While the first-grade lesbian primer Heather Has Two Mommies sparked a parents' revolt that culminated in the chancellor's ouster, the far more radical theme schools have prompted hardly a whisper. At the Museum School, teachers work with museum educators to design seven-week programs related to different exhibitions. To avoid stale math exercises on coordinate points, the children simulate an archaeological dig by planting photos of the objects in a sandbox, and then map their discoveries on a grid. For a science lesson on metallurgy, they produce crude copies of jewelry from the exhibition. In humanities class, they study creation myths of the Sipan, then write their own.
Some schools unabashedly foster a political identity.
Classes are held in the organization's building, and the curriculum reads like the group's manifesto. A typical semester's schedule revolves around community activism. Last year a group of students calling themselves Toxic Avengers protested the building of an incinerator at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the storage of radioactive waste near the school. In one science lesson, they mastered the effect of toxins on the respiratory system. For a humanities project, they interviewed people harmed by the toxins and filmed a documentary.