Small class sizes. Turning the library into a haunted house. Building relationships with students. Family setting.
What do these scenarios describe? A small, exclusive, private school in the suburbs? An Ivy League university? Alden-Conger?
Wrong. Try again.
It’s the Area Learning Center (ALC), located at Brookside School, where the summer breeze rolls by and the sounds of boat motors can be heard firing up.
Amongst ALHS students, there are many ideas of what the ALC is like. Few, if any, would think the above words would describe this same school students have such a negative opinion about.
Some ALC students said they were glad they were no longer attending ALHS, because of many students’ attitudes and actions.
“High schoolers are over dramatic and stuck up,” said ALC senior Tessa Dye.
Dye only spent a week at ALHS before deciding to make the transfer to the ALC. She felt the high school was full of cliques, and people seemed to be more concerned about themselves than others. She is happy she made the change and doesn’t regret it.
Dye wants to become a police officer, and this is coming from a student who goes to a school that is thought about negatively.
High school is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get. Even when you bite into that nice creamy looking one, and find out inside it’s just sour and tasteless, covering its sour flavor with an appealing outside.
Students are these same chocolates. Some might taste the same as they look, while others put on that fake appealing outside just to fit in with the rest.
“You don’t have to be fake” said ALC student, Rosalyn Love. A recent visitor to the ALC agreed with that statement. He said he felt more welcomed there than he ever had at the high school. At ALC, kids he barely knew were willing to say “Hi” and talk to a complete stranger to get to know him.
Stereotypes are everywhere, and anywhere people look. But when do those stereotypes need to be put a side? Talk to a person and get to know them, don’t make judgments or jump to conclusions just because of where someone attends school.
“We are not pot heads, but just regular people trying to get by in this world” said ALC student Cesar Gomez.
With students coming from all aspects of life, some because they are judged and others because of gaps in their learning, it’s hard to label them without getting to know their background. Each has their own story and who they are.
Walking down the ALC everyone is in groups and talking loudly and discussing their plans for the night. Everyone is included. No one is out sitting by themselves in the corner.
A family, some might say. Crazy. Loud. Fun. Odd. Accepting.