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Alternative Schools in Jeopardy
Thu Jan 14, 2010 Miss Vicky
Readers may recall the the callout to support Ottawa's Alternative Schools. Well, the review is out and the recommendations are not favourable. Miss Vicky received the following open letter to Trustees from reader Sara this week. Thanks for sending this along, Sara! I hope others are writing as well.
_________________________
I spent a couple of hours in my sons class today at Churchill Alternative. Do you want to know what we were doing? Woodworking! All the students had planned out a woodworking project and were busy on their lunch hour hammering and sawing in a classroom bubbling with excitement and activity. Angles were being measured, math equations figured out and the laws of physics put into question as they built their artistic creations. You might think that this was a special day but I assure you that it was not, this was just another day in my son's 3-4 class at Churchill Alternative.
We specifically chose the Alternative Stream after starting our son's education at Elmdale where he was floundering in a classroom that had no room for children that did not fit the standard mold. "Non-compliant" is how the principal at the time described him - this was junior kindergarten. We knew that we wanted to find a place where T. could learn on his terms in a supported environment where we were able to be a part of his educational path. I can assure you of one thing, the standard stream and the alternative stream ARE NOT THE SAME. At Elmdale, I am sorry to say, there are no best practices, only a school struggling to stick within the norm and foster children that do not rock the boat.
I know that the recommendations that have been put forth by the school board indicate a need to "increase the focus of parental involvement" in the standard stream and that this is all that is needed to bring the standard stream up to the level of the Alternative Program. I assure you that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that these people could never have set foot in my son's school if they think that this is the difference. How is the Alternative Program different? Here are some things that stand out in my mind....
Poetry Pancake Breakfast - the past two years my son's teacher has organized a poetry showcase where the children read poems that they had created during the term. The teacher and parents brought in tasty pancakes for the kids to share with their friends, smaller siblings mingled with the kids reading their poems. The kids were responsible for cleaning up after the event.
Community Classrooms - this year my son's teacher has a central chore chart where all kids in the class are assigned a weekly chore: sweeping, taking out the compost, sharpening pencils, etc. This makes the kids feel like they are a part of the class and instills in them a deep sense of responsibility at a very early age. When matters of contention come up the students discuss and then vote on how they think the matter should be dealt with. They are responsible for publishing a monthly newsletter that is written by all the kids.
Reading Mornings - last year between 8:00 and 8:20 my son's class would have reading time in the classroom to allow the kids time to settle in, ANY and ALL parents were invited to come up to the class during this time to read with the kids. I often found myself reading with other kids in the class while other parents would buddy up with my son. Such a casual and intimate way to share a book with an emerging reader.
Free Flowing Learning Styles - my son writes best on the floor, sounds crazy but that is how he thinks best. In the classes at Churchill there are many options for how the kids would like to work, on the carpet, kneeling at a lower desk or even standing at taller desks in the older grades.
Student Led Conferences - Every term we get to spend a couple of hours in my son's class with him showing us all the the work that he as accomplished that term. Featuring what items he is proud of, and which he needs to work better on. Objectively, not because of a GRADE that he has received but because he is being critical of his own work and wants to show it off.
Stone Soup with Reading Buddies - in Kindergarten my son got to take part in a Stone Soup (I am sure that you know the book!) sharing with their Reading Buddies in grade 6. Each child got to bring in a vegetable from home, parent volunteers were tasked with chopping up the veggies and then cooking the soup for the Kindergartners to share with their buddies.
These are just a few small, extraordinary occurrences that happen EVERY DAY at Churchill. Of course there is the obvious that has been brought to your attention a hundred times over - the multi-age groupings, cooperative and non competitive learning, anecdotal reporting, student-centered and child-directed learning, family-centered school environment and the shared teaching responsibility - but I though that you might like to know some of the best practices BEHIND the marketing speak that is so easy to gloss over.
As of today, I will be honest and say that I feel very discouraged, this review has been conducted in a matter of fact, mind already made up kind of way that really never had any intention of getting to the nuts and bolts of the Alternative Program. I am not a militant granola cruncher but just a stay at home mum who has found a school where her child is thriving. I am asking you to be PROGRESSIVE and take a chance, the Alternative Schools are FANTASTIC laboratories that are expanding the minds of tomorrow in ways that the standard stream can only dream of. I am hoping that you will have the courage to take the risk, you won't regret it.
