It seems like “mastery” is the biggest buzzword in education these days as we, at Thacher, endeavor to shift students’ focus from the pursuit of the almighty A to an interest in the production of their own best work, work that is driven by passion and individual interest rather than a top-down, teacher-driven curricular model. We have rewritten our advanced level course description with an eye to aligning the course we offer with departmental and interdepartmental competencies and devoted countless hours to the creation of problem or project based curriculum, but it is in our Senior Exhibition (our version of a Capstone) where we find a genuine example of student interest driven projects. The moments when we see that student who swore up and down that she would rather “die one thousand painful deaths” than present on that Senior Exhibition stage lead us, with confidence and poise, through her understanding of the nature vs. nurture debate in twin development are clear indications of the type of mastery we seek. Yes, she did the research. Yes, she prepared well and practiced often. But, the mastery she demonstrated was not solely about the material. The more significant element here, and in many of our Senior Exhibition projects, was her overcoming her own self-doubt and fear. The ability to accomplish the previously unimaginable: that is lifelong learning—which, for me, is the true definition of the type of mastery we seek.
Molly Perry, The Thacher School, CA
The views of each blog post are the experiences of the individual instructor and school and do not necessarily represent the views of the Consortium