Oakwood School
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Oakwood School is a K-12 coeducational independent day school, situated on two rural campuses approximately one mile apart, in the Valley Village section of North Hollywood, California. One campus is the elementary school, and the other is the secondary school. It was founded in 1951 by a small group of parents who decided to create a school where children could flourish as thinkers, as artists, athletes, and most of all, as human beings.
Oakwood Secondary School is the host of the very successful fund-raiser called the "Glove Affair" benefiting H.I.V./AIDS prevention programs. Oakwood's school newspaper is called "The Gorilla". Contrary to popular belief, the paper is not named after the school's mascot, also the gorilla. It in fact predates the choice of using it as a mascot. Oakwood School is the only school in the nation to have a Gorilla as its registered mascot.
Oakwood Secondary School also has a mysterious cat named "Jerry" (some call him Gary) that roams the campus. Although the cat is stray, it has chosen on its own to live at the school.
Overall, Oakwood Secondary School stands out from other junior high/high schools in these particular areas:
- Student Freedom
Students are given a large amount of freedom to express feelings and ideas. An entire period, two times a week, is dedicated to just that. Students are free to make announcements, read poetry, dance, sing, and do lots more.
- Equality
Because of the extreme belief that all people are equal, students may call their teachers by their first name. This is so that the students do not feel inferior to the teachers, and so that students are comfortable talking to them as if they were, to put it simply, another person like them.