Unlike many reform efforts, the Coalition emphatically rejects the notion of centralized and standardized solutions to school problems. Instead, it celebrates the diversity of its member schools and stresses that it is a grassroots movement. Adolescents have far more power than they display, or are asked to or are expected to display, in most schools. We assume they cannot figure things out for themselves, so we tell them things. Paradoxically, we are conspirators, often with them, in their depen-dence.
Happy dependence is a pleasant state for many adolescents.
If little is asked of them, their risk of failure is likewise small. . . . No one is flattered more than when his help is solicited. People, adolescents included, respond to challenge, and they feel personal esteem when their power is recognized and sought. This is not surprising. Furthermore, because of the Coalition's emphasis on local interpretation, member schools are encouraged to interpret the Common Principles within their own community context and with their own student body and faculty in mind.