One of the highlights was an interview with a group of students who have all faced challenges, including juvenile hall, homelessness, abandonment, drugs, and deaths of friends and family. When asked how they made it, every single one of them said they got help; an organization, a teacher, mentor helped them and believed in them.
That really doesn’t seem like it should cost that much more money to accomplish.
Another interesting question was: If you were top dog and could help students, what single thing would you do?
• Longer lunch
• Extended day (when having to do class retrieval older students want to have as much opportunity to get the job done as possible)
• Summer School (same as above…once focused, they want every opportunity to finish)
• Classes not so long (1.5 hours) too boring
• Active classes, teacher is active with the students, the students are active with the teacher
• More cultural differences in the curriculum, all cultures should be covered in history
• More languages, the world is changing and all students should be bilingual.
• Be “on” the kids. Expect more, demand more.
I walked away thinking we need to ask students what they want more often. Really, they have the answers:
1. Support and believe in them
2. Expect more from them
3. Help them achieve to the expectation
This can be done. Even in this economy.
Kudos to all of the organizations involved in the Pierce County Graducation Summit!
October 9, 2009 By
