This is encouraging. The Chron reports that Chavez High School is holding credit recovery classes over the holiday break, and 800 kids showed up. It's exactly what schools need to be doing, in my opinion. Because of my consulting work in schools - because of what I see every day in high schools - I do a lot of thinking around this question: If we had a single minded focus on graduation, what would schools look like? What would we - we meaning the entirety of the community - do to ensure we would accomplish that one thing?
Schooling would look different for teenagers who are used to technology, a 24/7 connected world, and who have a myriad of things preventing them from succeeding in our traditional, paced, scheduled world of high school requirements. It would be startling for most people, including community leaders, to spend some time at a public high school and really dig into what's going on there with pregnancies, family members in jail, kids on probation, economic crises, etc. - the many very serious reasons kids are falling behind and in danger of dropping out of school.
In Texas, we've put a lot of energy behind a college bound culture, which is important. We need to continue to force ourselves to be creative and be single minded about the first step in that path: high school graduation.
If we took the attitude of "we are going to tackle this, and leave everything out on the field in the process," what would that look like? Would grownups be willing to go that for the children in our community?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments.
2 comments:
Good to see the community and also the kids pursuing this.
I also wonder if it wouldn't be good for communities to also push trade or technical schools as viable options for those who can't afford 4 year programs. I always thought it would be good alternative for those who can't go into debt to go to college and others who get stuck in jobs with only a high school degree.
As an educator, I will tell you that the HS drop-out rate is the most frustrating statistic of all. Especially since what we have are individuals harming themselves. They shut themselves out of jobs, education and further opportunity.
Until the individual decides to complete it, this will not change. Unfortunately, it has to be changed person by person.
And they have to commit to it. That's the problem, getting the individuals to sacrifice short term pleasure for a long term goal.
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