Coincidence - Alan May [33]
That feeling was foreign to Anika, who viewed the approach of the school year with the dread of a convicted felon facing serious jail time. And an innocent convict, too, she wailed to herself, unjustly accused and found guilty on the basis of purely circumstantial evidence. She was just marking the days until her parole, at age sixteen. What could Susannah possibly enjoy about going to school?
Plenty, as it happened. The classes were small, for starters, rarely more than ten kids to one teacher. In fact, teachers got to know their students so well they often were able to integrate math and science and language studies into projects that dovetailed with the kids’ interests.
In grade six, Susannah said, her class had volunteered to make cages for the local Humane Society. It had been her idea, she confided, which came as no surprise to Anika, who knew how keen Susannah was on animals. The kids had spent one whole semester researching and planning the design, calculating the required amounts of materials, writing letters of inquiry to suppliers, figuring out the best deals, and building the cages. They’d kept a journal of the experience, with photographs and other student artwork documenting the whole process. Students in the grade seven class, who had chosen to spend their semester learning how to produce a television news program, filmed the presentation of the cages to the delighted animal shelter officials.
Anika had never even imagined school could be like that. She would have loved working on such a project herself, seeing some practical application for the lessons that usually just droned on around her while she retreated into her daydreams. Maybe she should look into this amazing school.
And then Susannah told her that many of the kids in her school would be applying to something called Blue Water Academy for grade eleven or twelve. Susannah said she was going to be one of them, for sure.
By the time Susannah had finished describing the program, Anika’s mind was made up. She was going to do whatever it took to get herself accepted at Susannah’s school and then into the Blue Water program. A prairie girl who had never even glimpsed an ocean, she was bowled over by the idea of going to sea for a year and using the whole world around you, wherever you went, as your classroom and curriculum.
It wasn’t easy for Anika’s parents to persuade the administrators at Susannah’s school to admit her, given her late application and lackluster grades, but they persevered, and Anika was accepted—on probation.
“You can see that I made it through okay,” Anika said. “That was the turning point for me. Once I discovered that school didn’t have to be boring, I set out to become a teacher myself, to try to keep other kids like me from giving up on learning. Even if I hadn’t gone on to Blue Water, just the change in atmosphere from public to private would have made all the difference.”
“Oh well, yeah,” Dave said. “That’s a nice story—and we’re all certainly very glad you didn’t drop out! But not all private schools are as innovative as that one. And what about the kids who can’t afford to go to a private school? Is it all right just to write them off?”
“But almost all private schools do have a better teacher/student ratio than the publics,” Sharon said. “I’ve taught in both. No matter how motivated you are as a young teacher, no matter how committed to helping every child in your class succeed, you can’t do it. The system simply doesn’t allow for it.”
Trying to balance the pros and cons in her own mind, Mary said, “Don’t you think there’s something to be said for the diversity you find in the public schools? I mean, some private schools are so insular, aren’t they, with most of the students coming from the same background? I’m not sure that’s the best education for learning to get along in the real world.”
“But there’s an accountability factor, too,” Tom said. “In a private school, most parents are highly involved in their kids’ education