In 2017, when the idea of the Burlington City & Lake Semester [BCL] was first evolving, the program’s founders crafted a mission statement: To empower young people as citizens, students, and community members through authentic, collaborative real-world learning experiences in and around the city of Burlington. For years, this has been our north star. The heart of any mission statement, of course, is its predicate. Verbs embody action; they clarify what is happening. But in our case, we chose a doozy of a verb. What does it mean to empower young people?

Join Dov Stucker, 2 Revolutions Coach, in a discussion about the previous blog post, Welcoming Surprise.

The view from Barb Sorenson’s kitchen window is reason enough to stay home, as is the quiet pace of retirement, but there’s another reason as well. Anywhere she goes in Thetford, VT, people are drawn to her. The mere sight of Barb fills people who know her with delight. In the hardware store and at the Post Office, former students approach her and relive memories, from both inside and outside of the classroom. “Remember the prison project?” “Remember when our classroom adopted the litter of abandoned kittens?” Barb is a teacher who didn’t just teach; she cleaned the lens, giving students a new perspective on their world.

For those who weren’t paying attention, November 2022 may have come and gone like any other month, but secondary teachers felt the tremors. Researchers at OpenAI had been developing a generative AI system for years, but it only took five days for ChatGPT to reach one million users. It reached 100 million users in two months. In the blink of an eye, students had a new power…

Surveying the landscape of conventional schooling in America today, it’s clear that we are no longer in a time of local theaters producing local shows. While there are certainly differences in regional textbooks, statewide tests, and local school calendars, overall the system is remarkably standardized. The electives may differ, but most schools still require the same core content. There may be opportunities for personalization, but as a rule, schools still batch-feed students by birthday. We may not have intended to, but we have all tuned in to the same show.