Friday, April 16, 2010

The Brilliance of Students

Today, as the beginning-of-class writing prompt, I asked my students what one thing they would change about our school if they could and why. It's not the first time I've ever asked this question, and it's usually good for some lively discussion about the value of uniforms, the brevity of the lunch periods, the quality of the cafeteria food, and things along those lines.

Today was different. One student raised her hand and said "I'd change the way we do our service hours." (Each student is required to complete a minimum number of community service hours per term s/he is enrolled in a religious studies course; it works out to ten hours every twelve weeks or thereabouts.) I thought she was gearing up to talk about how busy our students are and how it's just another demand on their time and why we shouldn't require it.

I was wrong.

"Okay, why would you change it and how would you do it?" I asked.

She replied, "The way it is now, most people wait till the last weekend before it's due and cram it all in somewhere, and that's not how service should be. It would be much better if kids went to the same place the whole time they were here and really built a relationship with the people and communities we're serving. Now we can say we have a whole lot of hours, but it doesn't mean very much if we don't have those relationships."

Her classmates were nodding in agreement. She went on to say, "What if we got together with our homerooms freshman year and chose a site, then we all went and did our service hours there for all four years?"

Other kids chimed in with their concurrence and why they thought it would be a great idea. I pointed out that doing service with their homeroom group would also be a way of keeping each other accountable.

I left class feeling so energized. In my senior class this term, we discussed the concept of servant leadership and how important it is to listen to others, especially your subordinates. Often they have wisdom or insight or perspective that you don't. I told this young lady that I want to help her pursue and present this idea to the group in charge of service hours, because not only is it an awesome idea on its own merits, it's also an idea that came from a student -- and in a school that's like many other schools and tends to be governed top-down, any time a student's idea becomes a reality is a victory for the kids.

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