Located in or near Admission and Guidance Centers, Youth Services Centers offer a range of assistance, including social services, juvenile justice, mental health, counseling, health clinics and probation officers. Students with computers at home can participate in an electronic school through the Internet and World Wide Web. Instruction in advanced courses is available as is on-line academic advisement. Besides these components, networks of advanced learning environments should provide alternative programs for students who experience difficulty adjusting to rules and expectations at other centers, programs leading to a GED or adult education diploma, and opportunities for students to earn post-secondary credits at local colleges. Thinking of secondary education as a network acknowledges what we already know to be true- learning doesn't stop at the schoolhouse door.
Communities are full of resources for learning.
Students would be involved in creating, maintaining and staffing these centers as well as using them for concentrated study, projects and coursework. Networks of advanced learning environments and Discovery Parks may seem far-fetched to some educators, but a few lighthouse school systems already are experimenting with versions of each. Perhaps these systems have realized that the future of our society depends less on standardizing the education of our teenagers than it does on capturing their imagination and engaging them in meaningful applications of knowledge. Standards make sense in the context of training for a chosen profession. They are less appropriate for an education that all adolescents are required by law to receive.