Big Picture South Burlington

This year I was really excited about doing Big Picture for multiple reasons.  Some of these include the fact that we could design our own projects each quarter which is called an “independent project.” I was excited about these because it could be a project that was interesting to me. And another thing was the whole internship thing. But besides all that I also liked the fact of creating your own curriculum for each quarter.

For the first quarter, I unfortunately didn’t get to do an independent project. I was kind of bummed out by that fact and how we were given required work for the quarter. But for the second quarter I at first decided to make a gingerbread boat. But when it came out it wasn’t as amazing as I thought it would turn out.

So Instead I changed my project to doing a video series on YouTube, and filmed myself instructing how to make simple dishes. I then posted these  videos on YouTube. I made about three different videos making different dishes. I just got the dish ideas from what I had at the time to cook. The next project I decided to do was my 3rd quarter Independent Project. I got an idea from this Web site were these guys were taking aerial photography from near space and they made it seem very simple. So it seemed like a project that I could do, so I decided to get a partner and take this project on. It’s been going good so far and I only have to get 100 more dollars towards it and then I can finally launch it.

For a long time I’ve been pushed to write about my experience with helping someone this winter. Recently after a long time of resistance I have realized that in that moment of helping this person I felt like I made a difference and proved that Big Picture can make you want to learn. I used skills that I had learned this year to make me feel like I can do something and have it count for more than just a grade, but count towards something I can take with me.  I thought maybe writing this would help me feel the same thing I felt that day.

Before reading this story you should know I really dislike taking the city bus, and suggested in the beginning of the year I’d rather walk each day from the school to St. Michael’s College for my LTI than take the bus (note: this is about 5 miles each way), but I grew up and dealt with my fears and began taking the bus regularly.  I had been interning at St. Mike’s for a few months at this time and had been on enough calls to prepare myself for the situation. That day on the bus, I sat near the front like I did most days and rode along trying to block out any distractions.

When we were about halfway through the ride I looked forward, only to see a man starting a seizure.  Now being an intern and observing EMTs, I had seen about 3 seizures in all.  When the unfamiliar man started to seize I only felt like I was there to do something.  I sat up quickly and ran over.  The bus driver had stopped the bus after, patrons had stated yelling I grabbed the girl across from him and asked for her to help me place him on the ground away from any dangerous objects he could hit.  We placed him on his side as I had seen many EMTs do for patients, and asked that the girl next to me to time how long the seizure was.  I placed a coat under his head, and looked for his wallet, knowing the EMTs would want his identification.  The Burlington Rescue arrived shortly and I was able to tell them how long the seizure had been and handed over his identification.  Though I know that this man probably wouldn’t have died from this accident, feeling that I had helped a stranger is something I’ll never be able to replace.  I knew after that bus ride, helping people through medicine was my passion and future.

Because of longstanding social issues around Big Picture, we recently sat down and had a discussion about “bad apple behaviors”. Specifically, Jim and Sarah played a radio clip from This American Life, talking about how individual people can get in the way of a group’s progress through their actions. Research specified three types of behaviors that can spoil an entire group: “Jerks” (people who make disparaging comments and cause conflict), “Slackers” (self explanatory) and cynics/depressives. Research shows that having even one of these types of people in a group can drastically bring down the effectiveness of a group, bringing work quality and completion down.
Everyone has a tendency to show some of these qualities, but Big Picture especially seems to have trouble with these types of people. The culture of Big Picture is completely based around bad apple behaviors, with some people in particular causing more problems than others. I think that the goal behind our discussion was to help people become more aware of themselves falling into these roles, specifically the people who regularly fill them. If all of us were more aware of the effect we can have on other people, the Big Picture room would be a much more pleasant place to be in.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the bad apples in our group realized the discussion was about them. Even people who were very involved in the discussion immediately turned around and started getting in people’s way, complaining about moving their chairs and going into advisory, and saying openly depressing things to generate a response. The amount of time it took for these to start happening again astounded me. It was clear to me that the people that really needed to hear our discussion totally did not, or didn’t understand that they played a role in the problems of Big Picture. We don’t have any students in Big Picture who have adequately filled the role of a leader, and even if we did they can’t be everywhere at once. The culture of Big Picture will only improve when people realize the effect they have on other people.

Bottom line: people need to get over themselves and learn how to socialize without ruining the barrel.

Now we are coming to the end of the first year of Big Picture South Burlington. It has been a very interesting and fun year. I have learned so much more than I would have if I had been in traditional school, but these things were not always academic. I have learned so much about me as a person and the things that I am capable of, and the things that I would like to become capable of.

Yet as with all school programs I still had to constantly battle with myself about staying motivated to do my work. But that is one of the best parts do this program, I’m learning the everyday requirements of traditional school in a way that I want, so therefore I’m still entertained and stay motivated a lot easier. I can strongly stay that I have had my best school year this year, not only educationally but also just an over all better school experience.

So with the end of the year coming up I am definitely looking forward to returning to Big Picture next year. I feel like this program is definitely working out for me, and I strongly feel like next year when we already have a year behind us the program will be twice as strong as it was this year.

So this week began with a “Pick-me-up” (Activity held on Mondays and Wednesdays to get the students a stimulating start to the day and get them going) revolving around the concept of “bad apples.” We listened to an episode of “This American Life” where the host was discussing with a professor about whether or not one person’s attitude can affect the whole group. The professor had held a test that yielded some interesting results about the idea. It seems that someone with a personality or attitude that could be labeled as a bad apple attitude, had a strong tendency to bring the morale and motivation of the group down a considerable amount. What made it so interesting, more so than you’d think, was how closely it related to our group here at Big Picture.

