As students move from elementary school to high school, their success is more and more dependent on them taking greater ownership of their learning. Teachers gradually relax the student hand holding of the early years so that at graduation, our students are independent enough to tackle what is next. That is the plan, but as we all know, it doesn’t always work out that way.
On Tuesday I attended a youth court event that was held to address the on-going vandalism problem at Kenai Central and Soldotna High School. It assumed that this problem stems from the two schools’ rivalry. After a brief introduction by the youth court director Ginny Espenshade, the youth court student members ran the meeting. It was attended by about 25 students and six adults . The goal for the evening was to examine the KCHS/SOHI rivalry and to look for ways to move the students away from the retaliatory mindset that is probably the main motivator for the vandalism. I thought it was a great first step in breaking down the barriers that are preventing the students from moving past the negative side of this rivalry. More impressive to me, was the students leading the effort to make this improvement. As we strive to have the student take more responsibility for their lives, it was good to see that this group is doing just that.
Taking Ownership
As students move from elementary school to high school, their success is more and more dependent on them taking greater ownership of their learning. Teachers gradually relax the student hand holding of the early years so that at graduation, our students are independent enough to tackle what is next. That is the plan, but as we all know, it doesn’t always work out that way.
On Tuesday I attended a youth court event that was held to address the on-going vandalism problem at Kenai Central and Soldotna High School. It assumed that this problem stems from the two schools’ rivalry. After a brief introduction by the youth court director Ginny Espenshade, the youth court student members ran the meeting. It was attended by about 25 students and six adults . The goal for the evening was to examine the KCHS/SOHI rivalry and to look for ways to move the students away from the retaliatory mindset that is probably the main motivator for the vandalism. I thought it was a great first step in breaking down the barriers that are preventing the students from moving past the negative side of this rivalry. More impressive to me, was the students leading the effort to make this improvement. As we strive to have the student take more responsibility for their lives, it was good to see that this group is doing just that.