Embracing the Alternate Way: Integration is not the Answer-Jan.2012

I was a teen mom and married to a crack addict. I could choose to write about kicking down crack house doors to get my car keys, sleeping with my wallet under my pillow, or visiting my husband in the padded rooms of a psychiatric ward. This would all be very shocking and actually quite interesting.  However, I would rather write about embracing his struggles and pouring every ounce of my energy into finding the loop-holes in society that would allow him to succeed in life.  This level of devotion to understanding the torment and truth inside an alternate mind lead me on a clear straight path to becoming a very passionate alternate teacher. 

By fate, straight out of University I landed a job developing an alternate program within a mainstream middle school.  The goal was integration, and at that point I really did believe that integration was not only achievable, but beneficial to the success of my alternate students.  I was the only alternate teacher in my district to run an alternate program based on a direct teaching model.  I integrated the kids into elective blocks with mainstream students and mediated daily between my students and the other teachers.  I researched every way of teaching the middle school curriculum.  I spoke of differentiated instruction to my colleagues and I did feel that my students were learning, however, I never told them that their level of understanding and functioning was barely acceptable at a grade three level. 

With consistent fun and love mixed into each activity, my students were overcoming major obstacles to make it to school everyday.  My program was a success, but I watched helplessly as my students left me to go to our alternate high school only to drop out shortly after.  I became extremely frustrated that I was working so hard at keeping them in school only to have all my efforts erased before they reached graduation.  I thought if I moved to their high school that I would be able to get each of my students to graduation.  After all, that was the definition of success in school, was it not?

So I landed a job as Learning Assistance teacher at the high school.  I quickly became discouraged with the model the school was running on.  The entire school was self-paced and using paper and pencils only.  There was no direct instruction and no use of technology.  I watched the students become frustrated and disengaged on a daily basis. The kids were expected to learn the high school curriculum without any instruction and make it to graduation.  If not, their other option was to drop out of school.  They were choosing the latter.

I soon realized that these kids were still functioning at the same academic level that they had been at in my program five years before.  Of course, they knew more about the world and their behavior had mellowed out, but their level of comprehension was still around that of an average eight year old.  These kids would never reach the graduation bar because it was based on completely unrealistic expectations for the average alternate mind.  We were directly feeding the welfare system by forcing these kids to feel failure everyday.  They need so much more than the curriculum we have to offer them. In order for these kids to feel success in school, I was going to have to develop a brand new path to a completely different final destination.  I had to redefine success in school for them.

I have now created Program Empower.  This program paves a route to an Evergreen graduation that is based on personalized learning and individual empowerment.  Just last week I got to look into the eyes of a student who I had promised graduation to five years ago and tell him I had found a way to fulfill my promise.   The emotion in the room was incredible.

Program Empower starts Jan.30.  I am feeling overwhelmed with the need to really grasp my approach.  I am scared and excited all at the same.  I want this to be the start of a brand new way of looking at education in my district.  It really isnt about integration at all, its completely opposite, its about creating a new way; a way that has meaning.