Academics

The academic program at Aspen Achievement Academy is designed to complement the therapeutic objectives of the program and promote positive learning experiences. The outdoor classroom provides a diverse physical setting that allows students to learn geology by studying rock strata and fossils, astronomy by looking into the clear night skies, biology through study of local plants and animals. This "hands-on" experiential approach makes learning interesting and fun. It facilitates positive personal growth while enabling students to relate knowledge from books to real life experiences.

The curriculum focuses on English, Social Studies, General Science, and Physical Education. Students must complete written educational modules, in addition to experiential activities, in order to receive credits. They will receive .25 Utah credits for each course completed or .50 credits in any 2 of the 4 subject areas offered, thus they can earn up to 1 Utah credit (I Utah credit is equal to 1 0 California credits). All credits earned are transferable to the student's home school.

Aspen's curriculum, with its experiential approach, teaches students personal responsibility and provides students with the opportunity for a successful educational experience. Students graduate from Aspen with a renewed sense of hope and enthusiasm for the learning process. This enables them to go on to other learning environments with the groundwork laid for continued academic growth and success.

Aspen Achievement Academy is licensed by the Utah State Board of Education as a Special Alternative School and is licensed by the Utah State Department of Education as a residential treatment center.

Education Curriculum Description

Aspen Achievement Academy is a treatment program which is committed to guiding students and their families toward internalizing principles and developing skills which facilitate positive personal growth. This is accomplished through the use of experiential education and therapy in an outdoor setting.

The wilderness experience serves the purpose of acting as a major catalyst in initiating the therapy process. Education provides direction for the wilderness experience and is designed to give structured support to therapy. The three components are integrated so that they compliment one another in a strong, cohesive manner. As the program now exists, education objectives compliment the therapy program and are strictly bonded to the experiential education philosophy. The curriculum is comprehensive and intense. Academic subject areas were chosen to facilitate therapeutic objectives. Therefore, subject areas and objectives are basically set. What this means is that "extra" or other academic requirements cannot be accommodated without compromising program focus.

We are recognized by the Utah State Board of Education to operate as a special alternative school designed to effectively reach students at risk. Our efforts are directed primarily to helping students develop positive attitudes toward learning and helping them choose goals which have meaning and relevance to them personally. Curricular objectives in the areas of English, Social Studies, Science, and Physical Education, which utilize the physical setting which the wilderness provides, focus on therapeutic applications. We are authorized to issue one unit of elective Utah credit which is equal to 180 hours of school work.

Aspen Achievement Academy has an open enrollment program which allows the student to enter the program during any particular time. This system provides many benefits, a major benefit being that new students enter a group which is already grounded and stable, with students who have been here for various periods of time, who have already "bought into" the program, and can provide positive peer modeling.

A student's first experience with academics begins immediately. Students who are new to the program begin their academic work in a survivor's handbook. This handbook is designed to teach skills which deal primarily with personal safety and care with particular focuses directed toward developing a strong survival attitude and problem solving ability. Students are expected to complete the activities in the survivor's handbook in a 4-6 day period of time. At the end of this period of time, they will move into the academic activities with the rest of the students in the group. Daily academic activities require no prerequisites so a student may enter the academic program with the rest of the group at any point during their stay at Aspen.

Elective credits are officially granted to students who successfully complete the program objectives. Students may receive one full unit of credit equally divided among English, Science, Social Studies, and Physical Education or they may elect to receive semester credits in two of the four subject areas offered. There are approximately 27 educational activities or daily activity schedules which follow the completion of the survivor's handbook. All students work on the same activity during a particular period of time so that group discussion can be facilitated. This is accomplished by having students who have just completed the survivor's handbook, go directly to the activity on which the "old timers" are working. When the last academic activity is completed by the student group, those graduating will have completed all of the activities and all of the curriculum and those not graduating will go back perhaps and start on activity one, and complete all those activities up to the point at which they first entered the activity program.

It may be of some interest and use to explain how the academic program has been tailored to compliment the therapy program and give structure to the wilderness experience. The wilderness experience is structured by creating a curriculum which utilized the diverse physical setting available to us. This setting includes: clear skies for studying astronomy, geological diversity and a geologic landscape unequaled to anywhere in the world. Rock strata in this area contain many fossils of animal life which have existed in past geologic time that can be observed. This is an opportunity to use problem solving techniques to apply that to the rock strata and show that sedimentary layers are like pages in a book that the bottom layers would be numbered page one and going up, the newer layers would be on top of them. Also an application can be made to the fact that since older layers are found on the bottom, that life forms that are fossilized in those layers are also the oldest in the bottom layers and the youngest in the top layers. Another way the academic curriculum supports the therapeutic part of the program is in the area of instinct versus learned behavior. One of the activities focuses on the survival instincts of animals and points out how they have survival instincts which have allowed the species to continue, but which have also furnished a guarantee of extinction should conditions on earth change for that particular species. On the other hand, human beings are not burdened with a multitude of survival instincts, therefore they must learn behavior which allows them to survive. Therapeutically, we can use this to show the importance of education, of home, and the role of parents in raising children.

Aspen's curriculum, with its experiential approach, teaches students personal responsibility for their learning process and provides students with the opportunity for a successful educational experience. Students graduate from Aspen with a renewed sense of hope and enthusiasm for the learning process, enabling them to go on to other learning environments with the groundwork laid for continued academic growth and success.