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ALPHA Alter­na­tive School—A Lot of Parents Hoping for an Alternative—one of the oldest alternative schools in Canada, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2012. It seemed like a good time to take a look at the lives of some of its earliest students in order to get a sense of the long-term effects of this radical experiment in education. Our idea was to place black and white childhood portraits taken by F. Robert Openshaw in 1978 alongside present-day portraits of the same people taken at ALPHA during the 40th anniversary reunion by Michael Barker, and to contextualize the photographs with portraits in words contributed by the subjects and shaped by Ariel Fielding. The result is a sort of ethnographic art project or a personal history. It was not commissioned by ALPHA, nor was it conceived with any particular agenda in mind, except to present portraits of some interesting people with a common educational background.

ALPHA Alter­na­tive School—A Lot of Parents Hoping for an Alternative—one of the oldest alternative schools in Canada, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2012. It seemed like a good time to take a look at the lives of some of its earliest students in order to get a sense of the long-term effects of this radical experiment in education. Our idea was to place black and white childhood portraits taken by F. Robert Openshaw in 1978 alongside present-day portraits of the same people taken at ALPHA during the 40th anniversary reunion by Michael Barker, and to contextualize the photographs with portraits in words contributed by the subjects and shaped by Ariel Fielding. The result is a sort of ethnographic art project or a personal history. It was not commissioned by ALPHA, nor was it conceived with any particular agenda in mind, except to present portraits of some interesting people with a common educational background.

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ALPHA

ALTERNATIVE

SCHOOL

1972/2012





ALPHA

ALTERNATIVE

SCHOOL

1972/2012

Colour pho tos by Michael Barker

Text and Inter views by Ariel Field ing

Black and white pho tos by F. Robert Open shaw

Notes from the Field, 2020

previous spread: Alpha Alter na tive School (circa 1979), Pho tog ra pher unknown


Copyright ©2020 by Ariel Fielding and Michael Barker.

Black and white photography ©F. Robert Open shaw.

The authors gratefully acknowledge permissions granted

to reproduce the copyright material in this book. Every

effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to

obtain their permission for the use of copyright material.

The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions

in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any

corrections that should be incorporated in future editions

of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior

permission of the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-7770266-0-8

Published in Canada in 2020 by:

Notes from the Field

664 St. Clarens Ave.

Toronto, Ontario

M6H 3X1


Contents

1 Introduction

The Interviews

9 Lucy Falkner

13 Jennifer Ferrari

15 Flannery Fielding

21 Kether Graham

23 Morgan Jones-Phillips

29 Jamie Leonard

35 Maggie Marrelli

39 Stefan Lynch Strassfeld

43 Crawford Crocky Teasdale

Appendix

48 Image overview

51 Author Biographies

53 Acknowledgements


Introduction




facing page clockwise

from top-left:

Mock election, circa 1979.

L–R: Flannery, Emma,

Jamie, Melanie

Looking at something

really interesting, circa 1979.

L–R: Max, an ALPHA parent,

Justin, Michael, David,

Morgan.

Daily meeting, late 1970s.

L–R: back row: Tim, Stefan,

Jeremy, Susan, Jenny,

unknown baby, Elaina,

Emma, Maggie (edge of

photo).

L–R: front row: Amber,

Alice (behind Michael), Yaleh,

Joseph, unknown child,

Karen.

Dance party, circa 1979.

L–R: Chanel, Amber,

Jonathon, Elaina, Vincent,

Andrew, Jason, Flannery

Sugarbush, probably at

Horton’s Tree Farm, late

1970s or early 1980s.

Decorating wooden

sculptures they have carved

themselves, late 1970s.

L–R: Chanel, Flannery,

Marianne.

ALPHA Alter na tive School, one of the oldest alternative schools in

Canada, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2012. It seemed like a good time

to take a look at the lives of some of its earliest students in order to get

a sense of the long-term effects of this radical experiment in education.

ALPHA—A Lot of Parents Hoping for an Alternative—was unique in the

Toronto public school system when it was founded in 1972. It had none of

the usual paraphernalia of mainstream education: no homework, grades,

or tests. It was taken for granted that children do much of their learning

through play. Students explored their own interests organically, beginning

with something they wanted to learn about or something they wanted

to make or do, and enlisting the support of their teachers and friends in

finding the answers to their questions. In addition to daily one-on-one

or small-group lessons in reading, writing, math, and French, an ALPHA

student in the 1970s and early 1980s could learn to take photographs with

a pinhole camera she had built herself, then develop her pictures in an

onsite darkroom; build a kid-size wooden fort using saws, hammers, and

nails in a vast and muddy Adventure Playground; make stop-motion animated

films; construct and paint a schoolyard-sized snow sculpture of a

dragon; incubate an egg and raise the resulting chicken; write an original

musical and perform it for a rowdy and enthusiastic audience; buy and

care for tropical fish; research and write essays about art history; plan and

cook a meal for fifty people and offer it for sale at a lunchtime store; read

all the books in the school library; redesign a computer game, or any number

of other imaginative opportunities for learning.

A typical day at ALPHA in its first decade started with quiet work in the

mornings; students were separated into two broad groups by age. From

lunchtime onward, the entire school functioned as one community,

with older students serving as mentors and role models to younger ones.

Afternoons were taken up with special projects, field trips, playing inside

or outside, or walking to a local community center for swimming or gym,

followed by a collective cleanup of the school and an all-school meeting.

The daily meeting was led by two students on a rotating basis: a chairperson,

who moderated the discussion and ensured that those who had something

to say got a chance to speak, and a “separator” or “shutter-upper,”

who kept order. Meetings were where students raised and discussed issues

of importance to them, made announcements, or proposed and voted on

school rules. Children as young as four years old could learn to be active

participants in this democratic process. There was also a school judicial

system, the Committee, where students could address grievances against

other students (and, in theory, teachers) before a rotating jury of their

peers, empowered to determine guilt or innocence and impose

appropriate penalties.

