In 7th Grade, the students are learning about the American Revolution. Specifically, they have discovered that the colonists in Boston had become so accustomed to the autonomy, that many of the colonists chaffed at any incursion on that ability to make their own decisions. This led to a discussion on autonomy, in general.

At The Beech Hill School, it is important that the students begin to experience a degree of autonomy in their lives as well. At BHS, however, we tend to refer to this idea as agency. That is, we provide the students opportunities to make certain decisions about their lives, and to manage the consequences that stem from this agency. As emerging adolescents in a small school, we allow our students a more significant degree of agency than in many of our peer schools. We do so because we hope that our students develop the attitude that their actions and decisions shape and impact their lives, not that they are passive and that life happens to them.

This week, a group of students used their agency to create a Winter Carnival. Under the guidance of Mr. Holt and with the support of the adults in the community, a group of students met over the course of the last few weeks to plan the week, they made announcements at Community, and they took a leadership in administering the activities throughout the week. The Winter Carnival was a total success, culminating with a great afternoon of activities on Friday and a dance Friday night.

Of course, we hope that all the agency and autonomy our students have at school does not lead to revolutions at home – but like many of the Bostonians in the 1770s, adolescents that are yearning for independence can be a challenge to govern! We have found, however, that at its best, this sense of agency and autonomy has allowed our graduates to find success at high school and beyond and is just another reason why students thrive at BHS.