Anson New Technology High hosted a tour of the school on Jan. 23. Superintendents and teachers from other schools came out to see how the staff and students of ANT operate. Some of them plan to create a new tech school of their own and model it after Anson New Tech. During the tour students lead them through the school instead of staff members, they were able to ask the students how they really thought of ANT.

“New Tech is an excellent avenue to better prepare students for our global society,” said Dr. Rose Wilder, superintendent of Clarendon District 1 schools in Summerton, S.C.

The staff do believe that ANT is preparing students to better compete on a global scale. Every year ANT is visited by teachers, principals and superintendents that wish to model their school after New Tech. ANT was named a demonstration site in 2009.

“At Anson New Tech the students and teachers are leaders for the learning process, and the students have direct input into the decision making process,” Dr. Wilder stated. “In the traditional high school, the teachers take the leadership role. The process is very autocratic.”

Many of the visitors liked that fact that the students had more leadership roles in the school than the average student would in a traditional high school.