Alpha_Alternative_School_1972–2012-Yumpu
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.
- TAGS
- education
- alternative
- toronto
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
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
Change language