>>Today we're going to start our study of nuclear weapons and atoms
and chemistry by giving a little context to why some
of this science-y stuff is important to study about.
>>Narrator: A bold experiment in education is under way
at ASCEND School in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, California.
>>So, I'd like you to write down your feelings and facts that you have
as you look at each of these photos.
>>Hae-Sin: Quality education is a curriculum that pushes kids.
It's not making them feel safe
or comfortable all the time or successful.
It's supposed to be frustrating.
It's supposed to make kids really think.
It's supposed to push them out of their comfort zone,
give them new experiences, ask questions,
find answers to their questions.
Understand that, like, life is not an answer.
Life is a question.
>>I think that some people would say
that seventh-graders shouldn't be looking at these images
and that they're too young, and I don't agree with that.
I think that you look at the video games
that our third-graders are playing and they're just as graphic.
The first day that I was here, one of my brand-new students came
in to me during lunch time, and he was like, "Keiko,
have you ever seen anybody get killed?"
And I said, "Well, in fact, I have seen somebody, you know, get shot."
And he's like, "Yeah, I've seen 11 people get shot,"
and so our kids are really dealing
with some very heavy issues in their lives.
>>Narrator: Heavy issues like violence, overcrowding,
low test scores and low expectations led parents
in this East Oakland community
to demand something better for their kids.
>>This about the child's future, and we the parents need to learn
that we can make a difference just by getting involved at the school,
so I think that's so important for parents to understand
that we're not going to let other people decide for our kids.
>>Narrator: With help from the nonprofit Oakland community
organizations, a group of parents lobbied the school board
to create a new K-through-eighth-grade school
for 200 students.
One of five new schools to open in the fall of 2001,
ASCEND stands for A School Cultivating Excellence
Nurturing Diversity.
>>Hae-Sin: We're actually out to reform the public school system,
and I think that we've definitely taken a step in the right direction.
>>One key to the reformation effort is the concept
of expeditionary learning, a teaching method that encourages students
to dig deeply into a single subject.
>>So that's not absolutely set in stone.
>>Twice a year, students work with their teachers to come
up with a question or area of inquiry that they will pursue
for the next several months.
They integrate math, science and English studies and,
with the help of local artists, express themselves in artwork,
dance, video, drama and music.
[ girl singing ]
The process of deep inquiry into a single subject is the same,
whether it's seventh-graders studying the war
or first-graders focusing on frogs.
>>That green dot is called a spiracle.
>>If you study something really deeply, you become very invested
in it, so what you're seeing, even with the frogs in the first grade,
is tremendous investment.
Kids really, really care about frogs.
It wouldn't have been as deep if they'd studied frogs for two days
and lizards for two days.
>>It's just a frog that we made that sticks out its tongue.
A lot of people wanted a tongue, but they didn't have
to get a tongue, but I did.
>>For their science class, ASCEND's seventh-graders explored the impact
of AIDS.
>>Can you believe this arrogance?
They think they can stop us.
Nothing can stop us
[ cheers ]
.
>>Our question was: How does AIDS affect us physically and socially?
We read stories of teenagers who had HIV.
We learned about the immune system.
We went and we visited a house where HIV-positive people live.
>>And it's for people who have HIV/AIDS who are homeless.
>>And so the students got a chance to meet about five people
who were living with AIDS and they got to hear their stories.
And then we started making the movie.
So we actually filmed the whole movie in a week.
One group went through and was like,
"Where are we going to shoot these scenes?
How are we going to contact these people?
So the kids were actually part of the logistical organizing,
and they really got into it.
>>Do you really think I'm scared of your pathetic immune system?
>>It was really exciting for me
to see how they could really learn science in the context
of a really important issue.
>>You're crazy.
I'll never help you.
>>Oh, yes, you will.
You see, you're going to be my host.
I will enter you and hijack your nucleus.
>>After studying AIDS,
the seventh-graders dedicated their second semester
to the study of the war in Iraq.
>>At the end of our last semester, which ended in January,
I gave the students a survey asking them what topics and themes
in history they wanted to study more about, and the results were
that the kids wanted to study about Islam.
They wanted to study about the Middle East and they wanted to study
about war, and in order to do that, the kids immediately realized,
"We need to hear multiple voices, and one of those voices we want
to hear are Iraqi people and Iraqi children."
And so we had e-mail pen pals in Baghdad.
>>My name is Jolis.
We are people who love peace.
We won't accept occupation.
We say no to war, yes to peace.
>>Dear Joanna, I was so excited to hear from you.
I really don't want this war, because it is pretty harmful.
>>What do they want?
Our oil? It's not theirs, after all.
>>We're about to march in there.
They're doing this massive buildup, and you sense the tension building,
and we're getting it firsthand.
