Down the Rabbit Hole Part II

When we came back after winter break we were given the opportunity to have our PA day during the last period of the Friday school day during a student leadership class for juniors and seniors. While the new semester brought stability in terms of giving us a set time and place to meet with the students, it did not solve all our problems related to student attendance or miscommunication between us and the school. The first PA day of the year solidified this reality in our mind when our contact at the school gave us another project to work on with the students outside of the lesson plan that we had prepared for the students. While we actually were able to accomplish something in that day in terms of helping the students put together a proposal for off campus lunch, it disrupted the flow of our planning and my own confidence even though it later days we were able to return to fully controlling our use of the time. A further difficulty came when Christi announced that she would not be able to continue coaching with us.

As the days of January and February passed a greater challenge emerged out of the gap between the capabilities and understanding of our students and the theoretical knowledge we attempted to provide in our lessons. They never fully bought into the PA language of self-interest, identity, and oppression that we utilized and seemed to long for something more tangible. Nor did they buy in to the variety of activities and methods by which we attempted to bring the knowledge to bear, I believe in part because they were doubtful of the meaningfulness within our plans and in part because they believed we were holding them back. There was likely a serious incongruity between the experiences they had week to week in their normal leadership classes versus our hour with them on Friday. The students did not communicate their feelings to us, though, and responded to the circumstances by not showing up to classes or being less than serious when they were in the classroom. As a result, we found it increasingly difficult to accomplish anything in our lesson plans. Simultaneously, we were spending too much time on the early stages of PA.

We dealt with the circumstances by taking one week to have a heart to heart discussion with the students about expectations and respect before leaping into the selection of an issue to work on. I am not completely sure which aspect did the trick, but for a while there was a significant attitude change in the classroom. We selected an issue--how the use of drugs by students affected their attendance, academic achievement, and graduation--and beginning conducting research. This research process was disrupted by a series of conflicts with the senior schedule ranging from their spring break, to senior ditch day, to sports, to community events that required the participation of the student leadership to set up. Nevertheless, the students were able to conduct a series of interviews with school administration and gather student information through a survey. Both research activities were very successful in gathering information, and though the students as of yet do not have a way to apply that information, they at least seem excited about the possibilities.

And this brings us to the present day, where this Friday the students will present their plans and research to a community panel from which they could potentially receive advice or assistance in moving their project forward. Because of the chaos that is Manual, we do not know for sure if the students will be prepared or if they will even show up. But we have given them an outline through a power point, provided them with the data from their surveys and links to their videos, given them advice, and pushed them out of the nest and off the cliff. Now, we only hope that they can fly.