1



Facing page:

Contact sheet of ALPHA

student portraits taken

by F. Robert Openshaw

in 1978.

As a cooperative organization, ALPHA depended on every parent volunteering

for regular shifts; this had the benefit of exposing students to adults

with a wide range of skills, from microbiology and mathematics to painting

and sculpture. Students called both parents and teachers by their first

names. While the school was not immune to problems common to schools

everywhere—bullying being one example—there was for the most part a

climate of openness, curiosity, respect, and acceptance that would have

been unusual in a traditional school at the time, and would be difficult to

find outside of a school like ALPHA even today, when many of the innovative

practices devised and developed by alternative schools have been

absorbed into the mainstream.

This project came about because of ALPHA’s 40th anniversary. Our idea

was to place black and white childhood portraits taken by F. Robert

Openshaw in 1978 alongside present-day portraits of the same people

taken at ALPHA during the 40th anniversary reunion by Michael Barker,

and to contextualize the photographs with portraits in words contributed

by the subjects and shaped by Ariel Fielding. Bob Openshaw, now based

in California, very kindly gave us permission to use his photographs. The

subjects self-selected. The result is a sort of ethnographic art project or a

personal history. It was not commissioned by ALPHA, nor was it conceived

with any particular agenda in mind, except to present portraits of some

interesting people with a common educational background.

ALPHA was a glorious countercultural experiment devised in an age of

hopeful ingenuity and driven by a desire for freedom. Remarkably, in spite

of the many changes that have taken place in the world since ALPHA’s

founding—and the ongoing unease of the larger culture with alternative

education—the school is still here, now nearly fifty years old, not just

surviving, but thriving.

3



The Interviews

5



7



Lucy Falkner

“We were given a language for

community accountability.

It’s not a language that is offered

or taught in mainstream

institutional settings.”

The most important and influential aspects of my experience of ALPHA

Alternative School were the egalitarian structure and democratic nature

of the policies and practices at the school, combined with a home upbringing

that gave me a voice and a valid and valued role in my society and

environment, and offered me lessons in being responsible and accountable

for my impact on those within it. Students of all ages were invited and

expected to be compassionate, thinking, engaged members of a community.

While I remember consequences (being called out in Committee, being

confronted by a teacher or another student about something I’d done),

I don’t remember punishment.

Lucy Falkner

ALPHA 1975 to 1978, ages

4–7. Stud ied dance. Owns

and operates a Vancouver

dance company, Rhythm City

Productions. Teaches dance.

There was a recognition of accountability to your community, not just

“if I don’t follow this rule, I’m going to be in trouble” but rather, “if I don’t

participate the way the community teaches me to participate, then I will

be accountable to my community.” I think that’s really important, and is

a big part of how ALPHA operated. I think things like Committee meetings

helped to create that kind of scenario. We were given a language for community

accountability. It’s not a language that is offered or taught in mainstream

institutional settings. In the dance community, I and the people

that I work with recognize that we’re part of a community that has collective

goals, and our individual goals may sometimes require being subverted

for the sake of the community goal. I’m really fortunate in that I’ve

contributed to creating an environment in which people are really happy

to make the community goals a priority.

I was raised primarily by my mum Judy Lynne, who worked at ALPHA,

and other women that we lived with in a communal home. Fairly early on

she had us making our own lunches, participating in household chores

like making dinners and cleaning up. I was responsible for creating some

of the good that occurred; it wasn’t just granted to me. One thing that my

mum always did when she was upset with me, she would say, ‘I don’t think

you’re a bad person, I’m just upset with what you did, I love you and you’re

not a bad person.’ That helped me recognize that I’d made a mistake or I’d

done something wrong, but I was okay—there was nothing wrong with me.

I think that really helped me not to get into an identity where I think some

kids can end up being chronically bad, because their identity becomes

9



that they’re a bad kid. So that was a thing that I really appreciated as a kid,

even though I as I got older I recognized that it was a tactic. I recognized

the value of what she was saying. I was called upon to answer for things.

My mum also really taught me to question authority, including hers. I would

argue with her about this or that limitation on my freedom, or this or that

requirement of me, and I would question and argue with other adults, and

they would engage with me. I wasn’t shut down—I was engaged in discussion.

That was also what went on at ALPHA. We all had a voice; it wasn’t just

that people over a certain height had a voice. And that kind of thing I think

necessarily teaches accountability, because you’re part of the discussion.

It’s not like at a mainstream school where things happen that are outside

your control, so you don’t have to answer for them when they don’t work.

If you’re participating in how things are run and in the decisions that are

made, then you have to recognize when those decisions have a result that

you don’t want so that you can change what you are doing.

After ALPHA I went to Centennial School in Ottawa, which was a “normal”

public school: large, impersonal, rows of desks, class bells, standing in the

morning to sing O Canada, calling adults by Mrs/Mr/Miss/Ms. Whatever.

My first day there, I spoke up a lot. I don’t remember if I asked questions

or just kept commenting on things, but at some point my teacher asked,

“Good heavens. Were you this talkative at your previous school?” I swiftly

got the message and clammed up. I do recall that I was significantly ahead

of most other students, to the extent that I was incredulous and impatient

when other students would be sounding out words and progressing painfully

slowly through the reading. One good aspect of this school was that it

was designated for both children with disabilities, and children with no discernable

disability. I credit this experience with enhancing my awareness

of the needs of people with disabilities and freeing me from the discomfort

many people feel around disability. From Ottawa we moved to Vancouver,

where I also went to a mainstream school. I had a couple of run-ins with my

grade 5 teacher (a man), whom I confronted for being sexist, racist, and/or

unfair or inappropriate to other students. I believe he came to grant me a

grudging and bemused respect.

