If you took a groups of 7th or 8th graders and simply asked them "What will you be doing in 7 years?" they might say things like:
- Going to college.
- Working at my first job.
- Starting a killer band!
- Getting married.
While some of these dreams might not come true, you can bet that there will be a high correlation between the students who say they will be in college and those who go. And there will be a high rate of correlation between those who imply or say they will have graduated high school and those who do. I have not done a study on this, but just based on my personal observations, young people have some sense of where they are "supposed" to go. They get it largely from their family, their peers and their teachers. You could also ask a more loaded question, such as, do you think you could end up in prison? The young people who say yes to this, might know someone in prison, it might be a parent even. It's not "unthinkable" --
My point is that we waste a lot of time with assessment tests to try and find out where young people are going when the most solid predictors:
- What did their parents do in life?
- What did their peers do in life?
- What does the young person think he or she can do in life?
- What are the teachers expectations for a young person like this?
Are often ignored. That's because if we think about these too much things gets... awkward. Every child will not go to college, in fact, college is the wrong place for some people. Everyone cannot be rich, and some will be poor. Some people will go to prison. At times the fate of young people seems hopelessly deterministic. Social class and opportunity weigh so heavily one wonders if educators can make a difference.
I think that we can make a difference, nonetheless. Though, to make a difference we need to engage in some radical thinking. We need to challenge our student's low expectations and assume a better future is possible for them. This isn't a simple thing to do since the systems that we work within are designed to send young people to the same fates as their parents.
I remember watching a student being roughly handcuffed by a school security guard in a hallway one day and I shuddered as I realized that it was like a rehearsal for the rest of his life. There are no security guards in the halls of the prep schools, but there is a psychologist who will talk with students who get in fights about "different was of expressing anger" --again it's a rehearsal for the adult world. Some will handle anger with shouts and in handcuffs, others through careful chats and polite emails.
Every moment of every day in each environment the young people are reminded who they are supposed to be and where they are supposed to go. And they all always do their best to meet our expectations, however low or high the bar might be. That's it. The great secret to the success of some schools and the failure of others.
So what can a school do about this? A school can't change the home-life of a child much (though, involving parents directly in learning activities designed to improve home-life is slow but promising work.) A school can train teachers to think radically about their students in the following ways:
- Teachers should know all about popular stereotypes about race, class, gender and geographical groups. Teachers should be ready and able to counter these ideas as they arise. Teachers cannot subscribe to any of these ideas themselves.
- Teachers must not compromise their standards for the subject that they teach in order to make students feel good, or to please principals and higher-ups who only care about passing rates. Students can tell when a subject has been dumbed down and they pay the price when they are unable to keep up at the next level.
- And yet, a teacher should make every effort (within sanity) to give any student willing to learn the material the chance to pass the class once they have done so.
- Teachers must actively counter negative environments with positive statements and actions. Remind the young people who they can be.
- The school must not treat young people like future prisoners.
A whole k-12 school system with such teachers and admins who supported these ideas (mostly #1 and #2) could make a difference. It would not solve all problems since the young people will still get negative messages at home, through media, in their neighborhood etc. But at least school could be a positive place. At least.