The Wikiness

Although I’ve only just become aware of this school, the idea that all students will be working in teams with protocols in all subject areas is extremely exciting.  No longer will the project team be the occasional learning experience in PE, science, or history.  As a regular way of learning, the kids at Manor New Technology High School are covering and exceeding state standards through Project-based Learning (PBL).  And by the time they’ve graduated, they are practiced and polished public speakers.

The secret of PBL’s success is not far to find:  humans are social animals, have been succeeding and learning in teams for millenia, and when you give humans room for autonomy, creativity, and sociality, great things emerge.

I know:  not all kids will do well in a PBL environment. Probably the auto-didactic, the extremely gifted, or the kid on the Autism spectrum would not do well here. But for the great majority who are now quite possibly languishing in the industrial-model high schools that prevail in the states, the model of Manor New Tech is extremely promising.