I attended two Vancouver alternative secondary schools in the public

system: Ideal Mini School and Total Education. Ideal was the most like

what I remembered of the community of ALPHA. It was politically active

and community-driven. We had weekly full-school meetings at which

we would discuss coming events, policy, kitchen cleaning problems,

grounds use, and various school projects. We had a school banner, which

we would take on the annual peace march. The school had no bells and

no one expected to be called by their last name. Total Education was less

of a community, but teachers expected students to be responsible,

accountable, and compassionate.

After high school, I studied dance. I own, operate, and teach for a dance

company that is devoted to and inspired by vintage jazz music and

dance: swing-era solo and partner dance, such as Charleston and Lindy

Hop. I am a community leader and organizer, and I make fun things

happen for happy people who appreciate what I do and who love to help

out and contribute.

11



Jennifer Ferrari

“The democratic nature of ALPHA

influenced me one hundred percent.

It makes a huge difference to people

to feel included and have a sense

of ownership.”

jennifer ferrari

ALPHA 1973 to 1984, ages

4–14. Stud ied at Trent Uni versity.

Works as an Auto mo tive

Technician.

What was the most impor tant part of ALPHA for me? As a young per son,

being treated with respect by the teach ers. The way the school was set up

to have all stu dents, teach ers, and par ents take part in the run ning of the

school. Being included in hir ing teach ers, mak ing and chang ing the school

rules, all being respon si ble for clean ing and car ing for our school. That

no mat ter how young a stu dent was, we all deserved equal respect and say

in how the school oper ated. I learned to care about every phys i cal envi ronment

I am in, even if it is not my home; I still need to care for where I am.

I learned to care about all the peo ple I am with, no mat ter what age, no

mat ter what differ ences we have. Grow ing up with a sense of self respect

and inclu sion. And com ing out of school with less hope less ness than the

stu dents I met who went to reg u lar schools. We were encour aged to try

things, cre ate things. We were intro duced to chal leng ing projects above

our “grade lev els.” We were treated like we were smart.

I went to alter na tive high schools, then Trent Uni ver sity, where I completed

a three-year bachelor’s degree. I worked in a ware house for a bunch

of years and then went back to school to study auto mechan ics. I completed

four years of appren tice ship and achieved my offi cial cer ti fi ca tion

as an Auto mo tive Tech ni cian. I have also helped to get more women

included in the auto mo tive trade. We have three women work ing at my

garage, more than any auto mo tive garage that I know of anywhere.

The demo c ra tic nature of ALPHA influ enced me one hun dred per cent.

It makes a huge differ ence to peo ple to feel included and have a sense of

ownership.

Hav ing a com mu nity is the most impor tant thing in life. As the world gets

harder and harder and faster and faster, hav ing a com mu nity of peo ple to

rely on will be what saves us. Not hav ing stuff or a lot of money. I also really

care about what hap pens to our nat ural envi ron ment. I care about social

jus tice and the treat ment of young people.

I know that because of going to ALPHA, some of my hard skills, like math,

spelling, and essay writ ing are not as strong as other stu dents who went to

reg u lar school. But I would never trade the human skills I learned at ALPHA

and have car ried with me ever since. These are the skills that it is harder to

learn later, whereas the hard skills are way eas ier to acquire any time.

13



Flannery Fielding

“I always appreciated the

opportunity that ALPHA offered

for self-directed learning.”

I was already at ALPHA as a baby since my older sis ter was there and our

fam ily was a part of the com mu nity, but I still dis tinctly remem ber going

in with my mom to sign up to attend as a stu dent. Sit ting on a bench in the

main hall, it seemed so big.

flannery fielding

ALPHA 1977 to 1985, ages

4–11. Studied Nursing at

Ryerson University and

University of California, San

Francisco. Works as a Nurse

Practitioner in Palliative

Care. Creates art, sings, and

plays the ukelele.

I always appre ci ated the oppor tu nity that ALPHA offered for self-directed

learn ing. That trans lated into a lot of read ing for me. At home, I read

Nancy Drew, the Nar nia books, Madeleine L’Engle. At ALPHA, I read whatever

I could get my hands on. The book I remem ber best was some kind

of pic to r ial ency clo pe dia with pic tures of chil dren suffer ing from ter rible

dis eases of mal nu tri tion. There was a pho to graph of a kid with corneas

clouded and shiny blue that was awful and some how thrilling. The

down side of that free dom to do what I liked was less expo sure to math and

other sub jects, and I think that worked to rein force my sense that I wasn’t

good at math or French. Still, I have fond mem o ries of hang ing out in the

back cor ner of one of the big rooms on the third floor, a room the big kids

used for art—it had a loom and a pot tery wheel—lis ten ing to music on

an 8-track some one must have donated. I learned all the words to Kenny

Rogers’ The Gam bler, most of the songs on Break fast in Amer ica (Supertramp!)

and we played Michael Jackson’s Thriller album over and over

again on this lit tle turntable.

I think most kids at ALPHA had a sense of supe ri or ity about the free dom

we had—to learn, to play, to be our selves—although for me and my friends,

that even tu ally trans formed into a kind of dread about what we might be

miss ing, how hard it was going to be for us in the “real world.”

From ALPHA I went on to two differ ent alter na tive junior high schools

and then to a “reg u lar” high school, which was ter ri fy ing at first but turned

out to be eas ier to adapt to than I expected (although I never really got the

hang of home work.) Drama was the one sub ject in high school where I truly

felt at home. I seri ously con sid ered fol low ing my dad’s path into the atre

and even audi tioned for the National The atre School. After high school,

I worked in Toronto’s the atre com mu nity for a num ber of years as a performer,

tech ni cian, and gen eral par tic i pant in the scene. Through another

family connection I began travelling frequently to Central America,

volunteering with medical groups and studying Spanish.

15



“I think most kids at ALPHA had a sense

of superiority about the freedom we

had—to learn, to play, to be ourselves—

although for me and my friends, that

eventually transformed into a kind of

dread about what we might be missing,

how hard it was going to be for us

in the ‘real world.’”

