Liberating Children's Goodness and Genius: An Interview with Educator Stephanie Pace Marshall
by Kali Saposnick

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"When you ask children to forget about 'school' and focus on what makes them curious, they become very motivated to learn," says Stephanie Pace Marshall, president of Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA). Founded 17 years ago, IMSA is a free public residential educational institution for 10th- to 12th-grade students talented in math and science. Its inquiry-based, problem-centered, and integrative approach toward learning and teaching challenges the current high school model, which Pace Marshall characterizes as "grounded in acquisition, independence or isolation in learning, and competition."

She explains, "A profound disconnect exists between the formal structures that most developed cultures have created to shape the minds of our children and the actual learning needs of our children if they are going to solve the world's growing complex, interdependent problems. My belief, based on 36 years of experience in education, is that what we have designed in schools is precisely what we're getting: Kids believe that to do well, they have to memorize and repeat information by rote; work alone, because collaborating with other kids is often called 'cheating'; and compete, because GPA does make a difference as to who gets into what college."

IMSA embraces what Stephanie refers to as "generative learning," which involves inquiry, interdependence, and collaboration. This approach builds students' capacity for more and deeper understanding of the challenges facing our global community. "At our institution, we tell students they have to develop thought tools," says the educator. "They're expected to know how to evaluate the soundness and relevance of information, identify their own unexamined assumptions that might skew their inquiry, find and analyze ambiguities, connect ideas in different disciplines, and so forth."

Problem-Based Learning
How does IMSA do this? The academy has embraced a form of pedagogy called "problem-based learning," which is a way of designing and teaching the curriculum around complex real-life challenges, such as how to store nuclear waste in one centralized site. While the learning experience reinforces national standards, the faculty has created IMSA standards that determine what students need to learn. "The content and concepts are embedded in the way the problem is designed," Pace Marshall says. "We start off by asking students: What do you already know about the problem? What do you need to know? How can you reorganize yourself as a class to find out what you need? Once they realize they need to learn the half-life of nuclear waste, research the history of legal and ethical issues, figure out how the transportation system works, and so on, they understand the importance of developing a comprehensive and integrative view. You cannot be immersed in this type of learning without understanding the world differently."

Each student also has a "plan of inquiry," either personal or shared with other students, based on a question about which he or she feels passionate. On Wednesdays, there are no formal classes; instead, students engage in off-campus mentorships or research around their plans. Small groups travel to libraries, universities, hospitals, research laboratories, and so forth, to do sophisticated research with mentors. In the process, students build tremendous self-confidence and capability. For example, one young man from a small rural Illinois community believed he couldn't be a scientist because no scientists ever came from his hometown. When asked to create a plan of inquiry, he chose forensics, based on his fascination with a murder case he had read about in his local newspaper. Currently, he is doing forensics work with a mentor at the Field Museum in Chicago. He now believes not only that is he a scientist but that scientists do come from his hometown.

Burning Questions
"The vision statement I have created for my life, and that is now used for IMSA, is to design learning experiences that liberate the goodness and genius of children for the world," says Pace Marshall. "Kids feel so marginalized in our culture; they feel disenfranchised from the adult community. At IMSA kids constantly tell me that they feel respected and honored. One of my students attended a leadership-training program in Kenya as part of her plan of inquiry. In a short period of time, she created her own foundation and figured out how to get medical supplies and interns from the University of Illinois to Kenya; she even asked me to serve on her board of directors. When I asked what surprised her the most about what she was able to accomplish, she responded, 'It didn't surprise me that teenagers are able to do amazing things; it surprised me that nobody expects them to.'"

How can we ignite that kind of astounding passion and insight in all children? "When we trust in their remarkable capacity and desire to make a difference in the world," Stephanie claims. "In most school settings, we have been losing children because we tell them, 'Wait until you get out of high school before you can tackle problems.' By design, kids are now in educational somnambulism; they're sleepwalking their way through some of the most creative years of their lives." But she believes that the structure can be redesigned to enable schools to support children's natural disposition to learn—and we can all play a role in this process. Parents can help by exposing their children to new activities and places and asking them questions—rather than telling them—about what they see. Citizens can engage their communities in serious conversation about "the kinds of minds we want our kids to develop," present one or two ideas to the city council, and ask the schools to tackle them.

"The key for all of us is to revisit the fundamental purpose of education in a democracy," Pace Marshall says. "My own commitment is to pursue this question: How do we create conditions for learning that reinvite, reignite, and reconnect? If we can invite children to engage in their burning questions and give them the resources to do so, they can achieve remarkable results."

Kali Saposnick is publications editor at Pegasus Communications, Inc.