New Met School expands students’ options

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This article was published 10/12/2021 (1406 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Seven Oaks School Division’s Met School was the first of its kind in Canada when it opened in 2012, and now the division is celebrating opening its third, which is located in the Exchange District.

The school opened in September, but chose to allow students and teachers to settle in before holding an official opening on Dec. 10, which will feature retired senator Murray Sinclair, who spearheaded the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Met Schools are different from regular schools due to four principles, said Will Burton, principal-teacher at the Exchange Met School.

“The first is that high school students are aligned with one teacher-advisor for the four years of their high school,” Burton said. “And there’s 15 students in one class that stay with one advisor from grade nine through to graduation.”

The second is that learning is project based.

“Students are supported in developing questions they have about themselves or the planet or the city around them, and they undertake inquiry to answer those questions.”

Third is that twice a week students venture into the world — to charitable shelters, other non-profits or business — where they’re partnered with a mentor during internships.

“And the fourth element is that we don’t do examinations. We do public exhibitions of learning,” Burton said.

The division’s Met Schools are also smaller than the city’s traditional high schools, with a student body capped at 150 people.

For the Exchange Met School, that’s almost a matter of necessity. The school is on the fifth floor at 321 McDermot Avenue and can be surveyed almost in its entirety the moment you walk in.

It’s a bright space with hardwood floors and a smattering of tables without any of the gridded uniformity of traditional schools. At lunch, students sit around and chat, and two students played the video game Celeste on a large television.

It’s an environment geared toward those whom the traditional learning model doesn’t suit. In years past, the only option for students would’ve been to bide time in the forgotten corners of schools that just didn’t work for them, Burton said. But now Seven Oaks School Division is working to ensure those students are no longer left behind.

“There’s a lot of reasons why students are attracted to our program. Some want to pursue pursue inquiry and pursue meaningful questions, and then that work can connect to the Manitoba curriculum,” Burton said. “For some students, they want to spend more time outside of a school building. They want to learn from experts in the community.”

Before joining the Exchange Met School 16-year-old Mohini Machiraju couldn’t motivate herself for school.

“I didn’t want to go because I felt that I was in a different headspace than my peers,”  the grade 11 student said. Traditional schools didn’t seem to suit the way she wanted to learn.

“I had a lot of goals for myself, and I had a lot of ideas.”

But now she feels she gets to work toward those goals, explore those ideas.

“I get to go outside of the building more than I ever have to pursue things that I’m actually interested in,” she said.

Taelyn Herselman-Hupe said the connection with classmates and advisors has enriched her school experience.

“We’re like a family,” she said. “It feels like we’re more connected to our advisors and everyone that’s around us, because it feels like they care more about our education and they want us to care about what we’re learning and why we’re learning.”

Burton said students have centred their studies around timely topics, such as the federal election, vaccine hesitancy and truth and reconciliation.