Thursday, February 8, 2007
Student Voice
I have to say that this topic was a bit of a struggle for me. I think that students should have a larger voice in their own education. I feel that this would give many students much more ownership and even accountability for what is being expected of them. My struggle is that many of the students that choose to have this voice are the students that all ready have a voice. They are the kids that are active in many extra-curricular activities such as student council, drama, speech/debate team. The kids that really need a voice to succeed are often the kids that aren't involved in anything...they are the kids that pretend that school sucks and want to go unnoticed in classes and school. I wonder just how we can get these kids that need a voice to believe that their voice matters and counts. You can tell them until you are blue in the face, but until they see that their voice is being heard, they will never believe it. I have one of my kids (my 14 year old) that is one of those kids that has a voice. My oldest(17) is the opposite. He pretends that he doesn't care. Truly, I struggle daily with him and having him believe that he has a say and his say matters. The only thing he says is "let me drop out of school, if I have a say and it matters". How do we reach these kinds of kids? They are the ones that NEED a voice.
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You provide a wonderful example! Kids have evidence that the don't have a voice when nothing ever comes of what they say. And, unfortunately 9 times out of 10 that is what happens. Sure adults say they are listening, but nothing ever happens because of that voice. I'm not saying that we should follow through on what is asked. Don't let your son drop out, for example. But, when possible we should follow through on what they want. Start letting them make small decisions and guide them toward more complex decisions through something called successive approximation. Reward them for good decisions, and sometimes boarderline decisions. Overtime they'll learn to make good decisions and good recommendations. Sometimes, though all we need to do is listen, and we'll be suprised about how smart they really are.
I worked with a Science Teacher in Shelly, Idaho. He started an entrepreneureal science program. Students did real world research and made presentations to local, regional, state, national, and international organizations. And people listened to them because they did good research. These weren't gifted kids. They were middle of the road students who were on the way to dropping out. They found a voice and an audience that would listen.
Recently, the students at Adams City High School in Commerce City took the lead and successfully managed to pass a bond issue to support building a new high school. The first bond issue to pass in 40 years. It couldn't have been done without the students influence.
Opportunities like these show students that they do have a voice. The question we need to ask is, Are our students getting the opportunity to be heard, and are we listening?
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