The White Mountain School
“Passionate Students Drive The Curriculum”
Most high-school students have never heard of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. At White Mountain School, students study them in-depth, from their historical context through the design and implementation of projects to address them.
Few schools anywhere are as immersed in global issues. Instead of a unit here or there on sustainability, White Mountain devotes an entire academic department to the study of how the peoples of the world can flourish with scarce resources. “We try to live the theories we are exploring. We don’t always succeed but we talk about it and we try,” said teacher Torrey McMillan.
McMillan teaches Climate and Energy, an interdisciplinary course that takes a hard look at both the science and the politics of climate change. One of the class’ recent projects was to measure the carbon footprint of the school, including resources devoted to and emissions from refrigeration, heating, transportation, and other energy uses. (Heating turned out to be a much bigger component than anyone realized.) Students took the results and presented them to the school’s Board of Trustees. “It was an eye-opener for them,” said McMillan. “They were really impressed.” Students have also been examining the school’s land management, courtesy of the Environmental Science class, which has designed a long term plan for maintaining the forests surrounding the school. To qualify for a diploma, every student must complete the equivalent of a year-long course devoted to both theory and action in sustainable living.
White Mountain offers a comprehensive curriculum with all the subjects found in a typical high school, but the emphasis is on student activity and engagement. “Students have input at every level of their own education,” said Matt G., ‘10. “It’s not the just the facts that you learn about here; you’re free to come out of your shell and take control of your learning,” added Maggie L., ‘09.
“I know someone who is 40 years old and still has feelings about being placed in the brown leaf reading group in first grade. When we track students, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy,” said Lee Zanger, Chair of the Science Department.
When students at White Mountain complete an assignment, they don’t just get an “A” or a “B.” Instead, faculty assess them based on six Learning Outcomes: 1) Knowledge, 2) Critical Thinking, 3) Self-Direction, 4) Communication, 5) Information Processing, and 6) Collaboration. The Learning Outcomes shift the focus from the product to the process. “You can get the right answer but still get low grades for effective communication,” said Sedona C., ‘09. In keeping with White Mountain’s emphasis on collaboration, the grading standards for each course, as they apply to the six outcomes, are often a topic of discussion among students and teachers. When students play a role in setting the standards for how they will be evaluated, they are much more likely to follow through in meeting those standards, and more likely to judge their own performance with a critical eye. “If students can’t reflect on how they’ve done as a learner, then we haven’t done our job well,” said Tim Breen, Assistant Head of School. “It’s about figuring out who you are and how you can make a difference in the world.”
Much of the work at White Mountain takes the form of individual and group projects. Students in Senior Humanities, a wide-ranging interdisciplinary class, got involved in the 2008 presidential election by writing letters to the editor of various newspapers, producing leaflets on the positions of the candidates, and then distributing those leaflets to educate voters in surrounding communities. “Passionate students drive the curriculum. At the end of the year, we want to sit down and say, ‘What did we do,’” said Josh Lawton, College Counselor and co-teacher of the Humanities Class. In their final year, students often plan and complete Independent Studies or Senior Projects that involve in-depth examination of an issue, and, often, travel beyond campus to learn more about the topic. One student did a cultural study of Romania and spent time there working in an orphanage. Another examined hunger and homelessness in New York City and spent time assisting in a shelter. In May, the schedule is crowded with seniors presenting to the community what they have experienced and learned.
“It’s not the just the facts that you learn about here; you’re free to come out of your shell and take control of your learning,” added Maggie L., ‘09.
Student-centered learning helps free White Mountain from the need to track students based on ability, or to force every student to study the same topics in exactly the same way. Students who are struggling can get the assistance they need to reach a higher standard; those who are more advanced can study additional topics, or learn the material more thoroughly by explaining it to those who are less advanced. “I know someone who is 40 years old and still has feelings about being placed in the brown leaf reading group in first grade. When we track students, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy,” said Lee Zanger, Chair of the Science Department. Perhaps more importantly, students with varying abilities – or strengths in different areas – tend also to have different perspectives. “Our students learn how to work effectively with peers who think differently. This is a critical skill for college and beyond,“ said Tim Breen.
The bottom line at White Mountain is that every student matters.
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