"Open Letter to Former Students"
The first day of school in September of 1972 we gathered together ... 8 teachers and 170 students ... for the first Community Meeting to begin the process of creating all that the Alternative School was to become. We started essentially with a blank slate and one overarching premise that was to guide every decision and action we would take for the next four years. That guiding principal was that all decisions would be reached by a process of consensus that would be open to participation by any member of the school community [teacher, student or parent] who chose to participate in the weekly Community Meeting process.
At the end of the first school day in 1972 most of you went home at 3pm [ we hadn't yet realized that learning would be occurring morning, noon and night at the school ]. The eight staff members, including myself, Lee, John, Jack, Laurie, Kyra, Frank and Franny met in the art room after you all had left. Sitting on a patchwork carpet that students had created the week before opening day, we all looked at each other and collectively gave voice to one clear and obvious fact ...
" Oh my God ... there are 8 of us and 170 of them ! ... and we just committed ourselves to the will of the "Community" in all decisions! What if they come up with and all agree on a whole variety of off the wall, outlandish, totally unworkable insane ideas...?! " ...or even worse yet ... "What if they just don't show up tomorrow?!!" A very interesting discussion followed ! Well, you all did show up the next day and you kept showing up ... and together we created an amazing learning community ... that no one individual ever could have designed and put together on their own ahead of time. In that first Community Meeting on that very first day, the school came to life as a growing, changing, transforming, democratic learning community where every member of the community had an ongoing opportunity to directly participate in the design, direction and content of their own learning. That was at the time ... and still remains, a remarkable accomplishment that we all shared and participated in creating.
Raymond Scalia