I mean, this is a primary source.
It's a brilliant way for these children to learn about Iraq.
>>Anyway, I felt better when I knew that someone really cares over there.
>>President George W. Bush: My fellow citizens, this hour American
and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations
to disarm Iraq, to free its people
and to defend the world from grave danger.
[ bomb explodes ]
>>When the war started, right away they started asking questions
that were -- sort of came out naturally.
Well, you know, we're seeing all of this coverage,
but where are stories about children?
What about our pen pals?
Are they okay?
These anonymous lights in the sky, but what are those bombs hitting?
Are they hitting my friend?
>>They gathered at Market and Powell this morning
around 9:00 A.M. holding pictures of Iraqi children.
Today they say their march was about expressing their feelings
and it's not an antiwar march.
>>I said it's not black and white when you're talking with kids.
They have complex emotions.
They're confused.
They're sad.
They're frustrated, and they feel disempowered, because they feel
like people don't listen to children.
And they are worried about their friends.
>>I think that we shouldn't have this war, because Iraq already is kind
of at war in a way, and it's, like,
50 percent of the people there are children,
so basically more children are getting bombed than parents.
>>The march was really cool, because it was silent.
It was with the posters, and then this man came up to us, saying,
"Get back to your country.
Why are you over here marching?
You're not even from this nation."
And I felt really bad, because this is actually my nation
and it made me feel, like, intimidated,
but then I believed they're just saying
that so the young kids will feel scared and not come out
and speak out what they feel.
>>The seventh-graders' peaceful protest caught the attention
of news media around the world, from CNN to NBC's "Today Show."
>>Reporter: Huber, are you concerned about your friends?
>>If they're dead, it's really sad, so I don't know what to do.
I feel really confused.
>>Reporter: Some of the response was not positive for the antiwar protest.
In fact, there were many adults who said they felt
like the students were being used as pawns for the adults.
Do you think that that's the case?
How would you respond to those people?
>>Those people are wrong, because we all have a mind of our own.
If they want to believe that our teacher was forcing us
to do that, they didn't.
Some students refused to go, but I really wanted to go,
because I really wanted to get my voice out.
>>Reporter: All right.
Well, Carina, thank you for joining us.
>>Narrator: Having become the subject of media coverage themselves,
the students gained new insights
as they studied how the war was being covered in print and on TV.
>>I have a list of questions here.
Not all of them apply to every photo, but in this photo,
who do you identify with and who do you feel empathy for?
>>The Iraqi civilian.
>>The Iraqi civilian?
What other kinds of things do you think you might think?
>>Well, I realize this: It's like if you look
at this picture you feel sorry for the soldiers,
and that kind of makes you want to support the war, but then if you look
at this picture, you feel sorry for the Iraqis, and that makes you think
that the war isn't necessary.
>>Narrator: At the end of the semester,
the seventh-graders held an evening class teach-in
for their parents about the war.
>>Student: [in Spanish]
>>Narrator: For the parents, it was a chance
to discover how much their children had learned about the war
and to get new information on the subject.
>>We've been studying this a really long time,
and they don't have the education like we have.
They just learned a whole lot.
>>Academically, we're starting
to see what difference these schools can make.
Our Stanford 9 test scores just came out across all the schools,
and our school, as well as the other small schools, showed dramatic gains.
>>Narrator: The last stop
on the seventh-grade expedition was Fantasy Studios in Berkeley,
where the class recorded a CD of peace songs,
hoping to send the proceeds from their sales
to their pen pals in Iraq.
>>All: [singing "Imangine" ]
>>The beginning of the war, we started working with our musician,
Sara, on singing songs of peace, and as we started singing them,
it was such a relief in the middle of all this misery to be able to sing
and create something beautiful and express our feelings in that way.
>>I think there's a switch in all of us, you know,
something that turns you on to suddenly not only, like, learning,
but just your own thinking.
I feel like our seventh-graders have become thinkers now.
The switch is on.
They're thinking of themselves as change-makers,
as people who have voices, who have power,
who can articulate, who are respected.
They just made this huge leap.
Suddenly they are deep, critical, reflective, powerful thinkers,
and I think this curriculum turned the switch on.
>>All: [singing "Imangine" ]
>>I look at a few of my kids and I say, "He would have dropped out.
Any other school, by now he would be out.
This one would never be singing like this in front of all his peers."
They're learning stuff that they're going to remember for their lives.
They are so motivated.
These kids are going to go to college.
That's why I'm a teacher, and I couldn't be a teacher anywhere else,
because it doesn't happen like that elsewhere.
You know, what I envisioned and what I hoped would happen here is
happening, and it makes it all worth it.
>>For more information on what works
in public education go to edutopia.org