Why Bridgeway Matters - A Teacher's Perspective

Our teachers are amazing.  They believe passionately in the potential of each student they work with, and celebrate each success.  Many have worked in both the public school system and at Bridgeway, and feel the doors that open for students at our school may not be found anywhere else.  Here is one teacher's perspective on why Bridgeway matters.

The Bridgeway team

By Drew Hayman

As a teacher, I fully believe that our future lies with our students and that as time continues to progress, I see a problem growing between our students and the education system.  We are not allowing our students to realize their full potentials and because of this we are creating, for many, gaps between the levels of education and their true potential.  When I began at Bridgeway Academy, I saw a lot of students who were being given a second chance at a life that they would be in control of.  I left the public school sector after being given the opportunity to teach at Bridgeway and at that time I felt, and still do, that I was leaving a broken system for one that was fixing much of what ails the public sector.

 Throughout time, students have had learning differences, difficulties, or disabilities, and they have always been given labels to allow them to fall through the cracks.  Today, we are finally realizing that these students should not be falling through the cracks but instead should be allowed to realize their full potential.

The students that utilize the Bridgeway and other DSEP schools are able to succeed when given the chance to do so.  But if the Tuition Support Program was to be removed the students that currently experience such great success would not be able to feel like they should.  It can be a large financial burden to take a student from a public school system and place them into the private sector.  However, I put this question to you.  If your child was experiencing problems in school and you knew that if they could get the attention they needed in a setting that was not the mainstream public system, wouldn’t you try and take that chance?  I am in no way saying that the TSP is perfect; in fact, I do believe that it has a fatal flaw in that it is limited to 4 years and the funding runs out.  If a student’s gap in their learning is at 6 grades behind, it puts an awful lot of pressure onto the student to close that gap in 4 years.  The reality of the situation is that the TSP needs to be available for as many years as the student needs it, so that the gap that was created in a setting in which they are not suited to learn in can gain the skills and abilities to learn in any setting.

Bridgeway opens its doors to many different students with many learning differences. This setting that allows the students to leave classrooms of 30 or more, to classrooms of eight, so that they can regain not only missing skills but confidence in their abilities and in themselves.   Staff looks at every student as an individual case, and while working with the student, they discover what delivery methods and testing strategies work best.  We teach the students in the way they learn best.  Not the way everyone else does, because when it comes down to it, wouldn’t you rather show everyone what you can do not what you can’t?