First Liberty graduating class prepares to emerge

Wednesday, June 2, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.

As Liberty High School prepares to graduate its first class of seniors Friday, students at Clark County's first campus designed around a "classical studies" model say they've learned more than just the required curriculum.

It's been nine months of mandatory Latin classes, breaking in brand-new textbooks and figuring out the quickest route to the library. There have also been intense discussions about Ray Bradbury short stories, medieval artwork and modern poetry.

And, concedes Liberty High School sophomore Christine Camama, a certain fondness has developed for khaki pants and red, white or blue T-shirts.

"No one really notices anybody's clothes anymore," Camama said of her school's required dress code. "I'm not classified or judged based on what I wear. People think more about the real person."

Liberty High School is the first campus in the state to adopt the "Paideia method," developed in the early 1980s by educator Mortimer Adler to encourage a return to the classical studies model that was once commonplace.

Adler argued that students need to be taught basic information about subjects such as mathematics and history, but those lessons should only be the beginning of the educational process. Teachers serve as "intellectual coaches" rather than lecturers in the Paideia method. Students are expected to demonstrate critical thinking skills with frequent classroom discussion seminars that are ultimately led by the students themselves.

At Liberty students are required to wear khaki bottoms -- shorts, skirts or pants -- and red, white or blue shirts. All ninth graders are required to take Latin and the class is offered as an elective in other grades. Students may also study logic and rhetoric, Greco-Roman athletics and philosophy.

It's too soon to tell whether the Paideia method will pay off in higher test scores, a lower dropout rate or acceptances to more prestigious colleges than the rest of the district's high schools. Performance of the inaugural crop of Liberty students has set the baseline for standardized test scores next year, when the school will have to start showing the "adequate yearly progress" demanded by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Located on Bermuda Road off St. Rose Parkway, northwest of the Henderson Executive Airport, Liberty High School opened in August with 1,100 students -- an enrollment smaller than the average district middle school and 1,400 students below capacity. Liberty administrators expect an enrollment of 1,500 for the 2004-05 academic year, including more than 100 students who have asked to be transferred into Liberty from other area high schools.

The classical studies opportunities and the school wardrobe are the primary reasons cited by students who ask to transfer into Liberty, said Principal Emilio Fernandez.

"Everyone's interested in what we're doing," said Fernandez, who has had dozens of enducators visit not only from other Clark County schools but from throughout the state. "The word has gotten out that something very special is happening here at Liberty."

Students say the seminar discussions -- held at least once a month in every class -- have become a favorite part of the school day. Teachers begin the discussion by presenting a work of art, literature or historical document for consideration. Students then take over the discussion.

"I love that we'll leave the class and still be talking about a poem," said junior Brandy Radke, who received a zoning waiver to attend Liberty after hearing about the school's classical studies program last spring. "I've gotten better at saying what I think and feel about things."

Laura Gault, who teaches history at Liberty, said she has learned more about her students through the seminars.

"The discussions have been absolutely amazing," Gault said. "They'll come up with ideas and evaluations that I probably wouldn't have even been capable of until I got to college. Sometimes they'll point out something I haven't even considered."

Junior Josh Stokes says he liked the seminars from the start but was unconvinced about the merits of taking Latin. However, now, having gotten a look at the vocabulary section of the SAT, he's glad he signed up.

"Knowing the roots of words, that's already helped me in other classes like science and chemistry," Stokes said. "It's one of my hardest classes but it's worth it."

The school almost had to forgo its plans to offer Latin after discovering qualified teachers of the subject were nearly as extinct as the language itself. Fernandez finally found Zipporah Maune, a first-year teacher and native of Burma, who was encouraged to apply for the job by one of her college professors.

"The first year of anything is the hardest," Maune said. "It helped me that all of the students were starting at the very beginning of the language."

Enough students say they want to continue their studies for the school to add Latin II next year, Maune said. By 2006, Fernandez hopes to have enough students studying Latin to warrant adding another teacher.

Terry Roberts, director of the National Paideia Center in Chapel Hill, N.C., said Clark County is the first school district in the country to open a new high school with the Paideia method.

There are more than 100 other schools nationwide affiliated with the Paideia Center and the majority were already established campuses when they adopted the system, Roberts said.

"Just getting the doors open on Day One is enough to tax an army, never mind asking teachers and administrators to do something distinctly different from what they had ever done before," said Roberts, who has made two trips to Clark County. "Liberty has managed to do a magnificent job with both tasks."

Liberty is an example of a successful "thematic" campus, said Clark County Schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia.

"With all the new students we're getting every year there's no way we'll ever have enough magnet programs to meet the demand," Garcia said. "It makes sense to create entire schools with different programs that will hopefully draw students to them."

In August nearly a dozen schools throughout the district plan to follow Liberty's lead and adopt school dress codes. Two new high schools, Del Sol in the southeast region and Canyon Springs in the northeast, will require similar dress codes.

Liberty officials say students who cannot afford the required outfits are provided clothing at no charge. Local merchants have donated gift certificates for students to shop for khakis and shirts and the vendor who supplies the logo items has also donated clothing.

While most of Clark County's high schools will hold their commencement ceremonies in large venues such as the Thomas & Mack center, Liberty's graduation for about 80 seniors will be held in the school's gym.

Fernandez said he asked that graduation be scheduled for Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. because it is the last work day of the year for his teaching staff.

"I wanted to make sure everyone from the school would be there together, because that's what this has all been about," Fernandez said. "Someday we'll probably be too big to do things this way, so I say let's enjoy it while we can."