Mary Sue Boyette, daughter of former Glade Valley School Teacher Ed Johnson, stacks bricks to pass out during the recent GVS reunion. The bricks, from the recently dismantled dormitories, were cleaned by Boyette and her family to be distributed with a note stating, "To all whose paths led them to Glade Valley School, this brick symbolizes many memories of your time there. Even though the buildings where all these memories came from are no more, may this brick be a reminder of the many truths taught there and a challenge to let Jesus Christ live in and work through you as a living stone." A Bible verse, 1 Peter 2:5, was quoted as well.

Glade Valley School was lost to finances

Editor's Note: The following is the third and final article in a three-part series on the history of Glade Valley School. The school closed its doors in 1985. Many of the original buildings have been torn down.

Glade Valley School's curriculum changed appreciably in school year 1973-1974, introducing a new teaching effort called ‘Integrated Studies.'

The program was envisioned as a pulling all subjects together into a single course load. Semester credits for individual classes were subsequently lowered.

Remarks made in the school newsletter, Echoes, challenged the faculty and staff. "What happens at GVS this year depends upon the quality of the people around the students," it began. "They need to have people around who are open so they can feel their quality. Confidence opens barriers; love keeps them open. A student needs a feeling of involvement in what's going on, that he is helping shape his own destiny. This is what gives a person a reason to be."

The remarks went on to say that GVS also needs a "mutually-shared group of students and staff to be involved in a total life style." A similar piece in the June 1974 Echoes states that "the public school system (in this dehumanized society) cannot meet the needs of many of our children, especially the sensitive, creative ones who need to follow the beat of a different drum."

A program called ‘Action Learning' gave students three options of study: Community Living, Economics and Development and Communications and Self-Interest. Those in the first group built a geodesic dome for use as a greenhouse, the second operated a student snack bar and the third made audio tapes and learned about radio communications. Afternoons were essentially free to work on class projects or their ‘outside interests.'

Student work was expected to be a minimum of 10 hours per week, equally divided between students' costs and their ‘activity accounts,' through which school-provided entertainment could be ‘bought.' Additional classes were offered after supper.

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