Education Kawartha Lakes Weekly
Nestled on Angeline Street behind a grove of trees in the old Victoria Manner building is the Lindsay Adult and Alternate Education Centre (AAEC). It’s the place where Denise Canning felt most supported in her education goals, despite multiple life challenges over the years that made mainstream education feel impossible her.
Canning, a current student in the AAEC’s Personal Support Worker (PSW) program, told Kawartha Lakes Weekly that she first started at the centre 12 years ago “because I had dropped out of high school to have children.” Canning returned to the AAEC a few times over the years, first to complete her high school diploma, then to upgrade credits for college, and now to be trained as a PSW.
It is one of six such centres run by the Trillium Lakelands District School Board and one of two in Kawartha Lakes. Serving people 14 and older, the AAEC helps students to achieve their education goals when mainstream high school is no longer viable for any number of reasons. The centre caters to a diverse range of student needs, whether that’s completing a high school diploma, upgrading credits for post-secondary applications, or gaining new skills to enter the job market.
Even after her initial attempt to get her diploma via virtual classes didn’t work out as planned, Canning says, “I was reassured that coming back tomorrow, it was going to be alright. Take it one day at a time.” Canning graduated and got her diploma at the centre in 2015, “I then went straight to college and got my Early Childhood Education and Social Studies certificates,” she says.
Tarah Zavitsky, another student at the AAEC, started at the centre last fall after trying mainstream high school and homeschooling to no avail. Zavitsky says her mental health issues led to her taking a break from school altogether. “My mom said, ‘when you’re ready, you can go back.’ Then we found this place and they welcomed me with open arms. Now, I’m working to get my high school diploma so I can move on with my life.”
Amy Mullen started teaching at the centre in 2012, her own journey to teaching in alternate education has given her insight into the challenges of finding your own path. She says, “right off the hop, if you had asked me if I would get into this career I would have said absolutely not. I wanted to get into social work.” Mullen ended up in the business sector after college, but “it wasn’t really doing it for me, so I decided to apply to teachers college,” she says.
After teachers college, Mullen toiled at a few different mainstream high schools, still feeling that something was missing. She ended up at the AAEC teaching night school and says, “I felt it, this is where I want to work.”
For students, the AAEC provides a consistency and stability that can otherwise be missing from their lives. “I’m the newest teacher here and I’ve been here for 13 years,” says Mullen, demonstrating that students can rely on the centre and the teachers within it to be there for them time and again.
“I took English with Amy (Mullen), and then I came back and upgraded my English with Amy,” Canning adds.
Unlike mainstream high schools, the AAEC offers equivalent credits to those with relevant life experience, recognizing the skills and knowledge developed outside of the classroom. This helps students like Canning, who was able to get credit towards her diploma for the daycare she had been running and her experience as a parent, or Zavitsky who runs her own crochet business. Zavitsky is also using the centre’s dual-credits option to take a makeup course at Fleming College, which is one of two colleges the centre is partnered with, along with Georgian College. Dual-credits not only allow students to get a feel for college life but also gives them the opportunity to take classes outside of what the AAEC can offer.
With a continuous intake process, the AAEC allows students to register for several learning options any time between September and June. Day school courses are otherwise offered on a six-block schedule throughout the year, with class sizes of 15-25 students. In addition, online and booklet courses are available, which are geared towards independent study.
Mullen shared that it is important to her, to be “able to show my students, no matter their age or background, that they have value and a place in this world. In a system that has traditionally tried to teach them otherwise, I feel so honoured to show them they are worthy and capable of great things. They are my inspiration, and their tenacity is so admirable.”
For more information about the programs and opportunities offered at the Adult and Alternate Education Centre, visit their website aaec.tldsb.on.ca.