John Barker
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Sep 25/02) - They call it New Beginnings alternative school. The alternative for many of these kids would be the end of the road, rather than the beginning. The end of the road for their schooling that is.

Cam Brown came from northern British Columbia to teach here this year. He's been involved with alternative education outside mainstream classrooms for 14 years -- most of his teaching career to date.

How unlike the mainstream classroom is New Beginnings? Very in some ways, not so much in others.

Set in the former woodworking shop of Samuel Hearne high school, New Beginnings has some striking contrasts.

In the same room, the students -- ages 13 to 16 -- are researching any variety of subjects from laptop computers while kids learn to fix snowmobiles only a few feet across the floor.

It's a large room: Several thousand square feet.

"Space is important," Brown says. "Some of these kids have had behaviour problems in the close quarters of a regular classroom with 30 kids. Give them space like this and they're often a lot calmer."

Some subjects, however, like mathematics are taught in a regular classroom environment, Brown says, because it's important the students keep some connection to how a conventional classroom functions.

Of course, that conventional classroom can be used to teach some things one might not always expect to find in the normal curricula. Last week, Randy Phillips was offering a three-day Canadian Firearms Safety Course.

There are a dozen kids enrolled at New Beginnings this year. Seven of them came in last week on what could have been a day off for them -- a professional development day for Beaufort Delta Divisional Board of Education teachers -- to complete their firearms testing.

"I guess I should be at the in-service training too, but I'm here doing this," admits Brown.

New Beginnings got its start in September 1999. At first they were in the Northern Lights Building until a fire within the first six months forced them to relocate temporarily to the Samuel Hearne high school garage.

Gordon Church, the current vice-principal of Samuel Hearne, taught at New Beginnings two years ago. In an earlier interview, Church said he focused on getting the students to work with their hands as well as their minds.

"The whole thing with this school is that it is called an alternative school," said Church. "That means there is a danger of people thinking it's a place for those with no ability to go anywhere else. But I've got news -- they're all bright young men and women, but they're also round pegs that don't fit into square holes."