What Students Really Need from School: Part 2
It’s been a minute. Whoops! I’ve been doing a lot of subbing lately, and lacrosse coaching season just started!
This is a rough season for schools. Students and teachers are on edge. Debate is fierce over the causes and solutions for the growing problem of school shootings. At its core, this is truly a heart issue and a family issue. We probably do need some moderate gun reforms in the short term to buy us safety and time to deal with such systemic brokenness.
But ultimately, schools can only control what they can control, so today I have some ideas on how to tackle that issue and others.
Last time, I offered some food for thought about the care that 13-15 year old students need from their school community. Today, let’s talk about what students need from school when they are 16-18 years old. Many of these ideas may require some serious overhaul to our current system, and some might make people uncomfortable, but let’s talk about them anyway 🙂
Wellness and wholeness
First and foremost, we must educate the whole student. This will require serious overhaul in what we’ve deemed okay to talk about at school. And this will ruffle feathers.
But, our students have deep physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs that cannot be set aside when they walk in the door to school. In this culture of political correctness and microagressions, everyone is walking on eggshells, afraid of lawsuits, or being gunned down.
If we claim to be all about the students, then we must be very intentional in how we build into them.
Students this age need regular, intentional community. The need to be known by peers and mentors. Small cohorts. Consistent interaction with leaders.
We need counselors in significantly smaller ratios than are currently available in a typical public high school. We need group fitness classes, and well-stocked weight rooms, accessible even outside of class. We need spaces for students to just relax, furnished with comfy chairs and lots of sunlight.
Perhaps of utmost importance is that upper level high school students need safe places to have tough conversations about hot-button topics. Students need to practice reacting to opinions with which they disagree–in person, face-to-face. Students need time and space to wrestle through complex issues with peers in casual, supervised arenas–in person, face-to-face.
We must give our students the opportunity for spiritual exploration. We have become bizarrely terrified of religion in schools, but maybe it’s this lack of spiritual discussion in the place where students spend so much of their day, that leaves students feeling somewhat empty. We must encourage students to be part of something bigger. We must remember that it’s okay to talk about spiritual things.
Academics and the Real World
High school students 16+ really need more autonomy over their school day. Nothing kills lifelong learning and nothing is more unmotivating to young people than shuffling to classes students didn’t choose on a schedule that doesn’t mesh with the other things they would rather be doing or need to be doing: work, sports, volunteering, caring for siblings.
I propose regular check-ins with a home base cohort, as discussed above. A safe place to wrestle through tough stuff together and share what everyone is learning.
A semester of personal finance, followed by at least a semester of real world work. With a paycheck and school credit.
Internships instead of class, with a presentation to mentors and home base class.
Independent study, with regular meetings and check-ins, but not daily.
Mentors instead of teachers.
Required volunteer hours, defined by categories, not specific organizations.
Ability to leave classes early if the mentor teacher is finished, like a community college. No sitting around dinking around on phones and wasting time.
Basically less academic structure, but more real-world intentional.
