In a not-so-happy ending to the Harpy saga, btw,
I did talk to the principal-- at great length-- who basically told ME to pound sand.
I've had the same conversation about five times over the past four years, btw, and it ends the same way every time.
The sly innuendo that if my kid isn't up to Owning Her Own Educational Process enough to make up for the fact that, well, she has no teacher contact.... well, then, there must be something the matter with HER.
AYKM??
The kernel of an idea behind this farce, btw, seems to be the notion that:
i. the most successful students are fairly autodidactic in nature.
ERGO...ii. if all students were autodidacts, they would all be successful.
Hmmm... clearly, students who are FORCED to become autodidactic will become better students. Yes!
This is the same stupid logical fallacy that leads to pushing students into algebra by 8th grade and AP classes for everyone, prepared or not. The administrators that I've spoken to on this subject simply have ZERO appreciation for the work done in this area which demonstrates pretty much nothing of the kind for adolescents and children, nevermind the mountains of evidence that say that adolescents require significant scaffolding since they don't yet have fully mature executive function to support "ownership" of learning in this manner.
But yeah-- I'm just a mom. What could I possibly have to add to that conversation with "experts" like a high school principal? {sigh}
It's also what I strongly suspect leads to a graduation rate below 40% in my DD's school.
Don't get me wrong-- I wish you luck, and given that you're looking at a brick and mortar model, maybe you will have more success. But just a head's up for the weaseling way of DEFENDING crap like this.
