Learning cooperative provides alternatives

For students who struggle in the traditional school setting, the Princeton Learning Cooperative, in its first full year, offers an alternative method of education based on individual student needs.

Co-directors Paul Scutt and Joel Hammon founded the organization after teaching for years in public and private schools and noticing that the traditional structure did not work for every student.

PLC is based on the North Star model in Hadley, Mass., which focuses on self-directed learning rather that the conventional school model.

“It’s based on individual learning rather than teaching,” Scutt said. “A lot of schools follow a tradition of a student doing what a teacher tells them to do. With us it is very much more individualized, giving kids ownership of what they learn.”

Several members of the Princeton community are involved with PLC, including Kathleen Crown, director of studies for Mathey College.

Sarah Pak, a freshman in Mathey College and PLC tutor, first heard about the program through her residential college.

“This group is sort of like an educational YMCA for students who don’t fit into school,” Pak said.

PLC currently has 10 students, ranging from an honors program student who felt that school was not meeting his needs to kids who rebelled against the school structure and did not do well in classes to students with learning differences that schools did not properly address.

“It’s a wide range,” Hammon said. “The thing that connects them all is that they want to have more control of what they’re learning. What homeschooling doesn’t get is a community, which provides a social aspect as well.”

Madeleine Planeix-Crocker ’15, who tutors a sixth grader in Spanish and math, said she has so far found the alternative teaching methods to be successful.

“For verb conjugation, we’ve worked through rhythm and music to get him to focus better,” Planeix-Crocker said. “This has been pretty indicative of the Princeton Learning Cooperative ... which has been working very well.”

PLC’s individual-based model allows students to pick what subjects they want to learn and when they want to come to class.

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“In terms of structure we require, there really isn’t any,” Hammon said. “We have a calendar with class that runs pretty much at scheduled times; some use us as a replacement for school and come to all opportunities that are available to them, while some use us as a supplement and take a class here and there. From the kid’s standpoint, they structure it as they want.”

While the traditional school structure works for most students, PLC targets students who do not fit into this structure.

“I think it’s a good cause because school is not for every student, and some kids just genuinely don’t fit in,” Pak said. “School is one-size-fits-all and not every kid fits into that role. For the one percent of students who don’t fit into school, they can pick things they are genuinely interested in.”

The seven guiding principles of PLC include the ideas that young people naturally want to learn and that learning happens everywhere, including outside of school.

“There are no expectations,” Scutt said. “It is all set up individually, and we meet with parents to see what they want.”

Brandon Bark ’13, who is helping a student work on a classics paper to apply for a $20,000 scholarship, noted that it is important for the program to strike a balance between encouraging students to study what they want and guiding students in what it is important.

“I think that the program does a good job balancing,” Bark said.

Hammon and Scutt expected to have an 11th student by Monday and hope to have 12 to 15 students by the end of the year.

“The response has been really encouraging for us,” Hammon said. “Parents have told us that this is the best thing that has happened to our son or daughter in a long time, and there are lots of parents who have been very supportive to help us continue and grow.”