Pride

What a week: Ending classes, field trips to Funtown and Boston, and Flex Friday celebration. That last thing was today.

Flex Friday is this thing we do at Baxter where kids work on long-term projects. They have to submit a proposal that goes through this pretty rigorous approval process. But then they get to work on their project. All year. Every Friday.

The concept is based on Google’s 20% time idea, where Google employees get to spend 20% of their time working on their own projects. Actual or perceived at Google makes no difference at Baxter. We have it. And at the end of the year, they get to show us all what they’ve accomplished with their 20%.

So, today, our students presented and exhibited their results. They shared what they have built or created. They talked about their struggles and successes. They focused on what they had learned (time management, organization, and communication being the big three). And then when I get home, this note from our principal is in my inbox:

Dear Baxter students,
I am so proud of you. Days like today reveal just how much you have accomplished this year. You are so passionate and articulate with adults and with each other. You are professionals, in dress and demeanor. You are honest when you share your successes and when you talk about your failures, and all of you seem to know that both are part of learning. I love it when you are innovative and your projects this year sought to reach the boundaries of what you know, what any of us know: what we can do with a mechanism or ingredient or measuring device; what we can make with paint or pencil or editing program; what we can build in the lab, on the street, or in cyberspace; what we can grow; how to bring compassion to a community of innovators. You are curious and creative and you are already changing the shape of the world around you. Thank you for changing mine.

Ditto.

And thank you, Michele, for making Baxter Academy the place where I want to be.