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Fuse RI and the Highlander Institute connects with the Highlander Folk School through their collective focus on individuals coming together to effect social and educational change. Miles Horton empowered his students through a focus on their own community and needs; the Highlander Institute and Fuse RI shows teachers how to best reach each of their students, empowering them to personalize and take control of their learning while working together to create and manage the world in which they want to live.

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When Miles Horton founded the Highlander Folk School, he sought to address what he saw as an essential problem with education—it’s lack of relevance to the daily lives of poor students whose culture and realities were not reflected in the curriculum they learned in schools. Long before “culturally-relevant pedagogy” had become an educational buzzword, the Highlander Folk School sought to implement exactly that by cherishing students’ culture and forming curriculum from the issues students themselves brought to the classroom. The aim of Horton’s school was ultimately to empower students to change the world. Today, Fuse RI continues to take a grassroots approach to extending blended learning opportunities sharing best practices between educators. It also continues the focus on creating personalized, culturally-relevant learning experiences for students. Finally, Fuse continues Horton’s commitment to social justice through its efforts to use blended learning to work towards closing the achievement gap.

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The Highlander Folk school was an encouraging and empowering school that showed people the strengths that was already inside them. It focused on the equality of people and the issues of the day. It focused on issues that were current to the people there. In that way the FUSE RI program parallels that work by making education relevant for each and every student. In it's focus to provide an equable education it is continuing the mission of the school from years ago.

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The Highlander Folk is an empowering facility that taught people to make change for current social needs. They did this through personalized instruction - students shared their concerns and Highlander led them to find the solutions. In today's education world, the addition of standards has dictated the content that once was brought to the school by students. The FUSE program connects both worlds by having the standards as the goal, with the student deciding how learning will end with mastery, and teachers providing opportunities to empower students in that process.

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The Highlander Folk School is an incredible institution. The work it has done empowering Americans to be the change agents in their communities is very inspiring. The Highlander Institute's commitment to building equity in schools through blended learning is doubly connected to the work of its namesake because 1) it is empowering teachers to become change agents (through coaching, FUSE, etc.) and 2) it is helping to provide students with a higher-quality education so that they, too, may become change agents for their communities.

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Both the Highlander Folk School and the Highlander Institute share a vision for equity and social change.  Both "curriculums" are based on problems and teach individuals to be agents of change and part of the solution. Through projects like Fuse, Highlander Institute is working to build equity in schools

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The Highlander Folk School is described as "a community coming together to identify a common problem and solve it together." Over time, those common problems have included Labor Rights, the Civil Rights movement and other evolving social justice issues. Like its namesake, the Highlander Institute - and through it, Fuse RI - represents the very same thing: a community of educators coming together to solve the problem of equity in education by drawing upon the knowledge and experience from within the community itself. Over time, Highlander Folk School has evolved to meet the changing needs of the community it serves; the Highlander Institute shows a similar commitment to continue focusing and refocusing on the areas in which they can best catalyze change in RI education.

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In many ways, Fuse RI pulls on Highlander Folk School's essential question, how can we help ourselves? Myles Horton's musing lives out in the Fuse RI Fellowship as fellows support districts in their work to adopt and adapt blended learning systems in an effort to making teaching and learning better. There are additional similarities between Highlander Folk School's focus on the study of the self and Fuse RI's strategies for working with districts. This study of the self and surrounding community that Highlander Folk cherishes lives out in the fellows support of district vision setting, self-assessments and locally designed walk through tools. Lastly, both Highlander Folk School and Highlander Institute share a commitment to equity.

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'"A school to change the world", described the Highlander Folk School. Fuse RI through the Highlander Institute strives to be a conduit for change. This change has its origin with our children. As Rosa Parks said "this could lead to a unified society." What better way for working for justice. In the image of the HFS, Fuse RI works to overcome inequities finding the real voice for real children in our communities so they can show mastery in their learning.

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The Highlander Folk School and Highlander Institute both  share a common idea of empowering educators and learners. Both institutes share the vision of striving towards providing educational experiences that promote equity and social change.

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The Highlander Folk School and Highlander Institute both work with the ideas of helping ourselves and social change. The Highlander Institute continues this work today by providing teachers opportunities to grow and learn and by focusing on equity in schools.

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The Highlander Folk School established a physical place and a spiritual vision to empower people closest to the problems of inequities to also solve the problems. Similarly, seventy years later, the Highlander Institute is bringing together educational practitioners to solve the problems inequities in education.

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Three big similarities emerged between the Highlander Folk School and the work of Fuse RI through the Highlander Institute. First is giving merit and voice to the "song" of the people. The Highlander Folk School addressed challenges within the lives of their students just as the Highlander Institute is working with each district (via the Fuse Fellows) to overcome that district's challenges, utilizing blended learning as the tool to do this. Next, both organizations honestly acknowledged the reality and current state of education and the times, while still portraying a motto of "We shall overcome". Finally, the Highlander Folk School and Fuse RI express a need for educators to work together on a solution. These similarities result in a common goal that has remained steady throughout these generations - creating social change to promote equity.

