As leaders in progressive educational practices at Neenah High School, we have paved the way for others to do multidisciplinary courses like the art/Wisconsin History class, art/Western Civ or art/creative writing courses. According to Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia Inc., "There is only one way to lead, and that's by being in front and leading by example" (Chouinard 194).
The Arete Academy has taken the next step in leading the school in a new way of thinking by having students choose their own targets through our "Bliss" project. The "bliss" comes in when students can individualize their work by choosing the targets and what form their product will take. Which targets they choose depends on how they want to think about their project. They may choose targets based on which ones they need to shore up, or on which ones attach to their product most readily. Which targets they choose and how they will show they have learned them is entirely up to them. Students may decide to write and perform a song, write a research paper, draw, act, build, etc.
For this project, we limited them to a few choices, but eventually, it is the plan to open it up to all of the targets in English and Social Studies before moving into having students combine targets for all four classes, which will be a challenge. Possibly math and science would start with a few targets on their own before we combine them all.