I had to go back to get high school sci ence cred its when I decided to study

nurs ing, push ing past the lim i ta tions of what I thought I was good at (art

and lan guage) to dis cover new strengths and apti tudes. It was a rev e la tion

for me when I sat down to write papers on cholera and thalido mide (for OAC

Biology and OAC Chem istry, respec tively) and found myself com pletely

fas ci nated and inspired. I have been a nurse for ten years and I fin ished my

graduate studies at UC San Fran cisco to become a Nurse Prac ti tioner in 2011.

I work in the field of Pal lia tive Care tak ing care of peo ple who are deal ing

with seri ous ill ness or advanced dis ease and help ing to address phys i cal,

emo tional, and spir i tual aspects of illness.

The demo c ra tic struc ture that was built in to ALPHA had an enor mous

influ ence on my life. It is incred i bly empow er ing as a kid to have the level

of involve ment that ALPHA allowed and to have a sense of agency in your

life and in your com mu nity. I value the con nec tions that were cre ated at

ALPHA, the sense of com mu nity, and the sup port that existed between

kids, teach ers, par ents when I was there that con tin ues up to the present.

I’m not nec es sar ily in close touch with the peo ple I knew dur ing my time

at ALPHA, but there’s always a sense of just a few degrees of separation.

One of the things that I appre ci ated dur ing my years at ALPHA was the

sense of refuge it offered. I never knew what ter ri ble mood my father would

be in when I got home from school or when one of his fits of rage would

be directed my way, but I knew that I wouldn’t get yelled at while I was at

school. The worst that could hap pen would be to have Com mit tee called on

me if I did some thing bad or broke one of the kid-defined rules. Although

I don’t think it was some thing I was aware of on a con scious level at the

time, in ret ro spect I’m so grate ful for the safe space and pos i tive adult relation

ships that ALPHA pro vided.

17



19



Kether Graham (née Beaulieu-Urbanski)

“The democratic nature of ALPHA

likely influenced every aspect of

my life, but it is most apparent

in the way that I raise my children.

I was very quiet and shy. I remem ber actu ally hid ing behind my mother’s

skirt when I met new adults. ALPHA gave me a place where I could have

con fi dence in myself, where I knew that my opin ion counted for some thing

and that I would be lis tened to. It taught me that every one can have valid

ideas and points of view, no mat ter how big or small, young or old they

are. I find that even now as an adult I have to remind peo ple that chil dren

should be lis tened to and that bosses or other author ity fig ures are peo ple

too, and can be spo ken to as well as chal lenged when necessary.

KETHER GRAHAM

ALPHA 1975 to 1979 or 1980,

ages 4 – 9. Stud ied Law

Enforce ment at Seneca

Col lege, then Bak ing and

Pas try at George Brown.

Works for the City of Toronto.

After ALPHA I went to a reg u lar, main stream pub lic school until Grade 10

in high school. My grades started falling and my mother sug gested that

I return to the alter na tive school sys tem, because it had worked so well

before. I went City School and then on to SOLE and grad u ated. After that

I went to Seneca Col lege and grad u ated with high hon ours from the Law

Enforce ment pro gram. Later in life, I took a year’s leave of absence from

my job and went to George Brown Col lege and grad u ated with hon ours

from the Bak ing and Pas try program.

The demo c ra tic nature of ALPHA likely influ enced every aspect of my life,

but it is most appar ent in the way that I raise my chil dren. I’ve taught them

that if you aren’t happy with some thing in your life, then do your best to

change it.

My mem o ries include moun tains of hum mus at potluck events, danc ing to

Grease on the stage, mak ing things at the craft table, being in charge of the

big wooden blocks for the day, scary story time, kiss ing tag, giant tires in the

play ground, spur of the moment field trips, tak ing the street car to school

with our teacher Susan and bunches of kids from the neigh bour hood after

the school moved across town from its orig i nal loca tion, call ing com mit tee,

weekly meet ings, most of all being a kid, being happy and hav ing fun.

21



Morgan Jones-Phillips

“It wasn’t just kids running around

screaming and breaking things,

it was kids making the school into

what they wanted it to be.”

Morgan jones phillips

ALPHA 1975 to 1981, ages 4 – 9.

Stud ied Lan guages and

Lin guis tics at York Uni ver sity,

French as a Sec ond

Lan guage at Uni ver sité du

Québec à Trois Riv ières,

and Para medics at

Cen ten nial Col lege. Works

as a Para medic. Does

stand-up comedy.

ALPHA was a free school, which appar ently was quite differ ent for the

time, but as a kid it felt nor mal to me. I took for granted that it was different

from any where else or that there was any thing unusual to be aware of.

My under stand ing of what made it differ ent was a per ceived lack of for mal

struc ture. I don’t remem ber ever hav ing to do any thing. This may sound

like com plete chaos; cer tainly if you let the kids in a reg u lar school plan

their day, it would be chaos, but I think that because that was our nor mal,

we cre ated our own day. We, as stu dents, took it upon our selves to cre ate

the struc ture that wasn’t being imposed on us. We didn’t cre ate chaos to

rebel against the estab lished struc ture; we cre ated a struc ture where there

wasn’t one. If the struc ture that was being estab lished by one kid wasn’t

one that inter ested you, you fit into some one else’s, or if no one was cre ating

the day you wanted, you could cre ate your own and let oth ers join you.

It wasn’t just kids run ning around scream ing and break ing things, it was

kids mak ing the school into what they wanted it to be.

I remem ber play ing a lot of tag and being a pretty fast run ner. I remem ber

being able to fit inside the giant tires in the play ground. I remem ber acting

out Grease after school. I remem ber going to the park across the street.

