A conflicted teacher

Every year my school organizes a theatre production. It's an elaborate process with auditions starting in October and opening night kicking off in April. Kids from all schoolyears (except the first) are invited to audition and the ones that are eventually chosen are molded into an amazing group of actors at the end of the ride. Under guidance of our brilliant theatre teacher and, our equally brilliant, activity coordinator these kids come up with their completely own production: from plot, to dialogue, to set and costumes, there is nothing that they are not involved in.  Although I have only been able to see this production twice (three years ago it was cancelled due to the pandemic) I can honestly say that it is the very best part of our school. Why? Because it shows what our students are capable of if only they are given the chance to show it. Throughout this process twenty something kids, of all ages, backgrounds and 'levels', become a tightly-knit group united through a

 In recent years (secondary) education has become more and more about meeting the individual needs of every student. Everyone who is anyone seems to believe that what we, as schools, need is a bigger focus on the autonomy of the learners. They need to become more independent, they need to be able to choose what and how they want to learn and these needs are supposed to be the centre of a school's universe.  But, how realistic is this? You see, I am a firm believer of the fact that students should be allowed choice and that we should teach them to be independent. But can we truly expect an eleven year old to make well informed choices about their own education? If we give them a choice between English or pimping sneakers or debate club, can we really assume that their initial choice is the one they will be most happy with? Isn't it insane to offer students choice after choice after choice while we, as adults, often sigh and groan about the huge amount of responsibilities we have