“Are you with me now” A J Ryder
From learned experiences to words
This week once again the students did the talking and I did the listening. In the middle of our weekly talk Andrew and I tuned in for a book launch on the Disengaged Teen and to our surprise Angel Feliz, one of our alums from The Met who I know well from Andrew Coburn’s advisory was on a panel with Tamara Willis Superintendent - Susquehanna School District, Timothy Knowles President - Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Jessica Grose Opinion Writer - The New York Times. Angel had the visceral experiences like advisory, internships around his interests, family engagement and more that the other panelists were wanting for all students. He just shined. It was great to watch also knowing how much he contributed to his community by developing BPLiving while at The Met.
Then, the same day, I was on a Zoom with about ten students and three administrators from the Winnipeg School Division presenting their latest updates on establishing advisories at their school. These students knew what they wanted and they knew what many of the root causes of their stresses were. It was an honest talk with all adults taking heed to what students were saying and for me it was a great follow-up to the earlier book talk. The next day, I met with four principals from Winnipeg where we continued the conversation. I’ll be going back February 9th and at that time I’m also meeting with an Assistant Dean and Instructor at Red River College who are interested in using BPL practices at the higher ed level. Also this week, another international overture came from Liberia where Sonn and I met with two people supporting the school. We connected them directly to Carol Owala and they are going to talk in the coming week.
Aside from the book, there were a number of reports that came out this week that we were featured in. One was Empowering Learners for School, Work and Life. Our BPL school Gibson EK was featured. One of the researchers Chris Unger sent it along and next week Andrea and I will be meeting with Chris around the IBPLC work we are doing with Northeastern University where Chris is a professor. Although we were not featured, another report Shut Out: High School Students Learn About Careers — But Can’t Try One That Pays
Schools offer more career days and job shadowing than paid apprenticeships, internships: “It’s not a bad thing. It’s just not enough.” has lots of implications for our work and our funders ASA loomed large. It is good to start this summary off with a question: What is the country where more than half of students use apprenticeships to start a career or as a stepping stone to university? Hint: Sadly, it ain’t us. The U.S. Department of Labor compiled data showing ONLY a little over 10,000 16- to 18-year-olds started apprenticeships nationally last year. This is less than a tenth of a percent of the more than 13 million students that age. The data is better for internships. Here 2 percent of students completed an internship in high school. To put it mildly, that’s not good either.
For us youth engagement and real-world learning go hand in glove. It is in the world outside of school where young people find meaning by doing things that are of consequence to themselves, their families and community where they contribute as they learn. Here they form relationships around their interests in situations that demand their attention and problem-solving skills. These reports tell us what must change but the system keeps on doing what it has always done believing it can right itself. Boring is what students report about their daily school experiences. In a state of boredom students are not fully present and engaged in what they are doing because what they are doing is not meaningful to them. What is the antidote to boredom? HELLO! Next week, The Governor of Rhode Island is coming to The Met. On his visit without prompting or prepping he will see engaged students. What will he take away?
Last week, when I was in Montgomery for the BPL retreat, I walked around the city by myself and went to the steps of the state capital where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his How Long? Not Long speech where the march from Selma to Montgomery ended. I stood there for quite some time just trying to feel what happened here almost 60 years ago. I was 14 years old then and can still remember wathcing the speech “live” on TV. And now all that time later as part of this legacy, we go to a powerful set of museums established by the Equal Justice Initiative to reflect on "How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
Happy Birthday Martin Luther King!
Be well!
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