I was there with some one and we found a patch of four-leaf-clovers. We

picked a shop ping bag full and brought them back to Alpha and some one

older than me didn’t believe me and said, “I used to do that trick when

I was a kid.” I remem ber wait ing for the street car to go home and going

to Bill’s Restau rant and order ing a glass of water and some crack ers for

free while we waited. I remem ber a giant air tight wooden box and tak ing

turns lock ing each other in it and tim ing how long until we asked to come

out. I remem ber we stopped after a kid passed out and couldn’t alert us

that he was ready to exit—to my knowl edge, no one ever died. I remember

an elec tion where every one chose a polit i cal party. I ran as NDP, which

was kind of a no-brainer. I made signs and thought my cam paign slo gan,

“Fill-up, with bet ter gas prices” was pretty clever, but it didn’t work on a

poster: it was purely word play with my last name, Phillips. The fact that

a school elec tion was using gas prices in a cam paign was lost on me. Given

the demo c ra tic nature of the school, I doubt that any power was wielded

by the win ner, if there was a winner.

23



There were so many oppor tu ni ties to orga nize things that inter ested

you that it gave me a fun da men tal feel ing that if I wanted some thing to

hap pen, I should just make it happen. I defi nitely came away with out

a fear of author ity figures.

I think my Dad grew tired of dri ving me across the city, and I switched to

my local school for grade 4. I did well in the rest of ele men tary school.

I tested above grade level in every thing but math. I’m actu ally quite good

in math now. I didn’t fin ish high school. I was a few cred its short and

didn’t want to con tinue after grade 13; it felt like enough school ing at the

time. I went to York Uni ver sity as a mature stu dent for one year to study

lan guages and lin guis tics. After my first year, I thought it would be more

ful fill ing to con tinue the same line of study, but in French, so I trans ferred

to Uni ver sité du Québec à Trois Riv ières. I didn’t speak French, but fig ured

an immer sion pro gram would fix that pretty quick. I worked as an actor,

drama teacher, and direc tor for many years until 1999 when I decided

to become a para medic and went back to col lege. I worked hard and was

a good stu dent. I had good grades in col lege. I’ve been a para medic in

Toronto ever since.

I’ve also writ ten a book called The Emer gency Mono logues about my

expe ri ences as a para medic. I have a one-person show with the same title.

I remem ber that I used to tell jokes to the other kids at ALPHA in the

morning. They weren’t my jokes—I used to stay up and watch Dave Allen

at Large with my Dad, and I’d just repeat the same jokes the next day.

It’s funny, because my dream was to be a stand-up comic and I basi cally

started doing that in the last few years with my show.

25



27



Jamie Leonard

“At ALPHA the students asked just as

many questions as the teachers.”

Given that so many of my devel op men tal years were spent at ALPHA,

there are many aspects of my expe ri ence that formed who I am and how

I look at the world. The sense of per sonal respon si bil ity and free dom to

explore what inter ested you—with direc tion of course—was both a ter rific

strength and (rarely) a bit of a weak ness. At ALPHA the stu dents asked just

as many ques tions as the teach ers. The teach ers usu ally sat at tables with

the stu dents, and took far more of a per sonal inter est in every stu dent

than in a main stream school. I sus pect the nature of the school itself drew

teach ers who wanted that inter ac tion. We were guided, occa sion ally led,

but often just let to run.

Jamie Leonard

ALPHA late 1970s to 1980s,

ages 4 – 13. Stud ied Journal

ism at Ryer son Uni versity.

Works in Infor ma tion

Technology/Server Sup port.

Rides, col lects, and writes

about motorcycles.

I remem ber a sci ence project—it was one of those light bulb moments where

you are work ing through things and all of a sud den a lit tle piece of the universe

clicks into place. An edu ca tion that makes you respon si ble for your

own learn ing process teaches you some thing very valu able: how to keep

learn ing, how to explore things that catch your inter est, and how to look at

the world as some thing of a mys tery to be explored.

You didn’t fall into the trap of con ven tion al ity in your think ing, and didn’t

develop the fear of try ing new things. Wood carv ing comes to mind; it isn’t

some thing I would have sought out, but I did try it and enjoyed the experi

ence. Mak ing wire frame plas ter ban dage sculp tures. Build ing a knight’s

suit of armor out of tape and found objects. Developing my own pho tos and

pho tog ra phy. I mean, how many kids those days would have had access to

a darkroom? Just being around par ents and stu dents who were fero ciously

cre ative was a good experience.

I remem ber spend ing a week on an ani mated clay ma tion film. I had a

news caster hav ing a bad day, hair piece falling off his head, papers get ting

blown away, falling over his desk, fol lowed by peo ple being chased by a

dinosaur—because a fly ing toupée just nat u rally leads to think ing about

dinosaurs of course.

I’ve always had an inter est in com put ers, which started at ALPHA with

the excit ing world of the Com modore PET. Amaz ing how a waver ing green

screen with 80 char ac ters in a row was filled with so much imag i na tion.

Now I work in IT/server sup port for a com pany that makes sen sors for

steel mills, in a range of build ings from oil soaked machine shops to clean

room labs with signs right out of a Bond movie—BEWARE OF LASER

being one example.

29



I keep a hand in with writ ing for the Cana dian Motor cy cle Guide

(CMGonline.com). My main vehi cle is a Russ ian side car motor cy cle that

was orig i nally designed in the 1930s.

ALPHA has influ enced my life greatly to this day. At least that’s the only

expla na tion I can think of for the odd sit u a tions I keep find ing myself

in. I’ve dri ven a moped 800 km while dressed in a silly cos tume, been

mis taken for a WWI re-enactor when I wasn’t re-enacting any thing at all,

dri ven across the coun try in a side car bike to hon our a man who rode large

wheeled bicy cles, and had din ner in a baron’s château while lis ten ing to a

group of men describe how they blew up var i ous church steeples. Somehow

I don’t think life would be quite as much of an unpre dictable adventure

if I hadn’t had ALPHA to teach me to be open to new things. Why often

I even order the soup of the day with out ask ing what it is. That’s the kind

of non con formist rebel that ALPHA made of me. That and often wear ing

mis matched socks.

