A. Learners of all ages use the school as a base for planning educational programs for their growth and development.

B. The school is a center of educational, cultural, and recreational activities for all ages of citizens in the community. It is rich in resources, materials, equipment, activities, and events. As such, it strengthens social, community and family bonds. The school as the prime education unit of the community involves people of the community in designing programs to fit their needs.

C. The school headquarters has "theaters of learning" or kaleidoscopically stocked arenas of materials and activities for learning. Courses, events, and specialized facilities not readily available elsewhere are at the headquarters. Materials and tools for learning can be freely used or borrowed.

D. The headquarters serves far more learners than conventional schools handle because most learners would not spend all their learning time there.

E. The headquarters has a world view and global atmosphere. The body of learners are diverse; school and community activities span the world.

A. The variation in learners requires individualized plans because interests, inclinations, and motivations differ enormously.

B. Each student has a learning advisor, who is a partner to the family, from an early age to adulthood to help establish an individualized learning plan and to monitor progress. The advisor assists the family in devising the best possible program of learning much as a family doctor gives advice on health.

C. The learner and advisor draw from an array of instruments and procedures for assessing interests, learning styles, and prior learning.

D. The advisor, learner, and family member (where appropriate) choose from banks of goals, objectives, and activities and periodically evaluate progress.

E. The advisor helps learners achieve their individual plan by recommending appropriate learning experiences in and out of the school, which may or may not be from school personnel and during normal school hours. Curriculum is defined as all the learner's experiences.

F. The advisor has the power to establish conditions for learning, such as arranging a three-month internship or an exchange. The advisor can arrange access to other facilities and resources. Out of school learning is considered as valuable as formal learning.

G. Under individualized programming it is not necessary to arbitrarily decide what subjects are to be learned and at what age for learners.

H. A permanent file of the learner's goals, activities, strengths, accomplishments, and learning styles is maintained.

I. The learning advisor is a facilitator, advocate, guide, friend, counselor, broker, and expeditor. In Minnesota, a learning advisor is provided for in the Career Teacher statute. It permits public funding of programs of continuous educational progress from birth to adulthood monitored by a qualified education advisor.

J. All are seen as learners, capable of great achievement; all are viewed as talented in one or more spheres. All are seen as capable of teaching and helping others learn.

K. Learners become capable of generating and following their own plan of growth, in effect, becoming lifelong designers of their own learning.

A. Commonly accepted, but little practiced, methods of effective teaching govern learning experiences. Students have a far more active role in courses, are involved in making decisions, carry out decisions, often work in small task forces using principles of cooperative learning, use a wide variety of human and physical resources, and are involved in teaching, tutoring, peer counseling, and running their schools.

B. Teachers integrate learning from many areas into projects. For example, a student in science might build a solar heater and in the process be involved in other subjects such as reading on the topic, calculating heat gains, researching materials for heat transfer, constructing the unit, writing a description of how it works, and evaluating the project. The single subject approach is replaced in many instances with multi-disciplinary or inter-disciplinary forms of integrated learning.

C. Self-concept, values, enthusiasm, responsibility, initiative, and acceptance of others are key areas of emphasis because of their impact on curiosity and rapid learning of all types.

D. School experiences are "brain compatible" (that is, compatible with brain processes) with an emphasis on a stimulating environment, large amounts of input and enrichment, repeated exposure to material in different ways, use of all senses, experiential learning, feedback and a safe, secure environment.

E. Longer blocks of working time prevent interrupting the natural flow of intense activity and immersion in creative and expressive work.

F. The school operates as a miniature democracy; the community mirrors the functions and operations of the society at large and gives students real experiences. Students make real products and provide real services, such as writing materials for publication, running radio and television studios, and using the community extensively.

G. The process of learning is as important as the content. For example, thinking skills, problem solving skills, learning how to learn, accuracy of perception, skills of synthesis and evaluation, mediation and conflict resolution, creative abilities, flexibilityC all these and more are seen as important as subject matter acquisition.

H. The whole person is recognized as integral to learning; this means attention to the physical, emotional, interpersonal, spiritual, and intuitive aspects of the learner.

I. Newer concepts of learning stress the power of imagery and visualization; the power of play, whether in free play or formal role playing or simulations; the powers possible in the skills of relaxation, centering, focusing, and total concentration; the power of newer learning modalities such as accelerated learning; and, the power of control of bodily functions through biofeedback, diet, exercise and good health practices.

J. Adventure education and challenges test skills and a sense of growing mastery. Such activities provide opportunities for leadership, assessing risk situations, problem solving, giving of the self to assist others, trusting one's self and others, and confronting fears, doubts, and limits.

K. Creative and expressive activities such as theater, dance, music, visual arts, writing, and computer programming play major roles for their transformational contribution to the growth of spontaneity, self-respect, joy, flowering of the human spirit, aesthetic sensitivity and enjoyment, creativity and imagination, openness, perceptive abilities, communication skills, and self-knowledge. Students stay in touch with their feelings and have the ability to express them. Such experiences are fundamental to human intellectual growth as basic building blocks of sensory perception, mental constructs, and symbolic representations. Learners who have creative and expressive experiences see more, do more, and are more.