Some people were moved to reply
My son goes to Riverview Alternative and i'm devastated this choice is being taken away from ottawa families. I'm from Toronto where the school board just approved the expansion of the alternative system. I also understand Edmonton and Vancouver are doing the same. My son goes to a school that strives hard to instile compassion, kindness, social justice values (today we collected a loonie for Haiti) and much more. My son goes to a "community school" that is paid by my tax dollars. My son loves school, i wish i had when i attended primary school in this city. I'm supporting ASAC (THE ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL) proposal over the "Staff Report". If you think this is an assault on choice, on justice and on the publically funded system join our cause whether you have kid's or not, whether you kid's attend alternative school or not. Acceptance is much more powerful than discrimination and i hope my son learns that.
Is there any data on the cost per child of these schools versus regular public schools?
Honestly speaking, most of the examples given above that are supposed to be unique to these schools, are things which our kids learn/do just as well at Connaught Public School. I'm not sure what Elmdale is like, but it sounds like it is nothing at all like Connaught.
[Edited By amckay Jan 16, 2010 09:02 AM]
OK, the article linked says they are more expensive to the tune of $350,000 which does not seem like much if you consider it "per child". Then again, I don't really trust a reporter's ability to report this. But just the same, if someone is going to trumpet about their tax dollars in this matter as per above, they would seem to me to be on pretty shaky footing.
I do have to point out how hilarious I find the notion of a special school for teaching the ideals of social-justice (playing off of Patty's quote above). A school that only a very small number of kids get to attend, which teaches special things that don't get taught to anyone else at "regular" school. And then labeling this "Socialism". Oi! Is this not obvious to everyone that this is not Socialism in the least little bit - it is elitism?
If you want to teach your kids socialist values, send them to regular public school with everyone else's kids, and make the best of it / work to improve it it like the rest of us. I can assure you that at my kids' public school, they go to great lengths to instill compassion, kindness, and social justice values. But the social justice they learn is the real variety, not the special variety that is reserved for just a few elite students.
And before laying into me, please go ahead and double-check the definition of 'socialism'. Here is another good one.
Oh, and my kids absolutely love school, too.
Just for the record, the alternative stream is part of the "regular public school" stream but is targeted at children who learn differently than the norm and offers parents options to be a larger part of their childrens schooling. I am happy that your children are thriving where they are currently being schooled - that is the whole point.
Yes, I realise this. I actually know a fair bit about the alternative schools because we came very close to sending our kids to the one in Westboro. And we know people there as well - it is a great system. And if the delta in cost really is as little as noted above, it really does not seem to make sense to close them down. But lobbying for support for your school in one sentence, while slagging everyone else's school in the next, probably is not the best approach, really.
In the end, we chose the school next door for a number of reasons. Here's a good one that might actually be a good project for the alternative schools : have the kids compute the amount of greenhouse gas produced by shipping kids halfway across the city to go to school, when there is a perfectly good school right next door.
Another reason is that I believe as I wrote about in my blog that schools are the center of our communities, and when we ship kids across the city because the grass grows greener over there, we help destroy our communities. There is a good lesson in social justice for you.
It just pains me to see such disparaging comments being made about the regular public school system. I'm actually glad we went the route of the regular public system because I used to also harbour such misguided opinions of it, as the ones I see above. Like the idea they somehow do not teach compassion and social justice.
You have my support in principle, but please come down out of the ivory towers for goodness sakes. Here is another good lesson in social justice that I get to teach my kids at our school : I get to explain to them that half the kids they invited to their birthday party refused the invitation not because they do not like my child, but rather, because their parents are so poor that they cannot afford to buy simple birthday presents. The parents are in the extremely unenviable position of telling their children to turn down all birthday invitations. I get to explain this twice a year, once to each child. At least I am thankful I am not that other parent doing the explaining to their kids.
[Edited By amckay Jan 18, 2010 06:38 PM]
BTW, I would guess that most of you already know about this event with Alfie Kohn. But just the same - for anyone who wants to learn more about alternative school systems.
you're way ahead of me - will be posting notice this week!
I'm really upset about the alternative school review as well, since I think the emphasis on learning rather than report cards is something the whole school system should adopt in the primary grades. However, as the parent of a child at a "regular" french immersion school I do get tired of my child's school being put down when people talk about how great the alternative schools are. Many of the things mentioned above - loonie drives, reading buddies, etc. exist at the "regular" public schools as well!
Sing it cancat! And in case anyone missed my point on my last comments on my 2nd last item - it is simply that at our school we don't need to study social justice like it were some kind of lab rat - we live the cold, hard reality of it every single day, and that is something that can never be taught in a classroom.