I would say going to ALPHA defi nitely made you more aware of authority

fig ures as human beings. You didn’t end up with that cer tain awe of

teach ers as semi-mythical fig ures, hand ing down deci sions and com mandments.

While they weren’t pre cisely peers, you did have a rela tion ship

that made them much more approach able than the reg u lar student/

teacher dynamic, to the ben e fit of both. You were more involved in your

own edu ca tion, which often led in direc tions that were sur pris ing for both

teacher and pupil.

31



33



Maggie Marrelli (née Garrard)

“ALPHA was a home to me,

and my classmates were a family.”

Mag gie Marrelli

ALPHA 1976 to 1984, ages

4 – 12. Stud ied Fine Arts.

Works in Home Improvement.

Cre ates art.

I’d say ALPHA gave me a sense of com mu nity and of myself as a val ued

per son, with things to con tribute, and also the abil ity to explore and learn

in an inde pen dent fash ion. The dis ad van tage was prob a bly that, as a kid

who really hated aca d e mics, I took every chance I could to avoid the for mal

learn ing ses sions, and thus have some holes in my foun da tional knowledge.

I went to extremes to avoid my work, such as hid ing my math book,

a ploy that was side stepped with amaz ing cun ning on my teacher’s part

by pre sent ing me with mimeo graphed work sheets. Foiled again! When I

wasn’t slav ing over frac tions I was usu ally play ing G-Force or turn ing bookshelves

into apart ment build ings for toys with my friends. I also spent

a lot of time in the craft cup board mak ing boats out of milk-cartons or

some such, a pre cur sor to the art work I do as an adult. There were also the

par ents who came in and taught us cook ing, sewing, car pen try, singing.

There was a space cap sule full of tog gle switches and a life size por trait of

the Queen we all col lab o rated on where some one painted her neck green.

There was always some thing going on.

I always felt val ued—despite the fact I was a rot ten lit tle shirker—but one

time that springs to mind is when I wrote, directed and nar rated a skit for a

potluck night. I lost the script at the last minute and it was a total dis as ter,

but every one cheered at the end and I felt great.

For me ALPHA really was an exten sion of home and fam ily, as my mum was

a teacher and my sis ter went there as well, but beyond that I have always

thought that my rela tion ship with the other stu dents was more like cousins

than class mates. The school was so small that we were always together,

many of us from the begin ning to the end of our time there, so we had our

good times and our bad, friend ships and con flicts, like any fam ily. The

teach ers and other adults inter acted with us in a warm and acces si ble way,

like aunts and uncles.

I spent a year at Hori zon Alter na tive School, a year at Cen tral Tech ni cal

School, and a year at Inglenook Alter na tive School before drop ping out. At

my main stream high school I was quite shocked by the stu dents vs. teachers

men tal ity, which seemed like such a bar rier to learn ing. In my early

twen ties I returned to school as a mature stu dent and stud ied Fine Arts,

which I still prac tice but haven’t made into a career. I infor mally apprenticed

as a handyper son and have run my own home improve ment company

for the past decade and a bit.

I believe the demo c ra tic nature of ALPHA has made me a more sen si ble

per son. I also see that qual ity quite strongly in the peo ple I went to ALPHA

with, now that we are all grown up. I just wish I could still call Com mit tee

on people.

ALPHA was a home to me, and my class mates were a fam ily. I don’t think

you can have a bet ter start in life than that.

35



37



Ste fan Lynch Strassfeld

“I never got a grade or a report card

or was pitted against my peers. I got to

be interested in things and was given

the time and resources to learn more.

We were so spoiled in such rich ways.”

Stefan Lynch Strassfeld

ALPHA 1977–1984, ages 5–12.

Ran an inter na tional organi

za tion for kids of LGBTQ

par ents. Stud ied Nurs ing

at Uni ver sity of Cal i for nia,

San Fran cisco. Works as

the direc tor of the health

clinic at Juve nile Hall, San

Francisco.

One for ma tive ALPHA expe ri ence I remem ber was mak ing lunch with

Bar bara Klun der to sell to the rest of the school, as part of a reg u lar activ ity

called “store”. The lunch itself was easy. But Bar bara—a par ent—made

it not into a cook ing les son but a nav i gat ing-the-world les son. A hand ful

of us decided as a group what to make for lunch—I think it was ants on

a log and milk or some thing like that. Then we all—prob a bly five 6-to-8

year-olds—walked down Queen Street to a lit tle mar ket and decided as a

group who would buy what item. Bar bara gave us each some cash, and we

each went in on our own and found our item on our own and paid for it

on our own, and then came back out and counted change with Bar bara—

I remem ber her being nice to me about my fear of the stern shop keeper—

then walked back to ALPHA. We added up how much we had spent, tried to

fig ure out how many “orders” it would make, and then (with Barbara’s

help) fig ured out what to charge for each order. Then we made the food,

sold it from a lit tle table in front of the kitchen at lunch, counted what

we had made, and com pared that to what we had spent.

This was an hours-long focused project—for six-year-olds. The main thing

I got out of it was more con fi dence in deal ing with shops and count ing

my change but more impor tantly I remem ber the sense of own er ship I had

over those lit tle ants on the log.

I also have so many mem o ries. When we broke into the wine boxes on an

all school camp ing trip. When I brought a water gun to school from my

sum mer on Fire Island shaped like an erect penis with the balls as han dle.

When I was refus ing to learn to tie my shoes at seven years old because that

was what Vel cro was for. When I first learned to spell and went around

typing/writing “You are a pig!” on every thing I could. There was a real

sense of account abil ity and con cern and a lot of ask ing for my thoughts

and opin ions. It felt lov ing in a way because my teach ers really knew me.

My par ents, from vol un teer ing at the school, knew the issues and the

teach ers and the processes.

