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