Roanoke / Virginia / United States
Community High was founded by a group of parents, many of them college professors, looking for a more innovative and responsive high school environment for their own children, a school that would more thoroughly prepare them for a complete liberal arts education and for a fulfilling adulthood. We began as an extension of Community School, an institution with over thirty years of experience in student-centered alternative education, and have quickly grown into an independent and vital organization. We are located in downtown Roanoke, Va., where our students work with a number of partner organizations. Our campus extends beyond our main facility at 302 Second Street to the Roanoke Higher Education Center and the Taubman Museum of Art. We are small by design, with classes that work in an intimate, seminar-based format. Our faculty includes working artists accomplished in their fields and scholars with advanced degrees. Our curriculum is diverse, including classes in both conventional core subjects and in areas ranging from Film Production to African Studies. Our students are diverse as well, in ethnicity, faith, economic background and, perhaps most importantly, vocation. We seek to define the arts as critical thinking. While we encourage students to express themselves creatively, our understanding of Art isnt limited to that. We encourage our students to engage in a broader cultural conversation, to understand Art as a means of inquiry. To do so means to think independently and critically. The cognitive skills developed through the arts are as vital as those developed in the sciences and social sciences. All of them make for better students, more engaged citizens and happier people. What else can we say? Perhaps this: Community High is a home for folks who are impatient with rote learning, standardization and unimaginative thinking.
