I went to Ben Franklin High School today. Ben Franklin is one of "those schools." One of the ones that people talk about when they talk about "those failing public schools." And it’s true if you only look at numbers. Ben Franklin hasn’t made AYP yet, and with the way the law is written, it might be a while until they do. And therein lies the problem, if you are only looking at the numbers, you’re missing the rest of the story.

Ben Franklin is led by Chris Johnson, and he’s in his second year there. He’s fighting fifteen battles at once, and he’s winning a lot of them. He wants to be a neighborhood school. He wants to teach the kids that don’t get into Central and Masterman, and in a painfully honest moment, SLA. He’s got 1000 kids in that school, and he knows every single name and every single story. And he’ll tell you every chance he gets that he’s got great kids — and he’s right.

I was lucky enough to spend most of my day with him today, and it was rejuvinating to be back in a school. My lunch was in the Ben Franklin Cafe today. It’s the centerpiece of the Culinary Institute that he’s running there as a small learning community, and all the food was prepared and served by the students. I met the head chef, a young man named Stephen, and I am sure he’ll own his own restaurant some day. I sampled cranberry fudge, had some amazing ham and chicken, had lovely vegetables and some unreal peach cobbler. It really was a lunch that rivaled (and beat) the meals I’ve had at top restaurants. Chris and I talked about their plans to expand the program (and the restaurant) and open up the cafe to the outside. The program could pay for itself because people would come and eat there — I know I plan to come back.

This program should be celebrated. The Philadelphia papers should be there. The food critic for the Inquirer should write-up the restaurant. The TV stations should be asking the kids about their stories and their plans. And Chris has built relationships with the local culinary institutes and restaurants so the kids who want to continue this work can. The program is a success, you can feel it, and yet, all folks seem to know about Ben Franklin is that it is one of "those schools." And again, it is so much more than that.

And what’s even more amazing is that the whole program is run through the kids’ elective classes. What could happen if the teachers in the program had the freedom to craft curriculum around the culinary focus of the institute? Would the kids love reading Like Water for Chocolate? Could a math teacher design a math curriculum around the math of cooking? We know that 100 years ago, John Dewey developed an entire science curriculum around cooking at the Lab School.

What these kids are doing in creating these meals is a fantastic way to learn basic chemistry. And how much more willing would they be to dig into the advanced topics once they saw how much they related to their passion for the culinary arts?

And let’s ground this in pedagogy — creating recipies, creating meals… inquiry-based, hands-on, project-based. Interdisiplinary. And grounded in the passion and energy of the kids and teachers involved. And again, it shows in the way the teachers and kids interact.

These kids can learn — do learn — are learning. And they are doing it through something that can see, smell and touch (and eat.) And these are the stories that don’t get told by a single number on the standardized tests. In a year and a half of innovation, Chris has attendance up and incidents at the school are way down. The kids I met today were respectful, articulate and interesting kids who want to learn. And it’s clear that these kids love Chris and feel loved by him. Does he have more to do? Of course. All the literature says it takes seven years to change the culture of a school, and he’s a year and a half into his tenure there. I’d say he’s ahead of schedule.