Alpha_Alternative_School_1972–2012-Yumpu

“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.
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