Alternative High School (Calgary)
Alternative High School (AHS) is a public senior high (secondary) school in Calgary, Alberta, Canada; which teaches grades 10 through 12. AHS is currently located at the Clinton Ford Centre, which was home to the former Clinton Ford Elementary School.
AHS was launched, independent of the board, in September 1974 by a parents group. It reflected many of the "alternative education" ideas that were popular at the time. The early philosophy the school borrowed from the ideas of A. S. Neill, who founded Summerhill School. This involved supporting the freedom of children, and opposing the traditional structure and control of most schools. Although, AHS was never a copy of Summerhill.
In 1975 AHS came under the control of the Calgary Board of Education (CBE), and has progressively moved away from Neill's philosophy, moving steadily to a much greater structure. But, it still provides a personalized, informal and democratic (relative to other schools) learning environment for students with problems in a regular environment. While there are no sports teams, it boasts an impressive art department. Students continue to play a role in evaluating new student and even teacher applicants for the school. They can vote on things like extracurricular activities to instructional schedules, as long as the changes do not interfere with Alberta Learning policies. Class structure and schedules are tailored to student's decisions, which leads the way for the more self-structured world of post-secondary education.
Read more about Alternative High School (Calgary): Special Programs, Notable Alumnus, School Philosophy, The Circle of Courage
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