AN ETHNOGRAPHIC INTERVIEW WITH MR. DAVID WHALEN BY SARAH WERNER

ALL ABOUT MR. DAVID WHALEN 39 years old Dark Brown Hair Graying at the Ends Hazel Eyes Has Three Kids Julia 7, Emily 4, and Ben 2 Coordinator and English Teacher at ACES for Four Years Prior to ACES, was an English Teacher at FLHS

WHAT EXACTLY IS YOUR JOB? “I am the coordinator of an alternative school and an English teacher.”

WHAT DOES ACES STAND FOR? “ACES stands for Academic Community for Educational Success.”

WHAT EXACTLY IS ACES? “A school the way it ought to be. It’s an alternative to a traditional school. It’s very student centered and in many ways it’s run by the students so they make it what they want.”

HOW DO THE STUDENTS RUN THE SCHOOL? “They chose what books they read for class. They chose the trips they go on, many times but not always. They are on the hiring committee when we hire a new teacher. They change the rules of school in terms of discipline and even the time we begin the day and the time we end the day. They have a say in everything.”

HOW MANY STUDENTS ATTEND ACES? “Eighteen students have attended ACES this year. One graduated in January so seventeen students currently. There is one freshman. There are four sophomores, six juniors, and seven seniors, eight if you count the one who graduated early.”

HOW DO THE DIFFERENT GRADE LEVELS INTERACT? They take some classes together and go on overnight field trips together. We rarely have committee meetings because everything runs so smoothly here but when needed they work on committees together. We see no distinction between grade levels. People are people and that’s why I hesitated on the age question because age is unimportant in many ways. “

WHAT DO YOU DO AS COORDINATOR AT ACES EXACTLY? “I am like the world’s smallest principal. I am a principal in miniature. I do everything a principal does at a high school only at one one-hundredth of the scale. So suspensions, creating the schedule, hiring staff, setting goals for the year, and also making sure that students get their free and reduced lunch that they are entitled to are reduced to a smaller level. Honey, I Shrunk the Principal.”

WHAT ENGLISH CLASSES DO YOU TEACH AT ACES? “I teach 9 th, 10 th, 11 th, 12 th, Humanities, Philosophy, and Communications. How do I teach seven different classes? Well again the difference in ages and the difference in grades don’t really mean a lot so I have my ninth grader when I have my tenth graders and sometimes and in some years that’s fine. Sometimes, I have my tenth graders when I have my twelfth graders. Every student is at a different level so we pick where he or she works. The Philosophy student I see once or twice a week, it’s essentially an independent study but I’m there for whenever he needs me.”

WHAT EXACTLY IS AN INDEPENDENT STUDY? “ACES has for many years been able to do independent studies. Students are given the work, a syllabus, a course outline, and the essential assignments. The large assignments are checked on a weekly or monthly basis and they do the work independently on their own time. As soon as they get feedback from the teacher, they go along at their own speed. They are guided by the teacher but not sitting in a classroom for forty minutes a day. I couldn’t do that not with seven periods and seven different classes a day. For me to lesson plan seven different lessons, there’s not enough in our day to do that.”

WHAT OTHER CLASSES ARE TAUGHT AT ACES? “Physics, Earth Science, Global History, World History, U.S. History, Economics and Government, Integrated Algebra, and Quantitative Geometry. Humanities and Communications, I think are the two most important.”

HOW MANY STUDENTS ARE IN YOUR AVERAGE ENGLISH CLASS? “The average class, that’s difficult to say. I always get thrown off here because if you look at the averages it’s absolutely absurd. Typically a teacher here has a class with just you and one student and that’s not because we want it but because the student’s schedule requires it. That’s just the way it works. Students who are in different levels in math just throw everything off or if they have a different science. I have a class where I just teach two students and another class where I teach one student. An average is not realistic considering that no one else district wide teaches seven classes a day. What we aim for is a class size of seven to eight students.”

HOW MANY TEACHERS TEACH AT ACES? “If you include every teacher who has taught here this year, there are ten people who are considered to be teachers. There is a teacher on each of the following subjects; English, History, Math, Science, P.E., and Art. The other people are the social worker, the guidance counselor, and the student assistance counselor. There was a Health teacher and there is a secretary.”

DESCRIBE THE IDEAL ACES STUDENT “The perfect student would be a student who needs this program and helps this program become stronger. A student who is depressed every morning when he or she wakes up and knows that they have to go to the large high school but after coming here they actually look forward to Monday mornings, for many students that is what happens. An ACES student is usually introspective, creative, shy, smart, and many of them troubled home lives. Those who have troubled home lives don’t have a place where they feel safe but then they come here and they feel safe.”

DESCRIBE THE ACES BUILDING “It is a dump but a comfortable dump. It has couches. It is really a one room schoolhouse but it has a basement. It’s a white church from the 1800’s that has been moved twice. When you walk through the front door, you walk into a one room schoolhouse. It’s beautiful that main room when all the students are working on different projects and excited to be there. It’s what school should be like. The basement’s a little less inviting. There’s a kitchen, an art room, and a science room. The back area of the main room is called “the stage” and has eight couches on it. The stage is where ACES traditionally hold community meetings and English classes.”

HOW LONG HAS ACES BEEN IN EXISTENCE AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN AT ACES? “ACES has been in existence for thirty-six years. In the 80’s, Paul Newman spoke in defense of ACES to the district’s Board of Education. I have been the coordinator at ACES for four years. Before that I taught English at Fox Lane High School.”

ACES VIDEO detailpage&v=6o8GJCy8mD8#t=0s detailpage&v=6o8GJCy8mD8#t=0s In this video, the interviewee asks three current ACES students about how ACES has changed their school lives.

REFLECTION To me, ACES is a place where I feel safe, like a second home. ACES doesn’t really fit in with the district. Few if any people know of it outside of the students and teachers and it’s being cut next school year. Mr. Whalen has to walk a fine line between keeping the administrators happy and the students happy. Mr. Whalen has been essential for ACES’s success. He is an advocate for us to get exactly what we need at the high school.