Autonomy is the name of the game at charter schools.
While catching frogs, the kids began to notice unusual deformities in many of the animals' legs. The youngsters, who attend Minnesota New Country School, in Henderson, Minnesota, whipped out their notebooks, took digital photographs, and posted their findings on the school's Web site. In no time at all, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency got involved, and the press was on the scene. Suddenly those students realized they could make a difference in what was going on in the environment. A teacher's role there is to guide students to act as leaders, to think for themselves, and to follow their interests.