Calgary heading for an influx of boutique schools?

[DataDoxy]

The Calgary Board of Education has petitioned hard for school choice. This kind of competition leads to 'boutique' schools that are designed to attract students.

In the Calgary Metro today administrator Matt Christison, principal at Centennial High School, discussed some of the challenges that arise from the school choice model. Christison, who advocated for choice, admits that, "...even if we do a really good job, there will still be things that we don't offer that people would like".

This is a contentious subject to say the least. In a report from the Future of Principalship of Canada, one principal called this "path to perfection" a "death march".

How do you feel about boutique schools? What effect do you think they will have on the next generation of learners? Would you like to shop for such a school?

[calgarygeologist]

I'm all for boutique schools. I'd personally like my kids to attend a school that had a high emphasis on physical and applied sciences. I see no harm in offering sports schools, art schools, Spanish schools, French schools, etc. as opposed to a single, standardized public school.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

I'm all for boutique schools. I'd personally like my kids to attend a school that had a high emphasis on physical and applied sciences. I see no harm in offering sports schools, art schools, Spanish schools, French schools, etc. as opposed to a single, standardized public school.

+1. I also think there should be more specialization of instructors in the younger grades. My wife has an ed degree, and the math skills of some of the people taking elementary education made me cringe. Crafts and singing are good, but being able to teach addition is important too.

[WinnipegFan]

I fear the path of "boutique" schools. I worked at one in Calgary for about 9 years. We were a specialty program school and attract students from around the city. The difficulty at a boutique school is that other programs pay the price for this uniqueness. We had a huge performance visual arts aspect at our school and when I started we were very strong in athletics as well. However, with all of our additional funding going into the arts, and absolutely zero school funding going into sports (all sports funding was self generated through team fees and fundraising) our school has now fallen off the map athletically. We can barely field teams in most of the major school sports. On top of this academics suffer incredibly as well. Now, perhaps this is better for the Arts students but we still have a demographic of, for lack of a better word, regular students. They are severely underserved in the name of our boutique school. They get jammed in huge academic classes so we can maintain small arts classes. If we allow the schools to remain competitive in this boutique style then we are severely segregating students and removing the potential for them to experiment with other activities. High school should be diverse or else we end up with junior high students with similar stress as our grade 12s have when choosing their university. Now picking your high school will carry similar implications.

[DataDoxy]

There are pros and cons to boutique schools but from what I am seeing, I think boutique schools are the way of the future. Calgary already has boutique schools like Traditional Schools, Cultural Schools, Boys School, Art Schools, International Schools... and more!

I think this trend will continue as educators and parents are looking for new ways to engage and excite kids. Sadly, too many kids are disengaged in schools and unfortunately, many are ill-prepared for their future which, due to rapidly changing technologies, will be radically different from our world today.

Schools of the future can no longer afford to offer a one-size-fits-all model where everyone learns the same thing, at the same time, in the same way, and at the same rate. Instead 21st Century schools will be highly personalized, adaptive, engaging, motivating and innovative. These schools promise to push the boundaries of school beyond the traditional brick-and-mortar walls.

So... if the writing on the wall points to the emergence of new models of schools.... what kind of school would you envision for your children? A Performing Arts School? A Traditional School? An All Girls School? A Sports and Performance School? A High Tech STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering and Math) School? Or...?