Close-Knit Alternative Program Is No Easy Class Ayn Rand Typical Topic Taught By Scott Sutherland

Scott Sutherland’s students are working on one of the hallmark struggles of high school: They’re reading philosopher Ayn Rand.

The novel “Anthem,” which explores the value of the individual, has plenty of the kids muttering as they talk about a quiz that covered the first chapter.

“They’re brainwashing them,” says Terri Benner, a senior.

“I don’t understand this book,” one girl says, several times.

At least a couple of the students have read Anthem before, as sophomores.

“It’s easier to understand this time,” says senior Scott Magney.

Sutherland asks about unusual terms used in the book, such as the “Home of the Useless.”

“That’s where you go when you’re 40,” offers senior Mike Curry.

And the “Palace of Correction?”

“Sounds like my dad’s house when he’s drunk,” comes a whisper from one student.

Junior Tyler Sivright is tickled to find he’s earned an 80 on the quiz.

“Somebody did their homework,” Tyler says about himself. “Either that or I’m good at writing (nonsense).”

The discussion ebbs and flows, not so different from any American literature class. But the class is different in one way. It’s part of the University Alternative Center, a one-room school within a school.

In its second year, this alternative program is tucked away in a portable classroom on University High School’s campus. Sutherland teaches all the courses - everything from geometry to world history to health.

He has 23 students enrolled this fall, each of whom had to interview with Sutherland. He’s candid: If he doesn’t think he can get along with a student, he doesn’t let them in.

But the students there say Sutherland - they all call him “Suds,” a family nickname - is easygoing and quick to offer help.

“Plus, I think it’s easier for kids to speak up in here, because we know so much about each other,” Benner says.

The classroom looks like any other - tables, chairs and computers - except that kids are free to use the microwave, if they don’t want to get lunch in the cafeteria.

Sutherland is interested in building an alternative program that is academically rigorous. As he pulled together the UAC curriculum last year, he says, plenty of U-Hi teachers asked about his courses.

“They wanted to know if I could justify offering these credits,” Sutherland says. He seems comfortable that he answered their challenges. And indeed classes at UAC are blocked into longer periods than a usual U-Hi day. Students cover their subject in depth, and move on from one course to another after just six weeks.

His students use as much if not more technology than most mainstream classes, and they are using Liberty Lake Park for an outdoor classroom in environmental education.

At least half of the students are seniors, most of them eager to catch up on credits so they can graduate. A few are “super seniors,” back for a fifth year.

Graduating with their friends is a powerful motivation for the students. They know they could graduate from Contract Based Education, for instance, without putting in such long hours.

“Here, we get to see our friends. And we get to graduate with our class,” Curry says.

Sutherland says he’d like to see his school-within-a-school grow to include another teacher - a woman, to teach from a female perspective - and to double the enrollment.

“I know we’ve got the kids,” he says.

Extra credit assignment

More than two dozen students from the Continuous Curriculum School in the East Valley School District helped in a mock bus accident last weekend at Newman Lake.

The exercise on Saturday helped the Newman Lake Fire Department prepare for actual accidents on the rural roads around the lake.

Eighth-graders Nick Binczewski and Katie Kolva, both children of firefighters, took part as accident victims.

“They asked us if we had cuttable clothing to wear,” Binczewski said, so that emergency workers could get to their “injuries” more quickly.

Kolva had one arm made up, with false blood, clay to simulate exposed muscle - even a plexiglass bone fragment sticking out.

“It was interesting to see how the firemen had to handle it, when they had more victims than they could handle,” Katie said.

Binczewski is 14 and excited about driving in a few years. He said the exercise made him realize that such accidents really can happen.

Playing victims in the exercise helped CCS students fulfull a requirement for community service.

North Pines parade

North Pines Junior High students have organized a Veterans Day Parade at the school.

Principal Dave Bouge said he wasn’t sure how many parents, veterans and other guests would join the event, but the parade will circle the football field starting at 2:15 p.m. on Nov. 11.

The parade will follow an assembly at which the North Pines band and choir will perform and students will read essays.

“A lot of our kids felt the need to say thanks to our veterans, and I said `go for it,”’ Bouge said.

Teacher Debi Acker is helping organizing the event.

The school is inviting the Valley’s veterans to join in the parade.