In this article, the author profiles Charles Dickens Elementary School in Vancouver, British Columbia, a school that dares to be different from the rest. This elementary school operates on a child-centered, multi-aged framework that is based on belief in an orientation towards continuous progress, appropriate evaluation of progress, schoolwide team-teaching, anecdotal reporting to parents (instead of letter grades), a collegial and collaborative working relationship between teachers and administrators, mentoring for student teachers, advocacy teams that recommend school political directions and school improvement plans, an active student council, and a parent involvement advocacy team and parent advisory council. While many individual classrooms throughout British Columbia advocate child-centered education, it is rare to find an entire school that is consistently dedicated to its principles. Having been officially designated as an "alternative school" by the ministry of education, Dickens Elementary has more freedom to depart from the more common mainstream practices. One example of this departure is the means of assessing student performance. Standard achievement tests have been replaced in favor of the professional judgments of teams of teachers, based on their day-to-day observations and evaluations of students' work. Teachers at Dickens remain with the same group of children for a period of three years, allowing them to get to know the students better and to become familiar with their individual learning needs and styles. The author contends that the critical force in initiating and maintaining this style of child-centered school philosophy is the teaching staff. Teachers must see the school as a place where all children can satisfy their curiosity, develop their abilities and talents, and pursue their individual interests. Because there is no "grade-level curriculum," each child's learning needs are met along a continuum of progress. The anecdotal reports provided to parents are accompanied by the students' self-evaluations of their performance, who are often less generous in their appraisals than their teachers. Since Charles Dickens has been in operation for almost 20 years, there is now a history of reports about these children's subsequent performance in secondary schools. These reports indicate that the Dickens students are well-rounded, can carry on good discussions focused on the "big ideas," are good leaders as well as good team players, are autonomous, flexible, personally responsible, and make good adjustments to high school. The author concludes this essay with recommendations on what is needed to allow other schools to adopt these same successful philosophies and practices: (1) "stand-up" leadership from principals, who must buffer the school from district and provincial demands; and (2) school boards and provincial and state authorities who are not afraid to give educators the autonomy to follow a different pathway in meeting rigorous standards. (Contains 8 endnotes.)