How One School Implemented Authentic Agile Education
Updated: Oct 5, 2020
Introducing authentic agile patterns and practices in education is a balancing act. The instructor has to:
Balance textbook learning with real-life applications.
Manage the tensions between assessing individuals to meet the requirements of traditional schooling and assessing the value created by teams.
The Darrow School, a coed boarding school in Columbia County, New York, offers a perfect case study.
Young Founders Program
The Darrow School's Young Founders Program (YFP) helps students from diverse backgrounds learn Agile and apply it to real-world contexts and markets. The program was a year-long residential program based on campus. The goal of the program was to test the viability of teaching Agile tools and practices as authentically as possible. In other words, teaching with the least amount of interference from school structures and mindsets that are not compatible with Agile. The students in the program were recent high school graduates who were headed to college or into the workforce and wanted to a Postgraduate Year or gap year program before taking the next step in their education or vocational path.