When Marc Gallivan’s parents were looking for an alternative to traditional schooling in 1998, they made a bold decision: moving from New Mexico to Wheat Ridge. They did this so their children could attend a school where students set their schedules, choose their subjects, and help make big decisions. Twenty-seven years later, Gallivan still hasn’t left.
Now a staff member at Alpine Valley School, located at 4501 Parfet Street in Wheat Ridge, Gallivan is one of the best arguments for the school’s educational model. “In mainstream school, I was a straight-A student, but I’d never really stopped to consider what it was that I actually wanted to do, as opposed to being told what it was I needed to do,” Gallivan says.
After graduating from Alpine Valley in 2003, Gallivan spent years in corporate roles before an opening at the school drew him back. “I felt very connected to the cause of children’s rights, and looking for organizations that respect the innate humanity of children,” he explains.
Alpine Valley School, which opened in 1997, operates on the Sudbury model: a type of self-directed democratic education that gives students autonomy over how they spend their time. There are no required classes, no standardized tests, no grades, and no homework. Staff members (the school doesn’t use the word “teacher”) serve as mentors and facilitators. “There’s this whole toolbox that exists in the world of ways to learn things,” Gallivan says. “The kids are, in many ways, their own teachers. Life is their teacher.”
Students assess themselves in a graduation process with written and verbal components presented to the community. “By the time they graduate, 100% of the students know the basic skills that we would want them to know,” Gallivan says. “They know how to write, how to read, how to do basic arithmetic… without knowing exactly when it was that they learned it.”
Once a week, the Alpine Valley community votes on rules, budgeting, and other school operations decisions. Every member gets a vote, regardless of age, and Gallivan sees this democratic process as one of the most important aspects of the school. “So many messages from society, especially to children, say that you’re disenfranchised, that you don’t matter, that you can’t make things change,” he says. “It’s important for us to remember that we can empower kids to believe that they do matter, and that they can make a difference.”
Many families arriving at Alpine Valley, Gallivan says, have children who struggled in traditional school settings. “There’s a lot of students who were labeled as difficult or needed all of these accommodations in a more mainstream environment, but when they come here those labels tend to fall away.”
When Gallivan’s own child was born in 2014, the decision of where to enroll was easy. “There was really no doubt in my mind where he was going to go,” he says.
When Gallivan’s son is old enough to graduate, he’ll stand in front of the Alpine Valley community and demonstrate what he learned, on his own terms, just like his father did decades before him.
