Interns come and go, but every once in a while, you come across one who is decisively above average. Sometimes they make their way into the cubicle next to you at The Agenda with Steve Paikin, and sometimes they disappear into the ether. I was lucky enough to work with student intern Gillian Wheatley while I was researching tonight's program: Is Specialized Education Fair? As luck would have it, Gillian went to one of the Toronto District School Board's (TDSB) many alternative schools, and she agreed to share her experience with us in the form of a Q&A.
Tell me about the high school you went to, and why you went there.
Gillian Wheatley: When I was 13, I announced to my parents that I’d be attending Ursula Franklin Academy (UFA) the following year, as I entered grade nine. I knew about the school thanks to a friend of mine who was a year older than me, and who'd chosen to go there. Having a friend at the school, combined with what I thought of at the time as a cool uniform policy, along with the school's Enriched Wednesday Sessions, made it seem way more fun than a “normal” school.
My parents made the round of secondary school tours with me, but let me make my own decisions. My vice-principal at the time even called me into his office to discuss my options about where I was to go. When he asked me why I wouldn't be attending my local high school, I remember telling him they didn’t have a women’s tennis team, which I explained was sexist, considering they had a men’s team. I really just picked a random reason; I wasn't all that wild about tennis. See, UFA had uniforms, and school began at 10:15 a.m. on Wednesdays. What could be better than a day to sleep in during the school week?
What appealed to you most about the school's program?
GW: Instead of regular classes on Wednesdays, we had what were called alternative sessions. These varied. Some sessions were as simple as tutouring kids who needed to catch up. Other weeks, we played chess, or deconstructed a movie, or had a cooking class, or went snowboarding (a full-day session). There was an emphasis on creating our own sessions. And in Grade 11, Wednesdays were for co-op placements.
Looking back, our school was very informal. We called all of our teachers by their first names. Our English and social studies classes were discussion-based, often held in giant circles, rather than your standard classroom set up, with the teacher at the front of the room, and all the students dutifully staring straight ahead, giving him or her their full attention. We sat around on couches. We had discussions about books. Looking back, these were my favourite courses -- and we learned a lot. After high school, during her first year of university, one of my best friends was pulled into her professor’s office because she was suspected of plagiarism -- the professor didn’t believe a first-year student would have such advanced knowledge. They ended up having a long discussion about literary theories.
UFA was also big on travel. In Grade Nine, our class did an exchange with a class in Newfoundland. In Grade 10, I attended a leadership camp in Ottawa. In Grade 12, people organized a trip to Ghana, Africa. A lot of these trips were student-lead initiatives. A teacher would say, "Sure, I’ll sign the forms, and be the chaperone," but it was up to the students to organize where they were going, raise all the money, and do all the planning.
School initiatives were very student-driven. Students were asked to come up with ideas for what they wanted to study, or trips they wanted to organize. We were taught to be independent. Part of that was the idea of the school, and the culture it promoted, and another part was that it was a new school, founded in 1995; UFA was still growing, and changing, and the school wanted suggestions. I can't imagine "normal" schools being so accommodating or entrepreneurial, and, looking back, it’s something I really would have missed out on had I not gone to UFA.
Also, as I mentioned, the uniforms. When I went to UFA, the uniform seemed cool and different. But by the time Grade 12 came around, I hated it. I was completely sick of our school colours, and refused to wear navy and maroon for several years after graduating. But looking back, with enough time and distance in place, the uniforms were pretty good. I never had to think about what I was going to wear. I could be up and out of the house in 15 minutes. Having a uniform also likely saved my parents a lot of money on clothing.
What was the application process like to get into the program?
GW: We had to write a short essay (it seemed much longer at the time). Once the essay was complete, applicants were entered in a lottery. In my application year, there were more female applicants than male. Of the 100 or so students in my class, about 70 of them were girls. They changed the process the following year, holding separate lotteries for males and females, so that classes were more evenly split.
When I went to UFA, there were probably 10 or 15 people who didn’t get in through the lottery system. By the time I left, there were over 700 applicants for roughly 100 positions.
Looking back, what were the best parts of your high school experience, and what, if anything, do you think you might have missed by attending UFA?
GW: When I went to university, I had to relearn how to pay attention to lectures -- and I’m not sure I ever succeeded. Jumping from a class of 30 to a class of 300 was hard enough, but learning was all lecture-based, and I found that lectures could be very disengaging.
It’s not that we didn’t have "normal" classes at UFA -- we had all of our science and math classes in what I would call a more typical setting -- but I really had to get used to learning outside of UFA's discussion-based environment. I find now, looking back, that UFA prepared me more for graduate school than the first few years of a monotonous undergraduate education.
Tonight's discussion will focus on how equitable it is to have specialized programs within a school board; whether it's fair or unfair. Is this something you've thought about in terms of your own education?
GW: The system can definitely be unfair. At 14, a lot of students don't care about where they go. They're shepherded to their local high school -- a "normal" one that doesn’t require extra work, or luck, to get into. Most 14-year-olds won’t have the teachers, parents, or chance that sends them in a different direction. And it's a real missed opportunity that extra time isn’t taken to find a school tailored to a student’s needs. We should have different educations for different people -- not everyone learns in the same way. Not everyone loved UFA; some kids transferred out.
We should be tailoring educational programs to the needs of our students because learning can take place in different ways. I don’t think we ever got any extra funding for the things we did at UFA -- instead, teachers and students had input into the type of school they wanted to have. It was a novel idea.
If enough people request a science school, or an arts-based school, or an independent school, why shouldn't that school exist? Education needs to be more malleable. It seems to me that the capacity is there, so why can’t there be more change?
Image courtesy Gillian Wheatley, pictured fifth from left.