39



“It was an illusion that we “ran”

the schoolby democratic process.

The issues we could address were,

in retrospect, narrowly defined.”

But that’s also an exam ple of the kind of deep coer cion that was hap pening—I

really felt like I had a say in whether I learned to hand write or tie

my shoes or do long division, or for that mat ter to make the rules at school,

except you couldn’t change the no-running rule. But there were a million

things you also couldn’t change. It was an illu sion that we “ran” the

school by demo c ra tic process. The issues we could address were, in retro

spect, nar rowly defined. We didn’t pick the hours of the school day or

the edu ca tional model or hire/fire the teach ers or for that mat ter even do

the seri ous clean ing (thanks John the Jan i tor.) In the end, there was no

way my par ents and teach ers were going to let me not learn to hand write

or tie my shoes, but they made it seem as if I had a voice because they as

adults could maneu ver me through sub tler uses of their power, to make me

believe I was mak ing deci sions for myself. As a par ent, I can feel the allure

of lis ten ing and giv ing your kids a voice, but in the end it’s my house, my

rules. There is a cer tain self-denial of author ity and the respon si bil ity of

adults to set lim its for chil dren in the way that ALPHA used “direct democracy”.

It’s a tough one: in order to teach me that I had agency, I was given

some agency even though it was largely illusory.

The school wel comed my dad, an out gay activist, with out a hic cup as far

as I know. Even in San Fran cisco in the pub lic schools in the Cas tro today,

that’s not some thing that con sis tently hap pens. What a sur pris ing and rare

gift to a par ent who didn’t have to fight to spend time with the kids help ing

us do musi cals; to a kid who wasn’t shamed or stig ma tized; and to a fam ily

that was already under extra strain from homophobia.

Finally I would say that I was allowed to spend months one year doing

noth ing but read ing Isaac Asi mov books on sci ence. I learned how to mill

wheat for apple pies which I also learned to make. I explored burned out

ware houses near the CN tower over extra long lunches and didn’t get in

trou ble, and learned to love urban decay. I kissed the boys in kissy tag and

the teach ers didn’t inter fere—although the kids were super het ero nor mative

about that. I got to be in a musi cal with my dad about cryo gen ics.

I learned early how I was priv i leged by hang ing out with my ALPHA friends

who lived on Ward’s Island and in Park dale: both had sin gle poor moms

and cre atively scrounged for food dur ing the day and after school with no

money. I learned about dis abil ity from Doug, punk from Max, naked ladies

from the paint ings in the Leonards’ loft—where I also heard Pink Floyd’s

The Wall for the first time. I spent hours of school time, at my leisure, making

a work ing replica of the func tions of the ear. I never had home work.

I never took a test. I never got a grade or a report card or was pit ted against

my peers. I got to be inter ested in things and was given the time and

resources to learn more. We were so spoiled in such rich ways.

41



Crawford (Crocky) Teasdale

“The most important lesson of ALPHA

was love… We need to learn to love

ourselves first, in all our glory and our

imperfections.”

Halfway through grade two I was bored at school, and I changed to ALPHA.

I’d fin ished all my math books and spelling books and Eng lish books early,

and I had noth ing to do. ALPHA was great because there was some cre ativity,

which was really lack ing in the pub lic school sys tem. I remem ber playing

the piano there a lot. There was a piano in the hall way, and I loved it.

I wanted to play gui tar but my hands weren’t big enough, so I just mostly

taught myself to play piano, and I guess I played the dul cimer. I remember

our teacher Mike, he used to play the I love peanut but ter song, and he

taught me how to play that on the piano. In a cou ple years my hands were

big ger and I got a gui tar and taught myself how to play. I can also remember

col lab o rat ing on ani mated films at ALPHA, paint ing cels and putting

them under a cam era and mov ing them around.

CRAWFORD TEASDALE

ALPHA 1973 to 1978, ages

7–8 & 10–11. Stud ied at the

Royal Con ser va tory of Music.

Works as a graphic designer

at Maple Leaf Sports and

Enter tain ment. Makes music.

*The Ontario Insti tute for

Stud ies in Edu ca tion, now part

of the Uni ver sity of Toronto

When I was nine, ALPHA teacher Mike McCarthy helped me get into a

cat a lyst pro gram [a pro gram for high school stu dents who wanted to audit

uni ver sity courses] at OISE* …I’d go there after school one day a week and

learn BASIC pro gram ming. I remem ber I had to sign out two big floppy

discs that were the size of records: one of them made the com puter start

up, and the other one was for my data. I went on the Inter net in 1977. I got

to dis cuss BASIC pro gram ming, through what we would now call chat, with

some one from Cal i for nia who was much older than me, at a uni ver sity.

There would be a ter mi nal win dow and you’d type some thing and the other

per son would see it and they’d type back. I just thought this was amaz ing—

I couldn’t believe it—and when I told peo ple they didn’t believe me. I was

nine, and most of the peo ple who were doing the course were much older

than me, they were in high school. I just went and did it. It wasn’t that

hard, and I learned to do BASIC pro gram ming and that helped me down

the road a lot.

They always told me at ALPHA that the future’s in com put ers, and that you

should learn your math and your com puter skills. So I did. We saved up, my

broth ers and I, and bought a Com modore PET, and I used it for pro gramming,

and they used it for play ing games. I mostly would just get games

and then look at the code, and try and change the graph ics or the order of

things. I learned that you could resave the file and make the graph ics differ

ent. So I took some games and I made them into my own games. I didn’t

really pro gram them, I just stole some one else’s game and changed the way

it looked and played. I was get ting on to eleven by then.

43



Then I was in an acci dent in 1978, I got run over by a car, and I spent two

years in bed. So I did a lot of gui tar play ing in those two years. When that

was all done I got into a band with some friends. We were called Slightly

Dam aged, we did psy che delic punk rock. After that I moved on and got

a rep u ta tion as a good gui tar player, so other bands would hire me, and

I did some ses sion work.

