Alice Jamieson Girls' Academy
Encyclopedia
| Name | Alice Jamieson Girls' Academy | ||
| Location | 950 - 6 Street N.E. Calgary, Alberta Alberta Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces... , Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... (Co-located with Stanley Jones School) |
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| Board (type) | Calgary Board of Education Calgary Board of Education The Calgary Board of Education is the public school board in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. As a public system, the CBE is required to accept any students who meet age and residency requirements, regardless of religion.-Size:... (public) |
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| Language | English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
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| Grades | 4-9 | ||
| Principal | Mr.Steele | ||
| School Board Trustee | Pat Cochrane | ||
| City ward | Ward14 | ||
| Area of city | Area II | ||
| Founded | 1950 | ||
| Enrollment | 486 | Information current as of | September 2007 |
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It is the only single gender school run by the Calgary Board of Education
Calgary Board of Education
The Calgary Board of Education is the public school board in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. As a public system, the CBE is required to accept any students who meet age and residency requirements, regardless of religion.-Size:...
(CBE), and is one of a very small number of fully public single-gender schools in Canada.
The school was named to honor Alice Jamieson
Alice Jamieson
Alice Jamieson was an American leading Calgary, Alberta feminist and magistrate.Jamieson arrived in Calgary in 1903 when her husband, Reuben Rupert Jamieson, became the area general superintendent for the Canadian Pacific Railway...
, an advocate of women's rights in the early 1900s, and the second female magistrate in Canada (and the rest of the British Commonwealth).
History
The idea of an all-female publicly funded school in Calgary was first formally proposed by The Calgary Girls' School Society to the Calgary Board of EducationCalgary Board of Education
The Calgary Board of Education is the public school board in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. As a public system, the CBE is required to accept any students who meet age and residency requirements, regardless of religion.-Size:...
, who sought a charter from the board. The board rejected the proposal. After the rejection, the society received a public charter directly from the province, and opened the Calgary Girls' School
Calgary Girls' School
Calgary Girls' School is an all female public charter school in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It currently teaches grades 4-9.Established in 2003, the school operates at two sites. Grades 4-5 are located at the Bel Aire campus, and students in grades 6-9 are located at the Lakeview campus. A school...
(CGS) in 2003. While the board opposed the idea of a charter school
Alberta charter schools
Alberta charter schools are a special type of public schools which have a greater degree of autonomy than a normal public school, to allow them to offer programs that are significantly different from regular public schools operated by district school boards. Charter schools report directly to the...
, it did support the idea of an all-female school, so it opened AJGA as its own all-female school also in 2003. The two schools are similar in several ways: all-female, grades 4-9, mandatory uniforms, female-mentorship, and a female perspective in viewing history and other subjects taught; but are different mainly in administration and accountability issues. As an alternative program school, AJGA has somewhat more freedom and independence than a typical CBE school, but far less than the autonomy a charter school, like CGS, has.
Some criticized the board for opening an all-female school, while there was no all-male school. This situation has been rectified with the opening of the All-Boys Alternative Program school at the Sir James Lougheed School in Southwest Calgary in September 2011.
Philosophy
There are several reasons given for having an all-female school. Partly it's designed to avoid the distraction of girls worrying about their appearance, when boys are around. Sometimes, its believed, girls under perform, to avoid embarrassing male peers. More significantly, its believed by supporters, that the genders actually learn in fundamentally different manners, with different ways of thinking and communicating. While following the standard Alberta government curriculum, the school goes into greater depth when discussing the role of women in history and other areas of study. According to the school's first principal, Dr. Ursula D. Steele, "Girls need an understanding of the biological and social construction of gender".http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b233/AJA_Website/principals.htmExternal links
- Official site of Alice Jamieson Girls' Academy
- Sources cited by Alice Jamieson Girls' Academy as justification for single-gender schools:
- Policy Watch: Tackling the Gender Gap - Article by the Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education which discusses the issue of gender gaps in education, and use of single gender schools, like AJGA.
- Official Site of the Calgary All-Boys Alternative Program