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Alternative Schools Abandoning Structure, Curriculum and Teachers

Posted on: Monday, 10 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

By JAMES KELLER

HALIFAX (CP) - There are no classes at Fairfield School, housed in a three-storey farmhouse in the heart of a small Nova Scotia town. There are no certified teachers, no grades and no required curriculum, either.

Instead, students at the park-like campus in Wolfville decide what they're interested in learning and how they want to be taught.

If they want to learn Japanese instead of crunching integers, or if younger children would rather play with Lego than learn how to read, that's up to them.

The school is one of several dozen around the world - and three in Canada - following the principles of the Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Mass.

The philosophy is simple: children are naturally curious and will take the initiative to learn if given the chance.

And experts say this alternative model, which is regaining popularity, can benefit students.

"Within the traditional school model, children are being told what's important, when to study, and they're being evaluated continuously," says John Grant, who has enrolled four of his five children in Fairfield since it opened in 2002 and is now an adjunct staff member.

"What we're hoping to produce are students who are innovative, interested and self-reliant."

Fairfield was the first Canadian school modelled after Sudbury Valley, followed by the Beach School in Toronto and the Indigo Sudbury Campus in Edmonton.

All have small student populations; from 13 in Wolfville to 30 in Edmonton. And students, between four and 19 years of age, aren't classified by grade level.

The schools are democratically run by staff and students, who vote on administrative issues such as hiring. The staff at Fairfield range in backgrounds, from a nurse to a playwright to a folk musician.

While this arrangement means students may not study topics central to the regular education system, Grant says that's not a bad thing.

"While they may be missing specific subjects, they are not missing the things that are important to them or to their choices in life," says Grant.

Robert Berard, head of the teacher education department at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, says some students may even be better off in such a setting.

"The students who come out of such schools usually perform at or above the level of their counterparts in public schools," says Berard.

He says the students often come from "culturally advantaged families" where independent learning is encouraged.

Berard likens these types of schools to homeschooling, where parents are free to craft their own curriculum.

Peter McLaughlin of Nova Scotia's Department of Education says schools such as Fairfield can operate as long as parents and students are satisfied.

"We won't stand in the way of the parents' right to choose," says McLaughlin. But he points out that, since the schools aren't provincially regulated, students won't receive high school diplomas.

Older students who attend Fairfield for at least three years can apply to graduate by writing an essay on what they've accomplished and what their goals are. A vote by the school determines whether the essay qualifies the student for graduation.

Grant admits not having a diploma could make it more difficult for students applying to college or university, but he says there are options such as writing the GED high school equivalency test or applying as a mature student.

As the schools are new in Canada, no Sudbury Valley graduates in this country have yet to try.

Michele Dextras, head of admissions at the University of Ottawa, says students would be better off finding universities that have home-school policies.

"The GED isn't going to get them in," says Dextras.

"What we ask from them is that we have some kind of independent evaluation of their knowledge, and we look at them on a one-on-one basis. What we need to know is: do they have to potential to be able to succeed?"

"In last 25 years, students who are home-schooled are finding greater and greater acceptance into universities," says Berard.

And that may continue as more students abandon the traditional school system to opt for similar alternative schools.

"It seems to be coming back," says Berard.

"(Alternative schools) became very popular in the 1970s. Many of them closed and went out of business, and then you got a rise of more traditional or conservative alternative schools. This may be experiencing a cyclical revival."

Source: Canadian Press

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