High School II

The way of thinking and methods at Central Park East Secondary School, a pilot school in the Spanish Harlem district of New York which obtains excellent results in terms of university entrance. The film presents both the educational curriculum (lessons, debates on ethical and social subjects) and the school’s functioning (individual tutoring of pupils, how conflicts are managed, parent-teacher meetings). It shows the pupils learning how to learn, to think, to collaborate with their classmates in order to develop a critical approach to complex present-day problems, how to assume their individual responsibilities and practise tolerance.