As a parent of a gifted child, and former subject in a longitudinal Bradley University research study of gifted children, I had the privilege of meeting some incredible educators and learners. One group of exceptional educators was comprised of some original teachers from a school for gifted children, who had left the school and formed their own learn-in-the-community independent “school”. My son’s original drama teacher was in that group, though we were new to the original school and loved it, so did not follow her path into the transformational educational experience she and her partners created. Daily they would venture into the communities in and around Chicago, Illinois, USA to utilize local resources to learn in a student-driven transformative curriculum. The student body was up to 15 learners strong, with each able to finish traditional schoolwork several years above their biological age. Therefore, these learners were ready to gain and create knowledge by interacting with each other and learning opportunities in their local world. They had the safety of adult teachers as chaperones and discussion organizers to contain peer horizontal dialogue so all were heard. They did this without the political restrictions that force public educators to stick to a didactic curriculum based on the average learner.

This transformative educational opportunity created by those teachers in the community-based “school” used websites as well as the community. The NASA STEM Engagement1 website was used to let learners self-direct their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational process. For creative writing, art, and storytelling, they used the Create Your Own Myths and Legends2 website. There learners can create their own world using provided images, recorded audio, talks from professionals in the field (e.g., authors, sound engineers, actors), and a glossary of terms. These are just two examples of the many websites and resources used.

This “school” was a great source of transformative learning for students whose parents recognized problems with didactic formal education settings, and the need for a new way of learning. Those didactic settings were part of what The Steve Jobs 95 Interview3 video presented on unions turning the public-school system into a bureaucracy. That bureaucracy operated as a monopoly that refused to let schools and teachers change for improved performance. Instead, poor educational services could be offered because no teachers could be terminated, and no improvements demanded to better learner outcomes. Parents had to either use a voucher system or leave public schools in favor of independent schools to get a better chance of finding transformative learning for their children, “gifted” or not.

The Bill Gates video4 in our supporting reading materials also supported the need for change from anachronistic, didactic pedagogy to transformative. “Elected officials have not yet done away with the idea underlying the old design.” Mr. Gates called for a rigorous, challenging learning opportunity for high school students, with the support of adults. Transformative education would offer social mobility for learners, where being different means you have the ability to enrich others who learn from you. And your high school education would change who you are as a person. That was the goal of the transformative “school” formed by those teachers.

Unfortunately, I am not able to recall the drama teacher’s or “school” name. I think they operated originally as an independent learning institution, and may have morphed into a home-schooler’s organization. Regardless, they offered transformative pedagogy for their students from elementary to high school level ages.

1 https://www.nasa.gov/stem/foreducators/k-12/index.html

2 http://myths.e2bn.org/create/

3 https://youtu.be/V-8JiOQOe6U

4 https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-2/supporting-material-2/bill-gates-on-american-schools