When I was 18 my com puter skills landed me a great job at Col oriza tion,

doing ani ma tion on a Dub ner com puter. I was also in a band called Neon

Rome, and I was accepted to the Fac ulty of Music at U of T, so I had to

decide what I was going to do. I decided to work with Neon Rome. We were

going to be signed to Vir gin Records, and Bruce McDonald’s first film was

about us. We had a treat ment and every thing, and it was all ready to go,

and then our singer decided that he was going to take a vow of silence for

a cou ple of years, and basi cally we didn’t do the movie and the band fell

apart. It was very sad. Our singer Neal’s lit tle brother’s band ended up doing

the movie, and it won the first prize for the film fes ti val, and he went on to

become very suc cess ful, and our band would have gone on to be very success

ful if our record had come out and our movie had come out. But things

hap pen for a rea son, and you can’t let it get you down. I kept doing my

job—I decided that being a musi cian wasn’t the life that I wanted, I didn’t

want to travel all the time and be poor, I wanted some stability.

I was still work ing at Col oriza tion, and I learned a lot about com put ers and

ani ma tion, and I man aged to get a job at Canada A.M. doing the weather

graph ics. Since then I’ve worked mostly in tele vi sion and sports, so it all fit

together, what I learned at school and what I ended up doing. Ani ma tion

is what I do now. I have worked as an art direc tor, cre ative direc tor, and

man ager. I had a band called Crock star, and we broke up around 2003, but

we still get together, and we play shows quite a bit. In Crock star I write the

songs and I sing them, and I play the gui tar and the har mon ica some times,

and once in a while I play the piano. I also play the vio lin, the man dolin,

and the accor dion, but I don’t do that in the band.

The most impor tant les son of ALPHA was love. So many won der ful Alpha

peo ple taught me to love. A John Lennon quote says it all for me: “There

are two basic moti vat ing forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull

back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with

pas sion, excite ment, and accep tance. We need to learn to love our selves

first, in all our glory and our imper fec tions. If we can not love our selves,

we can not fully open to our abil ity to love oth ers or our poten tial to create.

Evo lu tion and all hopes for a bet ter world rest in the fear less ness and

open-hearted vision of peo ple who embrace life.”

45


Appendix


47


1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9


Image

Overview

2

1

3

4 5 6

7

8

9

1. Lucy Falkner

2. Jen nifer Ferrari

3. Flan nery Fielding

4. Kether Gra ham

5. Mor gan Jones-Phillips

6. Jamie Leonard

7. Mag gie Marelli

8. Ste fan Lynch Strassfeld

9. Craw ford (Crocky) Teasdale

49



Authors

Ariel Field ing received her early education at ALPHA Alternative School

starting in 1974; hers is the family with the longest attendance in the

history of the school. She returned to ALPHA first in 2008–2009 to work

with the youngest students, and again in 2011–2012 as a member of the

organizing committee for the school’s 40th anniversary. Free schooling,

with its emphasis on equality, has influenced Ariel’s work of honouring

and amplifying minority voices in the arts, and engaging and educating

new audiences. ALPHA gave Ariel a foundational sense of belonging to a

strong and vibrant community, something she has been seeking to replicate

ever since. She holds a Master of Music degree from the University

of London; was a research associate at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival

in Washington, D.C.; and has directed marketing and communications

for both Duke Performances, at Duke University, and the Ackland Art

Museum, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Michael Barker is a graphic designer and pho tog ra pher based in Toronto,

Canada. He grew up in the Bain co-op, a progressive cooperativehousing

project, and attended ALPHA in the 1970s. He attend four alternative

schools in all: start ing with ALPHA and con tin u ing with Hori zon alter native

Senior School (Grades 7 – 8), City School (Grades 9 – 12), and The Student

School (OACs). He graduated from the Ontario College of Art and

Design in 1996. www.michaelbarker.ca

51



Acknowledgements

Thank you to everyone who helped to make this project happen:

Laura Jones, who identified the photographer of the black and white

pictures seen here as her friend Bob Openshaw and hunted in her basement

for the (still lost) negatives; Laura’s son Morgan Jones-Phillips,

who supplied a contact sheet of Bob’s photographs and agreed to be a

part of the project; Lucy Falkner, who flew across the country from

Vancouver to come to the reunion, and whose brother Neil, who died in

2002, was also an ALPHA student; Jennifer Ferrari, who went to ALPHA

with her sisters Elaina, Vanessa, and Natalie; Flannery Fielding, one of

three siblings who went to ALPHA over a span of 14 years, during which

time their mother Marjory went to scores of parent meetings, created art

for school auctions, and spent many hours working on art projects with

students; Kether Graham, who had a vast collection of Archie comics in

her ALPHA years; Jamie Leonard, who went to the school with his brother

Jonathon, and whose dad John was beloved for projecting movies and

making popcorn on Wednesday afternoons during his weekly parent

shift; Maggie Marrelli, sister of Emma Garrard and daughter of legendary

ALPHA teacher Susan Garrard, who taught generations of kids to

read, organized the mammoth annual school camping expeditions, and

threw fabulous school Hallowe’en parties, complete with bobbing for

apples and eating donuts from a string while our hands were behind our

backs; Stefan Lynch Strassfeld, who travelled from San Francisco to be at

the reunion, and whose late dad, Michael Lynch, was a noted gay rights

activist and the director of many an ALPHA musical; and Crocky Teasdale,

who went to ALPHA with his brothers Andrew and Jason, and whose late

mother Linda spent many hours making art with kids at the school. Last

but not least, thank you to Deb O’Rourke, retired ALPHA staff member

and scholar of ALPHA, for planting the seeds for this project through her

inspiring research, and to current teacher Emily Chan for carrying the

ALPHA torch. Thanks to both Deb and Emily for being fantastic humans

who helped to make this project happen.

53


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