Throughout this year at Big Picture, my only one due to me being a senior, has revealed a lot about the nature of relationships with friends, classmates, loved ones, and authority figures such as the advisors here. There definitely a level of comfort here that can’t be attained with the changing schedules and classrooms of typical school which has created many positive effects on the students. However, there are two sides to the coin and there has been many incidents where tempers have flared and insults have been swapped in the heat of an argument. I myself don’t think these are necessarily the habits of a few bad apples, just the natural tendencies of a group of people that have been together for a long time in a closed environment, each with their own tasks to accomplish despite distractions. These outbursts are natural, uncommon, and perfectly reasonable given the conditions the people are in when they arise.

I believe that the bad apples are the ones who have no reason to lash out, slack off, or point out every little obstacle that could make a task seem impossible. I think that we all have our bad days, I’ve had a few and I’ve seen plenty around the group before on many occasions, some people tend to have more than others, are more easily tested than others. I find that I myself am a rather resilient person in terms of letting things “get to me” than the majority of people in Big Picture, even all of them actually. I have more patience for the others and have ways of avoiding the annoyances and not being concerned with any remarks that may try to get me down. I find myself using my methods to try and help others to cheer up when a bad apple move has put them down and I have been successful on a few, happy occasions.

While this is a place for working and getting things done, we have emotions and they’re prevalent in all the things we do here, at least in some small way.  We’re all sensitive to certain things and with all the time we spend together, many of us know what buttons to push as one student said so eloquently. So all I hope for after I finish Big Picture is that people know not to exploit their knowledge of each other for hurting the ones they work with every single day.

When people ask me about Big Picture, and how it works, I almost always tell them that when a student is in Big Picture, they need to motivate themselves, or they will fail.  When I tell them that a student will fail, I do not mean that they will have a report card with an ‘F’ or a 50% on it.  I mean that they will waste their year.  In school, they will be a failure.  If a student cannot bring themselves to get things done without being told exactly what to do, Big Picture is not for them.

In order to succeed in this school, you have to be able to succeed outside of school; when someone who is no longer enrolled in school wakes up, they have to get themselves to work, and do work.  They have to figure out what needs to be done, and how to do it.  People who make money are the ones who solve problems.  The closest type of work to the normal structure of school is answering phones or making fast food, where you have a list of things that you need to do over and over again.  Neither field is very lucrative.

If I come into Big Picture with nothing to do, I can sit around and talk or surf the internet all day, and I won’t really be reprimanded.  If I do this over and over again, I won’t have anything to show for attending school.  If I have nothing to show from my time spent at school, I have wasted that quarter, semester, or year, and people will see that, which means that I will not progress. For all I can tell, a student in Big Picture can take themselves only as far as they are willing to go.  People in Big Picture have the opportunity to create the most impressive things that will be made in South Burlington, or they can waste their education.

(Nicole’s mother Deb submitted this report about Nicole’s semester in India.)

Nicole is doing great. She sounds so happy every time we talk to her. She loves it there. The group gets along really well and it sounds like they have fun together. At night for free time they dance, play games or read. No technology!! She survived her 5 day trek to remote villages. She said she was very tired, but felt like she had really accomplished a lot to complete that long walk and the home-stays with villagers. She even learned to ride a horse. She has been helping the cook prepare meals, taking care of the vegetable garden and has even milked a cow. This next week they are going on a trek to artificial glaciers where they will ice skate. The other night they slept on the roof with their sleeping bags so they could watch the stars. When they woke up, there was a cow on the roof with them (must be a low slanted roof). Of course, all of these calls to us come anywhere from 1:00 am to 4:00 am. I feel lucky to be able to remember anything she tells me at that hour.

All in all, I think this has been the best experience for her. She says she is even getting used to rice, dough balls, lentils and vegetables day after day.

In the beginning, they are nervous. They are excited, they feel like they are going to make a change. I could see it at the beginning of the school year, on that first awkward day, when I could almost hear the words bouncing around Jim’s head: “We’re going to do something here.”

The excitement fades, but never completely disappears. After a couple months, routine is found. It is discovered, one way or another, that teaching is a lot like hammering a nail. Hold your hand close, and you’ve got all of the control, but you’re not getting much done. Hold it at the base, and you’ve got no control; you’ve got the ability to bring the nail to it’s wood-infused destiny, while running the risk of having to watch as that nail bends irrevocably. The teacher must find landmarks on the hammer: where the school expects them to stand, where other teachers stand, and where they should stand.

Next the teacher begins to make things easier for themselves. Teaching fifteen students is fifteen times more difficult than teaching one student. For this reason, it is natural to attempt to group students. Individual consequences bring with them a metaphorical advil for the teacher and quite literal dehumanization for the students. The deciding factor then becomes how selfless the educator is. By making it easier for them, they make it harder for the students. By making it better for the students, they make it more difficult for themselves.

It is at this point that a teacher can go in one of two directions. They can make things better for themselves, or they can make things better for their students. If they took the job as a last resort, they will most likely take the first path. If they turned down a job at which they could relax and do something they loved all day, all so that they could try to make a difference, then they will take the second path.

The first path is easy. It uses tools like tests and grades to replace the much harder and much more effective tools on the second path. It creates miseducated children who go on to doing who-knows-what.

The second path is hard. Even teachers are human – there is no way they can make things perfect for everybody. They will get stressed. They will make mistakes. After quite some time finding their balance, they will become an advisor, and the students will become the teachers. When they are done advising, hopefully on a day that includes caps and gowns, the self-teaching students will go right on teaching until they die. The advisor will be responsible for more learning than they could ever hope to create on the first path – but it isn’t easy.

Big Picture isn’t just about learning in your own way, it’s also about learning on your own. It’s about preparing you for a world outside of school, where nobody is there to tell you what to do.