Continuation of Unit Concepts

I like the idea of overarching concepts. It reminds of a book by Neil Postman I read years ago, I can't recall the name off hand, but he wrote about the vacination theory of education, you know once you took American lit, you were vacinated against it and never had to take it again. Unlike life we compartmentalize subjects in school, and thus do students a great disservice as far as guiding them to think of large concepts, and interconnectedness. When we can make connections between, say, science and history and then see the connection to literature we begin to open up to broader perspectives. Iwould like to see projets where students explored a theme ,say, identity and researched the idea across the spectrum of science, history, and literature to search for meaning. don't think it's going to happen, but isn't one of the goals of education to give students tools to make these kinds of connections and begin to expand their horizons and solve porblems, or is it just to pass multiple choice tests? Sorry, I got on my badwagon for a minute. I think the biggest education hoax around today is the emphasis on standarized testing. we are not educating people, we are training them to circle A,B, or C.
Units I would use are:
Identity: Coming to Know One's Self through Literature (2002) - Shawn Pate
Recognizing and Resolving Problems: Connecting Students to their World (2006)- Helene Halstead
Should I Take a Stand - Amanda Tyndall

Unit Concepts

To what extent should students choose what they learn about and choose the form in which they represent their learning?
I think that a good deal would depend on the age of the child. Obviously elementary school age children need to learn the basics, but as children mature and reach high school age, I believe they should have some control over their intake of knowledge.Students learn at different rates, and have different learning styles. One student may not be a ble to grasp a concept in Physics when presented in a lecture, but by building a skate board ramp and working out formulas for maximum dynamics, the concepts of time/ motion become clear. I am a visual learner, I need to see something in order to tryly understand it. If a student wants to produce a play about the civil war , who's to say they won't learn as much or more as if they read some dry historical text. When students get to college, and then the "real" world they are able to choose their interests and the method in which they want to learn more about those interests, likewise students should be given a certain amount of freedom to make their own choices. Of course with such a structured curriculum now, I think this could pose some problems, but I have seen it done by creative teachers and students.
to be continued!