Alternative Learning Experiences

Alternative Learning Experiences, or ALES, are a program in our state that allows the school districts to put together an alternative program that could support a lot of "off-site" learning. These could serve homeschoolers, or others who need a lot of flexibility, while at the same time drawing on public school funding to support the program.

We have a program in town that does this for homeschoolers, and yesterday I went to the information meeting to see if it might be useful for us. A few things really jumped out at me:

1. They are held "accountable", so there is a big emphasis on learning plans, seat hours, allocations, etc.

2. The curriculum resource center, where you can check out curriculum to use, sounds awesome.

3. Working with a teacher-consultant, you come up with a learning plan and then you are required to have "face-to-face contact" weekly with that teacher and your kids, and it seemed also a once a month progress meeting.

4. The classes offered at the school do seem to include a few cool things, but most of what we would want to take is also available from places like the community center.

5. They will be requiring annual testing of the kids.

6. The classrooms all look very standard school - fixed desks, etc.

Although I can see the benefits to some folks in a program like this, and I can also see the need for accountability when it might look like they are "handing out money to homeschoolers", my gut reaction at the meeting was that this was a lot of bother to go to for an allocation of $300 a year and access to a few classes. For me, that allocation money just isn't going to make that much of a difference, I don't feel the need for a teacher-consultant to help me make a plan, and although I don't mind record-keeping, the extra meetings and so forth could add a burden to my busy schedule.

For the kids, they do want to spend time with other kids, but they weren't excited by the atmosphere of school there. There are other ways for us to find community for them. And Carbon has a very real concern, about jumping from a place where it has been totally accepted to not read yet, to a place where that is going to be a problem for him. (More about his reading later.) He also got very nervous as soon as the annual test was brought up, and test-anxiety is exactly what we want to avoid.

So we decided not to use this resource, and keep going it on our own. It's nice that it's there for folks, but it's just not for us right now.