In Parcells Middle School social studies students in grades seven and eight select a six-weeks course of study from the slate of classes available out of the forty developed around the areas of geography and United States history. Development of these units is based on the following principles: an open-ended, self renewing curriculum; the rights of youth in education; the legitimacy of different learning techniques for different children; the importance of making learned skills adaptive; the responsibility of schools in attitude formation; relieving teachers of the burden of having all the answers; and nongraded education. The elective program allows for selection of a particular course or an independent study as well as of a particular learning plan within the course consisting of a variety of learning activities in each plan. The program requires new uses of old space, a flexibility of programing that allows teachers to work alone, as teams, or as resource personnel, students contracting for the completion of courses, teachers acting as resource or planning agents, and a well-equipped multimaterials resource center complementing the move away from a one textbook format. (JH)