19. School Without Walls

In 1968 the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had a problem. The city's school system needed a new school building and teachers but did not have the money to pay for this multi-million-dollar project. City officials solved the problem in a unique way. They decided to use the many scientific and cultural institutions in the city as the classrooms. Experts who worked in the various institutions would be the teachers. Among these institutions were such prestigious names as the Franklin Institute, with its science museum, workshops, and classes; the Free Library, containing nearly a million volumes; the Academy of Natural Sciences, Fels Planetarium, and the Rodin Museum.

The experiment in education, known as the Parkway Program, began in February 1969. John Bremer, an Englishman and education innovator, planned the program and became its director.

The Program has grown in size from 142 to 500 high school students and is so popular that thousands of applicants are denied places each year. The Program gives a freedom to high school education never known before. To supplement basic courses required for a diploma—languages, history, science—students may choose from more than a hundred other courses. Any subject will be offered if an instructor can be found. Every group of 15 boys and girls belongs to a "tutorial group", led by a teacher and one assistant. Students in the Program say that school is no longer a place but an interesting activity.

About 100 institutions in Philadelphia—public, private, commercial—help the Program. During any one week students may be found in such diverse places as a bakery, a church or the municipal gas plant. Such places merely provide space for classrooms. Other institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania or the Temple University Medical School allow the Program's own faculty to teach in their laboratories or other facilities. Other establishments provide both classroom space and instruction. One pharmaceutical-manufacturing company, for example, conducts a chemistry course.

In addition to their studies, students are encouraged to take part-time jobs. "The life of the city is our curriculum," says Director Bremer. "Life and learning are all part of the same process." Learning is excitement in this experimental program but it is not meant for every child. The student must be able to handle the freedom and self-discipline that the Program demands for academic success.