Alternative Schools

The first part of this presentation was on charter schools. Charter schools are innovative and "outside-of-the-box" teaching that usually centers around some type of theme or program, such as performing arts or math and sciences. It was very interesting going onto the different charter school websites and looking at the different information. I think that it would be interesting to teach at a charter school, and I really like the idea that students are the center of educational structuring and that there are less students per teacher than a normal public school; less student numbers allows for complete student-centered approaches toward topics, and the faculty being able to do things that might not be able to get done in a public school. I could see there being funding issues as well as difficulties in students transferring or moving to other school districts from one of these schools.

Another type of alternative school is religious schools. This was much more common in the early part of the 1900's, when religion was a steadfast part of education and was a vital part of the curriculum. One religious school in Maine is Catherine McAuley High School, which is a Catholic school.

Another type of alternative schools are Expeditionary Learning Schools- Outward Bound. These schools focus on smaller school settings, goal setting, and looping in grades 9 and 10. One of these schools is Casco Bay High School in Portland, Maine.

Another school that Katie Rose talked about was the Summer Hill school, which is an independent holistic private boarding school in England. Basically, it is a completely democratic society where the students are allowed to do how they choose and be completely free as long as their actions do not harm anyone else's rights. They have laws that protect the rights of the other people around them; they are not even required to attend lessons. The students who graduated from the school are usually very independent and free thinking.