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Both the Highlander Folk School and the Highlander Institute are based around the idea of equity and social change. FuseRI is a powerful tool for districts in Rhode Island to use as support as they participate in a wave of innovation and equity in schools.

Like the Highlander Folk School, the Institute draws in out of the box thinkers who have been charged with the opportunity to 'change the game' in RI education.

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The Highlander Institute and the Highlander Folk School are connected because both promote social change.  The Highlander Folk School asks their members how they could help themselves.  They wanted to promote dignity and pride. The Highlander Institute helps districts recognize where they want education to change and helps them create a road map to follow.

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Miles Horton believed that if common people were taught how to identify their own common problems, then social change would be the result. The work of FUSE RI through the Highlander Institute is essentially saying the same thing. There are issues with our educational system. We, the common people, need to identify the problem and work towards social change. This goes far beyond a government initiative. The social change we are striving for is an educational system that leads to a positive, productive life for all students - no matter the race, color or socioeconomic status.

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Both are looking for solutions to problems. The Highlander Folk school looked to find "common solutions for common problems".  Today FUSERI looks to find solutions for engaging students through Blended Learning.  Both were "disruptors" - changing learning.

FUSERI connects to its namesake in embracing the idea "how we can help ourselves". As Fuse fellows we can work from the inside to help our fellow teachers to find solutions to the problems faced in education. "We shall overcome" became a theme for the Highlander Folk school, but it is one that rings true for FUSERI. Fuse shall overcome misunderstandings, confusion, and show how to integrate personalized learning to best meet the needs of students.

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The Highlander Folk School believes that the answers can be found together.

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The Highlander Folk School had a vision to end racial segregation and enable all people to be treated equally. Similarly, FuseRI has a vision that all students will be given equal opportunity to the same level of education and mastery through personalized learning.

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Miles Horton believed in a community coming together to identify a common problem and solving it together. I also think that Clark saying that "chaos creates wonderful thinking" goes along with Highlanders misson. Both visions believe in equality and workingtogether.

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The Highlander Folk School's mission for solving problems and changing the world - seeking common solutions for common problems. The connection here is that the missions can be summarized in a similar way: innovation and problem solving connected to social change. The connection to access and equity - through Highlander Institute's work in blending and personalized learning - is a parallel to what the Highlander Folk School was working towards initially. Both value collaboration, problem solving, connection to the community and innovation.

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The work of FUSERI connects with the Highlander Folk School because they were both "built to be fluid, formed from problems  brought to it, questions they asked and answers they found together."  This collaborative way of thinking and learning empowers social change and betters lives.

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The Highlander Folk School  was set up around the idea that if people could come together to identify and establish their own  problems “maybe they could solve them and make those lives better.” This ties directly to the Highlander Institute’s mission of bringing  innovative educational practice to all students so that they have the “educational opportunities and supports they need to be successful.”  Knowing  that social change is at the heart of Highlander’s  vision, we as Fuse Fellows  can now have a clear goal of what we are trying to accomplish through our work with LEA’s using blended and personalized learning as our “how.” By using the tools set up through personalized and blended learning students, teachers, and districts are empowered to take the leading role in their learning and  understanding of what they need to successfully collaborate in where they see themselves in 21st century learning.

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Fuse RI through Highlander Institute and the Highlander Folk School's work connect in the way that they both disrupt the 'old school' way of teaching and learning as a way to empower people to be a positive change the world.

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One of the purposes of the Highlander Folk School was to help others "learn to change the world". This directly relates to Highlander Institute's mission of being a catalyst for social change. Ensuring that students have equitable access to education will allow them to achieve their highest potential.

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The work of Fuse RI, through the Highlander Institute, connects with the work of the Highlander Folk School because it encourages educators to change the way we think about the world. Specifically, in our case, the way we think about teaching and learning. The work of Highlander Folk and Highlander Institute supports educational practices for all students to have the educational opportunities to learn to their highest potential.

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The work of FUSE RI promotes equity in K-12 classrooms across Rhode Island.  FUSE RI is not about teaching technology, but rather instilling sound educational practices that will remain in place long beyond the tenure of any of the fellows. The beliefs of the Highlander Folk School live on in the present day work of the Highlander Institute. Through FUSE RI, districts will engage in collaboration and long term planning with fellows and the Highlander Institute.

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The work of Fuse RI through the Highlander Institute and the work of the Highlander Folk School both work on a similar mission statement of the most important thing that we can teach is how we could help ourselves. Fuse RI is working to help us help ourselves through collaboration, partnerships and long term investments; these are the same values and beliefs that were at the root of the Folk School during the civil war movement. Chaos, which was said led to wonderful thinking in the Folk School school holds true today. Both the Highlander Folk School and the FUSE RI programs are looking to bring equity in learning to all.

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How does the work of Fuse RI through the Highlander Institute connect with the work of our namesake, the Highlander Folk School?

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How does the work of Fuse RI through the Highlander Institute connect with the work of our namesake, the Highlander Folk School?