A New Way of Doing Education

The Independent Project is a new way of looking at education in high school. Of granting educational freedoms that typically don't exist. 

Watch the video, and then check out my thoughts below. 

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Once I got past the initial thoughts of "But how will they know if they deserve to graduate?! How will they learn enough of the required classes this way?!" I really thought about it... and decided it doesn't matter. 

It doesn't matter what standardized tests say about your knowledge. It doesn't matter if you know how to solve advanced trig questions. 

MOST of what we're taught in high school doesn't matter.

What matters is everything else we learn while learning.

Like how to solve problems. How to work in a group. How to think creatively. How to think outside of the box. 

This is how we learn once we're out of school anyway. If we have a question, we have to know how to find the answer. If we want to learn something, we have to find ways of teaching ourselves how to do it. 

This way of learning could greatly impact the confidence of students, which in turn impacts their likeliness of success.

I think this would be a fabulous way of approaching learning. I think it would give each individual the space they need to learn what they need to learn, how they need to learn. 

It would allow the "Advanced" students a higher ceiling of learning, so that they aren't limited by the pace of their peers (or even by the limits of the teachers knowledge), and it would give the "Average" or "below average" students the opportunity to find something that they care enough about, to pay attention, to learn, and soar just like the rest. 

As the boy says in the video, "I think everyone wants to learn something." 

You just have to find that something. 


What are your thoughts on The Independent Project? Discuss in the comments below.