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Tugging at Tradition

Devens, Mass.

The students' baggy jeans and Doc Martens shoes are distinctly late-20th-century. And no one would mistake the well-worn sofas and movable tables in these classrooms for the nailed-down desks of an earlier era. But much of the philosophy behind the 300-student Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School would be sweetly familiar to its namesake.

Often referred to as the "father of progressive education," Parker first came to prominence in 1873 as the superintendent of the Quincy, Mass., school system not far from here. At a time when public schools were dominated by recitation, memorization, and drill, Parker advocated placing the child at the center of education and building schools around their students' motivation and interests. Under the Quincy System, as it came to be called, textbooks gave way to magazines, newspapers, and materials developed by teachers. Students learned geography by exploring the local countryside. And they studied an integrated curriculum that stressed learning by doing and expression through the arts.

The modern-day Parker School similarly aspires "to move the child to the center of the education process," according to its mission statement. The students, age 12 and older, progress at their own pace, following personal learning plans that are jointly crafted by the students, their parents, and their teachers. Movement from one "division" to the next is based on demonstrated performance, primarily through...