Anyway, the reason I came in now is to ask if anyone went to the meeting last night. A good buddy of mine has his kids in Westboro Alternative was there and said it went extremely well and his gut feeling was that there was no way anything would be shut down based on that. One example he gave was there was someone speaking who put some numbers out that the $350,000 in question amounts to 10 students, and that surveys show the public system would lose some 50 students to private schools if the public alternatives were closed down. So it is actually a money-losing venture.
Makes very little sense.
Ever since the alternative stream was implemented, way back in the early 1980s (and yes, we had a child attending then, as well as one who graduated Summit in 2008), alternative schools have been plagued by spurious charges of "elitism."
We didn't have to learn any special super secret handshake to get our kids into Lady Evelyn -- we just walked into the office and enrolled them, same as we would have at any other school. Charges of elitism are simply ill-informed and baseless.
As to whether alternative methods have now disseminated throughout the system, I can tell you that we enrolled our daughter at Lady E. in 2003 specifically to get her out of a school whose pedagogical and disciplinary approaches were simply not a good fit for her. After we moved her, she went from being a timid, mediocre student with mild to moderate learning disabilities, who thought of herself as a failure, to a confident, competent student who no longer needs accommodations for her disabilities, loves school, and feels she can succeed at anything she tries. She won overall Gold at the 2008 Ottawa Regional Science Fair, and went on to win honourable mention at the Canada-Wide Science Fair a couple of months later. If you ask her how she managed to turn her academic career around so completely, she'll tell you: three years at Lady Evelyn, and two years at Summit. Period.
I should mention that her last teacher at her old school begged us not to move her to Lady Evelyn, saying the program encouraged "lawlessness and dancing on the desks." Mmm, not so much.
I've found that when you give kids respect, you get respect in return. This attitude is integral to the alternative program, and I think it accounts for some of the exceptional results they've achieved with a wide spectrum of students.
While other schools in the system may embody the same attitudes and ideals, it's much more of a hit-and-miss situation. And frankly, not all families are suited to the alternative approach. Some may not be comfortable with the idea of trusting that children learn at their own pace; others like the reassurance of marks on report cards; still others may feel that their children learn best in a more traditional, structured environment. That's all fine, and as it should be.
Over the past three decades, I've watched as our city's educational options are chipped away, a bit at a time. I was delighted with the reversal of the decision to close Rideau High School last month, and I strongly support maintaining the alternative stream over the next few weeks.
Our kids need more educational choices, not fewer.
Just for the record, my "elitism" comment was based solely on what was written in this thread, and taking those words to their logical conclusion. It is not a general attitude I have towards alternative schools. In fact as already mentioned, I know several families at these schools and that is the furthest thought from my mind regarding them.
As far as choice goes, more choice is not necessarily a good thing. It reminds me of when the Berlin Wall fell and they were interviewing East Germans crossing back and forth. They asked one old woman what she thought when coming back. She said very calmly "They have 50 kinds of sausage over there. (pregnant pause) What the HELL do you need 50 kinds of sausage for?"
Now that having been said, I do think that alternative / mainstream should be a choice. I do not think that public / catholic should be a choice.
I'm sorry if I misunderstood your position on "elitism" in the alternative stream. As I say, the program has battled that kind of nonsense from its earliest days, so it's a bit of a sore point.
And I agree that unlimited educational choice just isn't feasible -- but different kids learn differently, and my kids' experience bears this out.
As for the public/Catholic choice, I understand the historical roots, but I agree, it's ridiculous to fracture educational options along religious lines.
Living with our four young kids rurally in the most southwest corner of the city of Ottawa I admit to being envious of the opportunity that alternative schools present to kids living closer to the city core. Living in the country means fewer schooling choices, which we recognize is a trade-off for other benefits. I think having 'choices' is the biggest benefit of all, for everyone involved. It rubs me the wrong way that making a schooling choice that is right for your children/family is a competitive sport that can place people in one camp or another, pitted against one another. There is no 'perfect' and I agree that getting involved in one's school can be very valuable. But I am also concerned that so little energy/resources are being spent in the public/Catholic boards on the higher-achieving kids or those who don't fit the standard mold in a positive way or could benefit from an 'alternative' way of presenting materials or holistic learning experiences. Any discussion of socialism needs to include those who are at the 'top' as well as those that are at the 'bottom'. The phrase "each according to his/her needs" comes to mind. Our kids are in the Catholic Board because we are Catholic and there are many things I like and many things I don't. We homeschooled some of our kids for a while - and and are set to do it part-time again - because the fit wasn't there with the system. If we were closer to the city we would definitely be part of the alternative schooling system.