I love this image of students at work in our Nature Play Yard. No adult gave instruction or direction. The kids simply created, voiced, and enacted a plan with each other. This is Student Agency in action.
Student Agency requires challenging skills, skills that we do not often let students practice in traditional educational settings. "What do I want to do?" It seems that making choices should be easy, and yet students are regularly not given opportunities to make their own choices. For some students, choosing is easy. But for others, following is easier. If we want young adults to make effective choices, we must let them practice when they are children rather than always directing their activities.
Agency requires voice. "Can I tell the others what my choice is?" Some students wanted a slide, some wanted a house. Some students wanted poles on the ground, others wanted them attached to the fence. Students must be able to tell others what they want; then they must be able to work together. They develop the speaking and listening skills necessary for communication needed to live and work in community.
"Can we make our vision come to life?" I love these images of student enacting their plans, finding out what didn't work and fixing it, using different tools, working as a community. Ultimately, we want our children to enact their dreams, to make their life visions come to life. They need time and space, as well as our trust and faith in their abilities, to practice and develop these important skills of agency.