There is also sharp line between teachers and the community. Abbot and Ryan decry the exclusion of individuals from the classroom with life experiences and knowledge that might be useful to students, even though they are not professional educators. A frequently-used example of how schools draw upon the experience of members in the community might be found in 'career days,' for example, where professionals come to speak to students. But Abbot and Ryan are suggesting are far more all-encompassing and consistent use of outside resources, where the school as a whole is more open to and integrated with the community. A possible way to do this would be to work with other professional colleagues and administrators to set up ongoing programs with professionals, volunteers, and parents involved in areas of student as well as faculty interest. Abbot and Ryan stress that the influence of nature and nurture alike cry out for a more student-involved and experiential model of schooling. Just as schools are stressing standardized testing more and more, it is helpful to remember the importance of student involvement, involvement that must be scaffolded upon the student's past interests, not simply what is required by the state and 'No Child Left Behind.'...

The impersonality and passivity of modern schooling is not effective because it does not mirror the future workplace, and also because our ancestors learned practical skills and applied them to generalities that evolved into laws and concepts, rather than learned about life sitting at a desk, in a book, with no reference to lived experiences. Using student choice in selecting materials, creating experiments to demonstrate principles, and allowing student control over the social studies issues and history taught in class, as well as giving students open-ended, multidisciplinary creative research projects to assess them are all simple yet effective ways to realize the principles of the article.