![\"The](\"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/files\/2020\/08\/CC-BUL-Summer2020-19-BlockPlanBook-213x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThe Block Plan: An Unrehearsed Educational Venture\u201d is a meticulously researched historical book that follows the emergence of the idea, its adoption, implementation, and evaluation. Ashley, whose research typically is concerned with the end of the 19th- and early 20th-century, interviewed faculty members who helped develop the Block Plan. Additionally, she delved into oral histories, meeting minutes, and other records. Two students, Isaac Rubinstein \u201918<\/strong> and Benedict Wright \u201920<\/strong>, both history-philosophy majors, provided research assistance.<\/p>\n \u201cStructurally, the plan settled into a rigid orthodoxy that I don\u2019t think the architects anticipated, nor do I think they would have embraced. However, there\u2019s been an exceptional degree of creativity in terms of the content of the curriculum. And, I don\u2019t think they could have imagined how much the Block Plan would promote innovative teaching,\u201d says Ashley.<\/p>\n Hayward says the podcast takes listeners into the formative time of the late 1960s. Among audio gems are excerpts of previously \u201clost tapes\u201d where Brooks describes the nascent plan to colleagues. The second book, \u201cThe Block Plan in Nine Questions,\u201d he says is a non-academic version. The Hayward\/Ashley collaboration features graphics and answers to common Block Plan-related questions.<\/p>\n Hayward and Los Angeles-based director Bryan Beasley co-directed the documentary, currently titled \u201cThe Block Plan.\u201d The film crew\u2019s alumni included Director of Photography Chauncey Crail \u201917<\/strong> and co-producer Jaime Roman \u201913<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Meredith Mantik \u201911<\/strong> is the film\u2019s editor and shares a co-writing credit with Hayward and Beasley. For more than two years, she\u2019s been sifting through copious footage and working collaboratively on the film. In addition to covering the history, it follows three students and former Provost Alan Townsend through a year of life on CC\u2019s Block Plan.<\/p>\n \u201cMy job as an editor is to make sure that the story works and that the themes resonate. There are lots of parallels between filmmaking and working on the Block Plan: you\u2019re working in a group often in a high-pressure environment. Studying film, English, and philosophy at CC gave me the tools to create cinematic stories like \u2018The Block Plan,\u2019\u201d says Mantik.<\/p>\n Beasley enjoyed meeting some of the educational system revolutionaries who forged the Block Plan.<\/p>\n \u201cThe original kernel of the idea started at Murphy\u2019s Bar over a beer. We have Steven interviewing all three of them in the booth where it originated. This is the first time I\u2019ve co-directed a piece, so it\u2019s been a learning experience. I\u2019ve learned more on this project than I have on any other projects in quite a while,\u201d Beasley says.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/files\/2020\/08\/CC-BUL-Summer2020-COVER1-50YearGraphic-300x300.jpg\")
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