Visiting a Model School for the Future of Education

Having heard a great deal online and at February's NAIS conference about the exciting developments at Mt. Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta, the Friends School academic leadership team and I visited the school last Thursday.  The logistics were tricky for a one-day visit, but it was worth every hassle, as we saw a school that is truly a model for what education can and will be in the years ahead.  Many thanks to the folks at MVPS for making us welcome and generously sharing their staff, their classrooms, and their thinking with us.

I can't do justice in this post to all the fantastic work being done at MVPS, but here's a link to their website, which gives a good sampling of the energy, passion, and unity of purpose that we saw everywhere we went on the campus.  We came away thoroughly impressed and greatly inspired to act with a similar level of boldness as we continue to evolve our academic program to meet the needs of our students and our world.

One comment in particular has stuck with me in the days since our visit.  Bo Adams, the Chief Innovation Officer at MVPS, shared with us a question that has helped to guide the design of their program.  "If school is supposed to prepare students for the world, why does what happens in school bear so strikingly little resemblance to the way the world actually works?"  Great question, Bo, and one that all of us involved in the ongoing design of education need to energetically engage with.