 Classroom teaching was largely modeled on John Dewey's beliefs in learning by doing and relating the school to the community outside the school and, furthermore, making the school the center of the community.Lectures and tests based on student feeding the lectures back to the teacher were bypassed for hands-on projects, panel discussions, research projects and experiences outside the school.Normandy High was a so-called "lighthouse" school, with its programs the subject of numerous articles in "The School Review" and other educators' publications and of panels at high-profile places such as the University of Chicago.