What Happens When Students Design Their Own Classes?

What if you could take over the classroom and lead a workshop on any subject you like? Students at Reed College do this every year at Paideia, a weeklong festival of learning where you can learn how to write calligraphy, build a terrarium, manufacture chalk—the sky's the limit.

Reed College is an institution of higher education in the liberal arts devoted to the intrinsic value of intellectual pursuit and governed by the highest standards of scholarly practice, critical thought, and creativity. Its undergraduate program of study, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, is demanding and intense and balances breadth of knowledge across the curriculum with depth of knowledge in a particular field of study. The goal of the Reed education is that students learn and demonstrate rigor and independence in their habits of thought, inquiry, and expression.