Photo credit: Photos8.com
For two years now, we’re operating a website for a pretty big foundation that promotes and teaches financial self-reliance* to high-schoolers. From the beginning, this got me thinking about my own high-school years: I was a less-than-mediocre pupil, mostly because I was rarely interested in what the school taught us, although I had lots of interests outside (programming computers, writing haiku, martial arts).
My best friend in high school was a musician. Although we did have music classes, his specialty (electronic music) was so far off the school’s map that I don’t remember him being allowed to play in the school even once.
Finally, both me and my friend finished high school, studied some more, and become successful enough in our fields**. But now, having grown up, I can’t shake the thought: does it have to be this way?
Is there a way I could help youth who have interests or talents outside the usual curriculum?
So there was a goal, but no method yet. Me and this old friend were talking about this a lot lately, and while we have lots of ideas, we decided to start small. And start simple. Run a pilot, so to say.
We are going to try to introduce a new after-hours program at our alma mater. Letting youth talk about their passions freely, and at the same time, letting them learn a skill that every one of them will found useful in their adult life: making presentations before an audience.
We are envisioning bi-weekly sessions where there would be two presentations (projector and everything) by students, followed by a presentation by someone outside school who we know has great presentation skills, to talk about their fields of expertise.
We think this approach would have multiple benefits:
So, this is where we are right now. Every feedback would be appreciated, since we are inexperienced in this. I’ll keep you all informed about the project’s progress here on my blog. Wish us luck.
(*) For those of you who live in countries that have a history of capitalism, this may sound strange, but in ex-communist countries telling people that not only it’s not the state’s responsibility to take care of them, but in opposite, the state only has their tax money to spend on things is a pretty novel idea. Just ask our politicians.
(**) He now sells relaxation music through his website. If you don’t sleep well, you should check those out.
I have to say that this is, in my opinion, a great way to introduce diversity in skill and allow students to express what skills they do have.
When grades are out of the equation, they would more bravely speak their mind without concern.
However on the long run there was a valid education system Sudbury School Model that I believe will unlock the full potential of the student that seeks knowledge
I wrote a detailed article called “The Factory” about the issue in my blog also and it might interest you.
Tony, thanks for your thoughts! Both Sudbury School and your article on the Factory is very interesting!
Thank you for sharing :D And glad you liked it, few read it actually :)
I think this is a very noble and worthy cause. Often time kids get inadvertently separate at a young age between the “promising” and the “average”. Unfortunately once you get stuck in a category, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy as resources (time & money) are heaped upon the “promising”.
To that thought, we’ve built a social site that democratizes the design process. We’ve been focused mainly on art & creativity but I think it still applies to what you are trying to do. We’ve been working with a school in India on the very notion of giving students equal opportunities to shine in areas outside of the core curriculum. Check out the details here:
http://blog.tapsmack.com/?p=150
We’ve given the students an opportunity to contribute outside of class on things that are important to the school. It allows the artist and shy students an opportunity to have their moment.