Project Enlightenment students at a show. Photo by Reena Singh.
A unique class that has held a place at McLean High School for about 20 years, either as a club or in class form - will not be offered next year.
Project Enlightenment, which began as a re-enactment club, may return to its former status, disappointing many of the students who learned to love history and drama because of it.
“My class was too small to run in the present financial situation, so it was collapsed,” said Project Enlightenment and physics teacher Dean Howarth.
His class this semester was 25 students.
He is worried that McLean High School is so academically driven that Project Enlightenment will not be as successful as it is now - as a course that is graded based on independent research and performance at museums and national historic landmarks throughout the D.C. metro region.
He knows that the decision to not offer the course was not the school’s fault. He hopes that the course can be revived sometime in the future - even if it is after he retires.
“Where do you get into a situation where an affluent county runs tens of millions of dollars in debt?” said. “Now we’re in a situation where Fairfax Public Schools is monolithic. It has inertia and doesn’t have the nimbleness to react to the changes that are coming.”
He said he does not know how the county is able to spend thousands of dollars on things like a new grading system next year, but cannot fund a unique program at what he considers to be one of the best school in Northern Virginia.
“The first things to get cut aren’t those systematic, bureaucratic things,” he said. “They’re the things kids like.”
He hopes to revive the class into a club for next year. He said the club was once the biggest at the school. Project Enlightenment used to do two shows a year. The last few years, it has gone to nearly 15 shows in research libraries, community programs, elementary schools and museums.
“It’s become such a unique, long-term project that’s become such a tradition for the school,” he said.
McLean High senior Elizabeth McCune found her love for history through the class.
The 18-year-old has been involved with Project Enlightenment since her sophomore year, and is disappointed that it will not be offered as a class next year.
“It makes me sad, because this class honestly has prepared me for college more than my other classes because of the independent research we have to do,” she said.
The class also makes her practice her penmanship, do public speaking and read biographies and autobiographies for research.
She is attending Stanford University next year. She said Howarth inspired her to be a teacher, but she decided against it when she saw just how limited teachers are in the school system.
“I’m considering majoring in agricultural engineering, because one of my characters is a botanist,” she said.
Several of the younger students had to find new classes to fill their schedule after the class got canceled.
“I had signed up for it, and they told me they didn’t have enough people for it, and I had to find a new class to take,” said Sophie Huffman, junior. “It was disappointing. Some of my backup classes got canceled as well.”