginning of the video and it made me see things in a different light. Think about all the days we, the children go to school, we have no say in what we learn for it is determined by the government, we aren't allowed to take certain classes because they were deemed unnecessary or useless by adults. A building meant for educating children, created for children yet the children have no say. How ironic is that?
As a teenager myself, I usually don't enjoy going to school. I complain, nag, whine, and pretend to be sick just to get myself out of school sometimes. I bet that almost every teenager out there doesn't enjoy going to school for the learning part, if we could we would just sit in the cafeteria and socialize all day. You see, the main reason so many of us don't enjoy school is basically because we are forced to sit down in chair for an hour learning about something we don't enjoy in a boring manner. The truth is when kids are having fun, information sticks. Yet fun is precisely what's missing from many of today's classrooms. In the Independent Program it allows the students to choose and design their own projects and have fun while doing it. When you let us study our passion, you would be surprised at how eager and excited we are to learn.
In my opinion, the Independent Program sounds like a great idea but there are a few things I would change about it. Everyone learns differently, some kids (like me) do well when being instructed by a teacher and taking notes, while other students prefer to learn in the environment of something like the Independent Program. If a school were to host this program, I think it would be best to conduct interviews and choose only a selected group. This way we can determine if they are capable of this sort of new learning style because it involves a lot of self-motivation and determination. Personally I do a lot better when I have somebody pushing me to success. I do believe it is time for a change in the education system, it is time for the youth to have some say in it because ultimately we are the ones who benefit from school, and if changing the traditional ways allow us to reach our full potential then I am all for it. The Independent Program could be the start of something amazing, but for me I enjoy the old school way of learning, but would it kill the adults to create a way of letting us have fun while learning?
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