This week, Jeff Hopkins, the founder and Principal of the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, spoke to our class. The Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, or PSII for short, is an inquiry based, independent school in Victoria, BC. This school does not follow the traditional BC education curriculum but, instead, lets students choose their inquiries based on what they are interested in. I found it interesting that Mr. Hopkins made the school an independent school so it did not have to follow the standard BC education curriculum. In traditional school settings, students follow a strict curriculum set out for each grade and the students have to meet all curriculum points in order to pass. At PSII, students are able to choose inquiry topics that they are interested in and set goals for themselves. These goals, set by the students, are how the students are assessed by their teachers, as opposed to the standard BC curriculum that is used in public schools. I find this method of education very interesting and I like that the students get to focus on learning subjects that they are interested in rather than the school telling them what they have to learn. From the student inquiries that Mr. Hopkins shared with us, it looks as though his students are working on some absolutely amazing things. One point that Mr. Hopkins made, that really stood out to me, was how he hoped that one day, in the future, his school would be able to shut down because the public school system would adopt this inquiry based learning model too. This style of education might be just what students need to excel in our ever-changing, technology-driven, world and I would love to be able to teach in a school like this someday.