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Integration Is A Key Detroit's "alternative" Schools

Integration Is A Key Detroit's "alternative" Schools image Integration Is A Key Detroit's "alternative" Schools image
Parent Issue
Day
12
Month
August
Year
1976
OCR Text

Integration Is A Key Detroit's "Alternative" Schools

By Pat Williams and Linda Hawkins

Picture this: a small group of racially, socially and ethnically integrated children, learning at their own speed with a loving teacher nearby. The children learn what interests them. They are not coerced into studying. There are no grades, no report cards, no one to cajole or infringe upon their intellectual curiosity.

Ideal? Maybe, but not very realistic. Stil!, open-classroom, small-group education that zeroes in on a child's social, emotional and academie needs is what many "alternatives" to public education have attempted to offer.

Detroit Public Schools sources indicated that about 12%-or 37,000 out of 284,000 Detroit school children- were enrolled in parochial or private learning institutions in 1975. Close to 1% of all Detroit school children are enrolled in the alternative schools. The Sun looked at six private, non-traditional schools in the Detroit area -Taproot, Upland Hills, Detroit Alternative Schools, Waldorf, Friends and the City School of Detroit -to determine exactly what alternatives they offer to Detroit Public schools.

While each of the alternative schools is unique, similarities among them exist. On the whole, they are geared toward small groups of children- and towards reaching the "total child." Because enrollments are limited, teachers can give children more individual attention. There are more resources with which to single out emotional or learning problems before they get out of hand. There is more time, money and commitment to offer courses of study that generate pupil interest.

For example, when teachers at Detroit Children's School noticed that boys wanted to play soldier, they developed a course on World War II-and peace and war.

Tuitions range from $300 to $2,000 per pupil per year. In many families, both parents work to pay the high costs of their children's alternative education, but financial aid in the form of scholarships and work exchange arrangements is promoted in order to create racially, ethnically and socially balanced schools.

Taproot School, in northwest Detroit, began five years ago with a group of teachers who were disenchanted with their experience in Detroit public schools. "The kids at one school talked of burning the place down," recalled Taproot's co-director Jeaninne Cohen. Taproot is a version of the individualistic Piaget "total approach" to learning. "We try to give kids an opportunity to express their feelings about what is going on; they can come up with their own solutions," Cohen said.

The Taproot school building at Meyers and Puritan in Detroit is a series of large, indestructable rooms with cushiony couches and low tables. The newest innovation is a huge outdoor play area that parents and friends of the school fashioned out of wood and tires.

A typical day at Taproot begins with a morning meeting, when teachers and children talk about their feelings or air problems, and plan their day. Taproot maintains a ratio of 50 children to six teachers in its program for ages five through 1 2. Keeping children and staff close is important, Cohen emphasized. Taproot tuition is $950 a year.

The Detroit Alternative Schools is actually two schools operating under one roof: Detroit Children's School and Detroit Free School. The two functioned independently until two years ago, when they  pooled their resources to occupy the old Salesian High School just north of Wayne State University.

The Children's School, for elementary and pre-school education, combines the various philosophies of Piaget-like educators Kozal and Kohl to offer children choices within the limits of basic academic subjects, according to co-director Monica Donnely. Like Taproot, the school day begins with a meeting, followed by independent studies. "We try to make sure children are operating at their grade level. If a child can't read or figure, we've done him or her no favor," Donnely contended.

Teacher and parent Marge Sklar said that "We are aware when kids avoid subjects, and we try to encourage them in all areas, but no one is forced. Many kids come to us from public school, where they've experienced failure." There are no prerequisites to entering an alternative school, but a parent-child-teacher conference is held prior to enrollment to determine the potential value of an alternative school to the student.

Individual attention and breaking down traditional barriers between parents and the school are emphasized, Donnely explained. Teachers, who are paid less than Detroit Public School teachers and take a more active administrative role, meet weekly to decide on curriculum, budgets and schedules. Enrollment hovers around 60. Because tuition is designated according to income, about 30% of the students at the Children's School are from families living at poverty level, Donnely estimates. Children's School benefits from input from the Merrill Palmer Institute, but operates on a tight budget.

