The familiar face of Plymouth High School. Photo by: Emory Smith.
By Emory Smith
Plymouth High School’s Principal, Mr. Condon, said, “Plymouth High School is unique in that it has accepted the fact that students need choices. They need choices not only in the curricular programs that we offer them, but also in the learning environments that we provide for them. Hence, we have two schools within a school; we have the traditional Plymouth High School, and we also have The Weidner School of Inquiry at Plymouth High School.”
Notice, Mr. Condon emphasized that PHS’s students need choices. Students at PHS have the opportunity to choose how they learn; they decide whether they want to learn in the traditional way or with a new, project-based style.
Mrs. Felke, Co-director of the Weidner School of Inquiry, said, “Plymouth High School is a diverse learning environment where students have a lot of choice. They have the opportunity to pursue core subjects, as well as a variety of extracurricular activities and elective classes that meet their interest.”
Plymouth High School is defined, by students, with various words. Freshman Bayli Czarnecki simply said, “My school.” Sophomore Sophia Smith connects Plymouth High School with “Band. Sports. Education. Rockies/Pilgrims.” The educational aspect of PHS is defined by Freshman Jessica Drury as, “Teachers. Classroom. Computers. Independent.”
A group of students read for English. Photo by: Emory Smith.
Students have to decide which part of PHS houses the learning strategy they are most compatible with. Sophomore Roger Karr said, “I chose traditional because I was new to the school and wanted something I was comfortable with, and I had never heard of the WSOI.” This is not the only factor that a student might consider. Freshman Jennifer Sayer said, “I selected traditional, mostly because books and paper are just easier to focus with. Computers are very distracting.”
Assorted things about these “two schools within a school” are admired by students. Regarding the Weidner School of Inquiry, Czarnecki, who goes to the traditional school said, “You get to work with groups all the time.” Students admire similar elements; Drury, another traditional student said, “The concept of being able to work together is important to your future no matter what career you are going into.”
These positive aspects do not necessarily signal that students in the traditional school and The Weidner School of Inquiry feel unified, a subject that Mr. Condon has identified as “an area of concern.” Though he realizes that this unification question is one for the students, he said, “We recognize all our students as Plymouth High School students. The way that we look at it is that: we just have two really good choices for students, unlike most schools. And, students are welcome to make that choice of which environment they want to learn in.” Information Library Assistant Nathan Mayer agreed, “Every student is a student of PHS, and not strictly one or the other.” Contrastingly, Sayer said, “They are both two different schools with different approaches.” Karr said, “I think they are not because of the separation in the building.” On the same page as Karr, Drury said, “I don’t believe they are. There are moments in the day that you will see some of the students from the WSOI school, but other than that, there are a number of students that don’t leave the WSOI building.”
Mr. Condon had some ideas about how we can unify the two approaches. He said, “Number one: we’ve created more and more opportunities for The School of Inquiry students to passport out of Inquiry into elective classes, that they might have a personal interest in. Number two: the plan for the near future is to create some classes, within inquiry, which accept non-Inquiry students. So, that will help the traditional students learn in that environment and… understand it more greatly than they do now.” Similarly, Mr. Delp, Co-director of the Weidner School of Inquiry, said, “In an effort to unify us, it would help if more people were able to visit and see what the learning is like. He said, “We do need to do a better job of connecting and showing why we value this way of teaching, not that it’s better, but why we personally feel that it connects with students in a different way.” Mr. Condon said, “The first one we’re going to roll out next fall is Project Lead the Way Biomedical Class. We’re very excited about that class. We are going to welcome, not only Inquiry students, but non-Inquiry students as well. I think that class is going to rock.”
Students and teachers have suggestions too. Sayer said, “You could try and make them both into one school with both qualities.” Mr. Mayer said, “Make it [The Weidner School of Inquiry] open to anyone and not just whoever signs up first.”
The Green Room in the Weidner School of Inquiry awaits its next occupants. Photo by: Emory Smith
To entertain Sayer’s suggestion, the “qualities” of both styles of learning must be scrutinized. On the one, project-based hand, Czarnecki connected, “Teamwork, nice environment, good rewards, nice teachers, and success,” to The Weidner School of Inquiry. Sayer said, “Techy, Intense, Expensive, Complex, and Intriguing.” Mr. Condon said, “Extremely progressive. Really, a new way of learning for high school students. When I think of The Weidner School of Inquiry, I think of partnerships, I think of opportunities for teamwork and to work independently.” Mr. Delp said, “School of Inquiry learners will take on, or learn, the same standards and lessons and objectives that traditional students will take on, but they will use the PBL methodology, pedagogy to do that. The other part of that, the assessment of students, is including five different learning outcomes. So, you got your content and knowledge, which are your basics, what a traditional student would get, but we also assess collaboration, oral communication, written communication, and agency.”
On the other, more traditional hand, Smith thinks of, “Fun. Unity. Discipline. Education. School Spirit.” Drury said, “Independent, classroom, lectures, notes, work.” Words that come to Freshman Ellie Switzer’s mind are, “Standard, normal, easy, simple, traditional.” Karr said, “Original, individual work, fun, separate classes, basic learning.” Mr. Condon said, “I would say that the traditional side features opportunities for group learning and team learning, but I think, as a whole, it is more traditional in nature.” Mrs. Felke said, “I think learning, on the traditional side, is sometimes teacher directed and it’s more teacher-led, where the teacher decides the direction the kids are going, but not always.”
Students assiduously work in a traditional English classroom. Photo by: Emory Smith.
Balancing the Weidner School of Inquiry and traditional school could be as simple as creating equal opportunities. Mr. Condon recognizes an imbalance. “I think that in the traditional classroom, one of the things that it doesn’t offer to students, that the School of Inquiry does, would be those strong partnerships with businesses, where the businesses actually come in and critique students’ work as part of the assessment process.”
Perhaps businesses could contribute to the unification of Plymouth High School.
The affiliation of businesses and the traditional School is not the only foreseeable adaptation of School of Inquiry ways. Mr. Condon would not be surprised if, over time, the traditional school, incorporates more “ideas from The Weidner School of Inquiry.” In fact, traditional teachers could be trained in the project-based-learning-arts. He said, “I do think that project-based learning is an effective learning strategy. I think that it is very much in line with the current workforce environment. People learn in teams. Seldom do they work on their own anymore. It is very open concept, inviting input and ownership from multiple parties. So, I do think that it is a really good strategy to promote learning. I don’t think it’s the only one. I think it’s a really good one. I could see the traditional teachers wanting to learn more about how to teach project-based learning. My hope is that we will offer that training for them, so that they can use that strategy, if and when, it applies.” Mrs. Felke said, “I think one of the biggest things that the traditional side could do, that we do, is a lot of what we do, we label as PBL, but we reach out to businesses, and we reach out to community members by simply making phone calls, by making contact with them. The traditional side could take those same steps, what we do is not completely unique to PBL, but we just take the time to decide what community member, what authentic person we could bring in.”
Plymouth High School- an establishment that has recognized the diversity of students. In this educational institution are two halves, the Weidner School of Inquiry and the traditional school. These halves are joined, yet separate; they have different functions and different challenges. These two could be compared to the halves of the brain; they can function alone, but create an advantage together. Some people are right-brained, some left; some prefer the traditional ways, some project-based. The unification is concerning, the qualities of each are important, yet divergent, and the embodiment of both ideas are evolving.