Invested in Inquiry

During the past two years, students in the Pathways program at Mount Abraham Union Middle/High School in Bristol, Vermont, have pursued a wide-ranging curriculum, including automotive repair, rock-band management, boat building, and artificial intelligence. One 8th grade student is developing a new hog-raising operation on his family's failed dairy farm. A 9th grader expanded his interest in metalwork into a small-scale blacksmithing business. An 11th grader compared surrealist, cubist, and Dadaist art through essays and illustrations that showed understanding of each style.

Working closely with advisors, teachers, and community mentors, students in the Pathways program design their work around personal interests, strengths, and aspirations. Such work must meet the school's regular high graduation standards. Mentors introduce and clarify these standards and gradually help learners apply them to a semester's work—whether that work is studying Dante's Inferno or showing up at dawn to work in a bakery.

Students at the Center