In the late 1980s, the labor leader Albert Shanker first articulated his vision of autonomous, teacher-formed "charter" schools. He lamented what he saw as a "lockstep" approach to K-12 education across the country that neglected the input of classroom teachers and failed to take into account students' individual needs. Now, the New York City affiliate that the late American Federation of Teachers chief once headed is picking up on his ideas in a spare wing of a junior high school. The United Federation of Teachers has started it's very own charter school in a rough-and-tumble Brooklyn neighborhood.