Today marked an important turning point for our Eagles.

During the morning, Eagles worked on the ERB standardized tests.  While necessary, the teacher directed nature of the tests soon had our self directed heroes reverting to a teacher driven paradigm: they stopped thinking for themselves, started treating Guides as teachers and began asking the most minute questions – asking at every step to be told what to do next.

Add to this a messy classroom and a rowdy outburst after “free time” that approached Lord of the Flies level chaos, and you would have thought it was time for the adults in the room to re-establish some order.

Hayes approached a Guide and asked if some discipline could be imposed.  When informed that this was the role of class leaders, and that Guides would not intervene, an important transformation took place:

Hayes called an impromptu meeting of the leaders of the school (everyone immediately volunteered.)  In just a few minutes, order was reestablished by the Eagles themselves, and they soon had a self organized system for keeping the classroom clean and tidy – with no intervention by the Guides.

What’s this have to do with learning reading, writing and math?  Everything.  Near the end of the day, I heard one of our Eagles say to another: “I’m upset the weekend is coming up. I never believed I could miss being in school.”

Now that our Eagles realize that learning is their responsibility, get ready for them to soar.

Above: Anna leads a discussion on the “Student Covenants” and “Rules of Engagement” that will be used to self govern the class.