The Detroit Free School (high-school grades), which occupies the third floor of the Salesian building, is similar to Children's School but less structured, according to Donnely. The older children have more influence in administering school discipline, establishing curricula and hiring staff. Their popular courses in womens and men's studies and eastern religion were 'pupil-innovated.

The Upland Hills School calls itself an "ecologically-based school," where curriculum is founded on the operation of the natural world. "We stress the emotional, intellectual and physical balance toward fulfilling goals of self-knowledge and self-intellect," teacher-director Phillip Moore explained. Courses range from kids teaching kids to individual projects, to staff -oriented curriculum, which, he said, make learning a joyful experience.

Upland Hills operates in a cooperative, non-competitive environment on one corner of the 240-acre Upland Hills Farm in Oxford. One of the classrooms for the 55 pupils is a wind and solar-powered geodesic dome. Tuition is $1 1 00 a year; bus transportaron is available from Royal Oak.

Waldorf School, on Detroit's east side, immerses its children in arts and crafts in order to develop creativity and self-expression. Based on the teachings of German philosopher Rudolph Steiner, Waldorf, one of 1 5 such schools in the country, strives to educate children toward freedom.

"Kindergarten is doing, elementary grades are feeling and high school is thinking," according to teacher Penny O'Meara. Kindergarten is primarily free play. There is no hurry to teach reading. Children study German, French and a musical instrument in addition to the recorder all through school. "Children are taught as a group, but it is highly individualized," she added.

Waldorf discourages television at home so that children can learn to entertain themselves. Children stay with the same teacher from first grade through eighth. Waldorf does not test or grade, but teaches students how to take tests after the seventh grade.

 Waldorf's 250 students are racially, ethnically, and socially integrated and come from both professional and welfare backgrounds, O'Meara said. Tuition averages $1500 a year, with limited assistance available.

Friends School near downtown is not a free school by the popular definition, but stresses the integration of academics and the arts in an informal environment where children can progress at their own speed. "We offer a highly individualized, but very structured program," explained Pam Dart, director of kindergarten through eighth grade.

Funded by the Society of Friends and a number of Detroit-area corporations, the school emphasizes respect and caring toward the community and one another. The school communicates with parents via frequent conferences and extensive written reports. Many children who have had problems in public schools enroll in Friends for the individualized attention and emphasis on nonviolent means of solving problems.

Tuition ranges from $1350 for the all-day kindergarten to $2000 per year for high school. The funding of the school stipulates a 50% white and 50% nonwhite balance, which is achieved through its aid program. With 360 pupils and a staff of 40, the largest class has 22 children.

A humanistic approach to educating children is the philosophy of City School, located at Livernois and Eight Mile. Also called L'Ecole Francaise, because of its extensive French program, or the Apple School- a large red apple adorns the door the school takes children through elementary grades using open-classroom techniques. The converted office building is a series of study areas divided by bookshelves and decorated brilliantly with children 's art work. The carpeted and sunny rooms make for a happy atmosphere.

City School's headmaster is State Senator Jack Faxon, who has been known to get favors for the school from the state because of his standing in the Legislature. Last year there were 97 pupils and a staff of nine at City School.

Considering alternative education a practical option and choosing a school carefully does not guarantee total parental satisfaction. Often the same philosophy of education that makes one parent a devotee will cause another to yank a child out of one school and try another. When the academic philosophy departs radically from traditional teaching, the easier parents become disillusioned.

Dell Alston's son Robert attended Waldorf from pre-school through first grade before she put him in her neighborhood Detroit public school. The Alstons did not feel they could wait out Waldorf's practice of delaying reading until third grade. They want their son to be strong academically and are more comfortable seeing evidence of his progress.

Parents often have only minor criticisms of alternative schools, ones with which they can easily live. Martha Norman, food co-op coordinator for Operation Get-Down, chose Friends School for her two children, in part because it is Quaker. And, while she is satisfied with the school's efforts to reach economic and racial balance, she wishes there were more black staff members.

But most alternative schools are culturally balanced, and some of them are accessible to low income families. While the success of such schools is difficult to measure, and while certain non-traditional schools may not even meet the standards of other Detroit Public Schools, they do provide an alternative education to students who want to learn- as long as their parents can afford it.