L. Some learning activities or resource areas are provided by contracting with organizations in the community.

M. Education is governed by the phrase, "we learn from experience." Therefore, the more experiences, the more learning. The more input to the brain, the more growth, connections, and linkages within the brain.

N. Learning experiences are planned jointly by students with their teachers. Each learning environment enriches itself by democratic decision making.

A. The many educative influences (virtually, boundless resources) in the community are orchestrated and tapped including: libraries, museums, airports, newspapers and other media, book stores, displays in shopping centers, record and film collections, day care centers, hospitals, senior citizen centers, mentors, church programs, partnerships with businesses, associations, schedules of speakers for other organizations, the Red Cross, HMOs, YMCAs and YWCAs, Scouts, and the 4H. These are catalogued and organized in a data base so that each unit of society is known for what it can contribute to learning for all members of the community.

B. Exchanges with other schools in rural and urban areas and with schools in other states or countries provide unique and valuable experiences.

C. Schools own or have arrangements with farms and camps for retreats and experiences close to nature.

D. Students are involved in community studies at all ages. Older students help neighborhood groups, senior citizens, local businesses, and governmental agencies.

E. Coordinated approaches to education involve many aspects of human services and governmental agencies. A natural synergy and cascade of community resources is enormously fulfilling and beneficial to all of society. The bywords become cooperation, collaboration, interdependence, and integration. Protection of "turf", provincialism, fragmentation, and the isolating effects of specialization decrease as the richness of an interlaced new fabric takes form.

A. Teacher productivity is greatly increased with the assistance of paraprofessionals, clerks, and volunteers. Helpers provide valuable services such as: preparing teaching aids, tutoring, giving special lessons, and assisting on field trips.

B. Students themselves, and various kinds of interns assist in the educational process as teachers, tutors, and helpers.

C. The teacher's role changes from information giver to facilitator of learning experiences, clearing obstacles and barriers to learning, suggesting possibilities, helping students with personal goals, and being a friendly guide.

D. Some staff have major curriculum planning functions.

E. Some staff tutor students one-to-one.

F. Some staff work part-time as in the case of a gifted historian contracted to lecture once a week.

G. Other staff are educational advisors to learners over a major block of the students' lives and process a range of options in determining learning experiences.

H. Some staff oversee learning equipment, handle transportation, manage the building, and handle other tasks necessary for the functioning of a complex educational program.

I. Some staff are not certificated teachers. Some are trained in other fields. Some serve in the category of support personnel to teachersC far more than at present.

J. There is a mix of professional educators, clerical, paraprofessional, and many others; some are full time and others have part-time contracts.

A. Equipment is issued to learners for use wherever needed. For example, a team of learners uses video tape equipment and supplies off site or in the studio. Almost any portable equipment can be borrowed.

B. Each learner has access to a computerC in fact, could be issued one.

C. The learning bank of resources has thousands of computer programs, video disks, video tapes, books, and records for use by the learners, access to data bases, and subscriptions to several thousand publications.

D. No attempt is made to duplicate the public library; it is considered an essential part of the totality of learning materials in the community. An accessible school library belongs to the community.

E. Technology is harnessed for learning. For example, a satellite receiver taps into hundreds of programs raining down on every inch of the country, some of which are broadcast from other countries but reachable from school antennas.

F. Printing equipment, radio, videodisk and other technologies are accessed from the learning center or from other sources.

G. Some types of learning lend themselves to home based instruction through technology. Learning at home is common because of the rapidly expanding library of resources, easily available equipment and convenient programming.

H. Technology makes it possible to personalize and individualize education and reduce the routine teaching of skills and information. Record keeping and monitoring learning is easy with technology.

A. Students see the direct results of their assistance to the functioning of the school. They work at real tasks and make a difference.

B. Depending on their age, students operate and help run the audio-visual center, the lunchroom, the computer and technology labs, help maintain the building and grounds, decorate the building, make displays, teach classes, tutor students, make self-instructional posters for how to use equipment and follow procedures, guide visitors, make and repair school furniture, print forms and publications, operate small businesses; in short, students are involved in every aspect of the school. They do these things for the learning involved and to increase their ownership of the school.

C. Students learn to organize and carry out a task, how events and school activities are managed and run, what adults do, develop a sense of identification with adults, and cultivate great commitment to the school.

A. Much learning results from assuming responsibility, jobs, friendships, travel experiences, testing new ideas, hobbies, working with media, and discussion. These learnings are as valued as formal course work.

B. Barriers to learning are identified and removed. For example, the learner may have difficulty learning under noisy circumstances, others under quiet conditions. This knowledge is used to arrange learning environments.

C. Decisions are made for the benefit of the learner within the limits of feasibility and consistent with societal needs.

D. Learning attributes of enthusiasm, initiative, responsibility, and interpersonal skills are seen as keys to further learning of all types.

E. The teacher's role is facilitating learning, clearing obstacles, suggesting possibilities, helping students over barriers, and relating activities to the student's learning plan.