How do you measure the greatness of a school Jesse Jackson

i want to share with you a story about

one of the best teaching jobs i’ve ever

had

while working at deer lake middle school

now dale lake just wasn’t any school

it was an incredible one i’m not saying

this because of the way the campus or

the community looked

this was a great job because of the

incredible people that i had

an opportunity to work with they were

energetic and smart and willing to do

anything to serve children

opening a new school with people that

you’d never worked with before

was quite interesting there’s no

question that we thought highly of our

school

but we weren’t perfect and like all

schools

we all had challenges most of our

students live in the community where the

school was located

but others were bust there from

surrounding areas

working in a school that was located in

a wealthy community had lots of

advantages

but there were also some disadvantages

and one i would like to share with you

about

some of the students that we had in the

school that did not live in the

community

didn’t necessarily feel comfortable as

the students were getting to know one

another

it wasn’t hard determining who didn’t

actually live there

and so some students felt uncomfortable

and really didn’t want to be there

now this is how i got involved i noticed

a group of african-american boys

surrounded by a group of well-off

white classmates who were not shy about

letting you know

that that was challenging for these boys

and that frustration sometimes got them

into trouble

so i decided to meet with my principal

to talk with her about the situation i

asked

if she would allow me to get involved

with the boys

and she said jess if there’s something

that you think you can do

then sure now remember i was a full-time

teacher with lots of responsibilities

so i created a simple plan that had

really one objective

i really wanted the boys to become

leaders at deer lake

so i chose to name young leaders as

their new identity

now the first big step in becoming a

member of the young leaders

was receiving that all-important letter

of invitation

and this letter was really important

because this

really was a way that we were inviting

those boys

for the real first time to become an

important part

of that school and that student

population but i want you to think about

the mother your son comes home with this

letter

that speaks about them becoming a member

of a young leaders program

boy it made you feel special as a parent

the young leaders program was really

designed to help these kids

feel like they belonged to the school

but it was also designed

to help the parents feel like they were

a part of the school

and so when they received that letter

it was a special thing in their lives we

also taught them about developing goals

for themselves

so that they would understand why

school was so important the baby for

changes that we saw in the boards was

obvious to everyone

taking on that identity as leaders that

really made these boys special

poverty was an issue that caused these

boys to really

have a difficult time and to be

vulnerable within that school population

as educators we must be aware of the

plight of all of our students

but especially the students that are

most vulnerable

the young leaders club was a strategy

that we use

but there are lots of other strategies

that could be used when you’re trying to

address the needs of your most

disadvantaged

students you know the greatness of your

school

will be shown in your willingness to

creatively respond

to the needs of your most vulnerable

students

you