Welcome to Commie High

I watched this last night as the inaugural event of the high school's 50th anniversary/all school reunion. As a 1982 graduate (only 10 years in) I was amazed at the evolution that has taken place in the intervening 40 years. The teachers and administrators are still wonderfully dedicated to bringing out the best in every student. The level of rigor in the academics seems to have increased but the enthusiasm for "weirdness" is still there. I would have loved to have seen more of the faces that were there when I attended who were so instrumental in developing this wonderful school, but it has been 40 years, after all. Shout out to Elmo Morales, Jack Gray, Ava Brown, Debbie Low, Connie Craft, Steve Eisenberg, Rose St. John, Elaine Headly, Chris Crockett, and others. You rock!

This is a well edited documentary about an experimental way of approaching schooling where students take classes with members of the community for credit. It is also about the transformation of schooling from the "hippie" school to the "college prep" with all iterations in-between. Parents use to stand in line in freezing cold weather in Ann Arbor, Michigan in order to sign their kids up for Community High and now they still have a lottery system to select just a few hundred kids out of over 400 application. The music is amazing and the kids and teachers even more amazing. For educators, this is a must see movie that is similar to Waiting for Superman.

A slice of time in one of America's oldest alternative schools. Well filmed, edited and directed. It kept me in my seat for the whole time.

It starts with a family waiting to see if their child gets into a school they went to. It follows the tumultuous year that follows interviewing alumni and former teachers at the school.

It's the oldest alternative school in the country and looks at how it evolved.