16 months ago
AUGUSTA (NEWS CENTER) -- On Thursday morning at the Blaine House, eighteen-year-old Chelsea Edgar marched to the sound of Pomp and Circumstance all alone.
Chelsea, who is from Whitefield, was awarded the first Maine Department of Education Diploma.
Under a law passed by the Legislature last year, the diplomas may be awarded to students who have experienced a disruption in their education--for reasons ranging from illness to homelessness, even incarceration.
They must first demonstrate that their alternative educational path has enabled them to meet the standards set by the Maine learning results.
"Our concern," says Nancy Connolly of the Department of Education, "was that the credit and the work that these students were doing was not being recognized and they were not able to get the same kind of high school diploma that a child attending four years of public high school would get."
Chelsea says she is thrilled to have her diploma and she hopes that it will begin to chip away at the stigma surrounding "alternative" education.
"As a culture, we spend too much time concentrating on the things that make us different when we should be concentrating on the things that make us the same. And though we all may learn differently, we all have the same need for a good education," she says.
NEWS CENTER
