Overall, the meeting seemed to go well and the goal of incorporating the voices of many other Steller community members was easily met and surpassed. The representation of parents, students, and staff members was inspiring. The amount of involvement by community members has multiplied and, whether in support of the position paper or not, everyone should see the positive in that fact alone.
As expected with everything in life, there was some bad mingled with the good. I was participating in the School Organization seminar/discussion group and speaking time was split even between the adults and students; however, just over half-way into the meeting I was pulled aside by a fellow student. I was informed that several students were feeling that discussion in their groups was being dominated by the parents, and it was not because of lack of things to say from the students.
This sort of situation is one of many that the position paper (or parts of it) is addressing. The students are the only reason that meetings about position papers are possible. Without the students, Steller would not exist and for that reason our opinions are equally as important as those of the parents. Many comments or opinions may be somewhat naive or erroneous, but it is a vital educational experience for students and everyone else who is open minded within the community.
The most effective methods to revitalize Steller will lie with the students, therefore the students must feel empowered! Students need to have the support of their parents in their beliefs and actions (responsible ones, of course), even if the parents do not feel the same about issues as their children. One of the greatest things about Steller is the opportunity to be an individual, a TRUE individual, within an accepting community. Students' individualities, and in turn their ability to grow as a person, are restricted by lack of faith from adults.
The student body does face a daunting obstacle - apathy. As many well know, not all Steller students attend Steller because they believe it is the best educational environment for them because of our philosophy and practices. These students must realize the stagnation that they bring with them when they do not care about counseling groups, or responsible freedom, or even all-school hugs (which many disdain, to which I am very disappointed).
Aside from apathy, the student body and the rest of the Steller community suffer from a lack of knowledge concerning Steller. This can be traced to the failure of the student body to actively participate in New-to-Steller student orientation. Orientation has become "how to survive in Steller" instead of "how to prosper in Steller." It is time to reinvigorate Steller by returning to thorough orientation of new students, parents, and staff members.
I am currently planning a "Re-orientation Day" for sometime in the next few months. I believe that it is imperative to remind (or inform for the first time in some cases) students and staff members (and parents if they should attend) about their responsibility and importance as members of the Steller community.
High Chancellor (Chair)
David B
P.S. Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting! It means a lot to me and to others that so many people are actively interested in Steller's future.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
It's positive and inspiring that those students who didn't feel they were getting enough chance to speak formed their own group and talked. I'm proud as well that two of the five pre-planned groups were led by students and staff members were recorders in two groups. It's also important for students to remember that parents are learning, too. Students need to give parents a chance to do it right--ideally, they could express their dissatisfaction and get the mixed group to work better rather than forming a separate group. That aside, all the feedback from the meeting seems to be positive. There's a lot of momentum now for improvement at Steller. I'll post about next steps soon.
I think that the group overall did a good job with the meeting. The kids thing was really a nice thing to see (for the record, i was the one who pulled david aside and gave him a report about the problem.) the meeting felt a little to controlled by the parents and is seemed that the kids didn't have the same respect that the parents had. To go into the problem, it seemed as such that the kids had to raise there hands and had to wait two to three minutes before we could say our peice, while the parents could just blurt it out. It seems that in a school like steller, you're incouraged to not raise your hand, isn't that one part of the seminar corriculim? Overall the meeting was okay but could be improved.
Chirs Jenkins
Jennifer's Counseling Group guru.
I was not at the meeting but feel that Chris has a really good point. If the students do not feel comfortable with the speak as you feel moved approached (perhaps more organic) in a large group setting, then we must change that way of running a discussion. I know we discussed a 'talking stick' approach and some felt that that would be too contrived, etc. But maybe another idea is that the facilitator write down names as folks raise their hands during discussion and go down the row, in order. If any group feels overpowered by the rules of the conversation, something must be changed and asking students to simply get in there and speak up is not fair. I know that no one intends to leave anyone out but sometimes our comfort level of loose conversation is different than that of others. We need to open our hearts to trying adding another ground rule I think regarding this issue. Perhaps we need for the body who is present to vote on and own the ground rules at the beginning of meeting.
Incidentally, I also think it would be wise to invite more students to facilitate. It might be time for some new voices to help plan meetings and compile opinion surveys, what do you all think?
oops, I did not read what I wrote, what a silly sentence at the beginning of that posting. You probably figured out what I meant but, in case:
I meant- If the students do not feel comfortable to speak as they feel moved, a new approach (even if it is less organic) must be tried.
Is it showing that I am not a blogger?
Post a Comment