Metro High School opened in 1974 in an old brick firehouse with three teachers and forty students. METRO is an acronym for Mastering Educational Tasks Regardless of Obstacles. Today it is the largest public alternative school in Iowa with over 400 students and fifty teachers and support staff.
I taught at Metro High School from 1977 until 2001when Metro was still a work in progress. I am grateful to have been a part of it. I do hope that someday someone will write a detailed history including bars, graphs and other data. My limited purpose here is to tell stories about one teacher’s experience working in a place where everyone involved: teachers, staff, administrators, and students were engaged together in figuring out how to create and maintain this kind of school.
Most of what I have written is based on notes and journal entries written at that time. It is told from my perspective. My guess is that there are as many different perspectives as there are teachers, staff and students, let alone the perspective of parents, administrators and the community as a whole.
Metro is and was a public school with the same basic requirements as the other public schools in Cedar Rapids. Knowledge and skills may be obtained and practiced in a variety of ways. Some examples include an agri-business (15 acres of commercial garden with sales on site and at the farmer’s market), a commercial bakery, restaurant, and catering business, a bike shop, and clock factory. There were outdoor experiences including canoe trips to the boundary waters, extended bike rides and more.
The day care presented an opportunity for students with children to attend classes and to learn about childcare through the experience of volunteering or taking a class in the day care center.
The adviser-advisee system began in the late seventies. Each teacher was given eight or more advisees for the student’s time at Metro. This involved regular checking in with and listening to advisees and helping with scheduling classes. One of the most important Friday activities was home visits. It really helped to understand the student’s home situation and to discuss student achievements and challenges with a parent or other responsible adult.
The above includes just a small sample of what was going on at Metro.
My memories and stories are mostly true, but since memory sometimes has fun with facts please know that this is creative non-fiction and that I changed names and/or used first names for reasons of privacy.
For more about today’s Metro check out the website: https://metro.crschools.us/
Writings
- “Catching Fire,” 12 Jun 2023 [View]
- “The Homeless Ferret,” 22 May 2023 [View]
- “Metro High School in 1978” 3 May 2023 [View]
- “Iowa already has successful educational alternatives,” The Gazette, 8 Apr 2021 [View]
- “Plagman dedicated to quality education,” The Gazette, 7 Aug 2016 [View]
Photos
Below is the start of a growing gallery of Metro and education photos. Click any photo for a larger view.
NOTE: The image at the top of this page by Wikimedia user “kristinwiki.” It is public domain and shows a view of Metro from 1981. [Source]