Becoming Self-Directed Learners: Student & Faculty Memoirs of an Experimenting High School 40 Years Later - Softcover

In 1972, an intrepid group of teachers and students at New Trier High School (Winnetka, IL) formed the Center for Self-Directed Learning. Each student would design their own program instead of following the daily grind of standardized courses with off-the-shelf textbooks, canned lectures, and, of course, the all-important final exam. Approximately 600 students took the plunge into the unknown during the Center’s 10 years. Now, more than 35 Center graduates look back on their experience, each of them writing about why they left the standard curriculum and joined the Center, what they did in the Center, and how the Center has affected their adult lives. Among the graduates who contributed memoirs are Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Oscar-nominated actress Virginia Madsen. “The stories renew our faith in the human drive for self-fulfillment.” Arthur L. Costa Past president of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

JAMES A. BELLANCA Jim is an educational consultant, executive director of the Illinois Consortium for 21st Century Schools and editor of the national blog for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. He was recently named a Senior Fellow for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Jim’s recent books include The Focus Factor: 8 Essential 21st Century Thinking Skills, The Leader’s Guide to The Common Core Standards, and Wad-Ja-Learn? Deeper Learning Assessments for the 21st Century Classroom. He and his wife, Gerry, live in Glencoe, Illinois and tend to their award-winning garden (Chicago Tribune, Garden of the Year, 2007). Their children and grandchildren live in Winnetka, Illinois; Glenview, Illinois; Boulder, Colorado, and Sydney, Australia. ARLINE PAUL Arline was the sole faculty person who taught in the Center from its alpha to its omega. After the Center closed in 1982, Arline Paul returned to New Trier’s Social Studies Department until she retired. She then organized a self-directed reading group with former colleagues, joined an investment club, both of which have existed for 20 years and continued to travel the world. By volunteering at Wellesley College as the class fundraiser and serving as a Board member for the Illinois Consortium for 21st Century Schools, Arline has maintained interest in educational reform. During the past three years, she has facilitated organization of two Center reunions where the seeds for this book were planted. She collected the memoirs, and is bringing it to publication with pride and affection for all who dwelled in the Center for Self-Directed Learning. MARK PAUL Mark is an award-winning copywriter, filmmaker, advertising strategist, and journalist. There wasn’t a Center for Self-Directed Learning while he was in high school, but he was among the first to take advantage of an opportunity at nearby Highland Park High School to create his own literature course, where he read Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka. In college, he leveraged his studies in philosophy, economics, and history into an appreciation of American music, taught himself bass, and co-founded a Western Swing revival band that delighted audiences in New England, Colorado, and Montana. He is enormously pleased to play a part in documenting the Center in this book, and hopes that its principles will be revived wherever students, parents, teachers, and administrators truly want to explore adolescent potential.