Over the past two years as Editor-in-Chief, I’ve seen a lot of news going through the Devil’s Advocate. But no one has been a bigger newsmaker than Mr. Larkin.
I have never met an administrator with such an abundance of school-changing ideas. We’ve covered it all, from reforming schedules to laptops for every student. Mr. Larkin has changed the way I view schools; things don’t have to stay the same just because they’ve always been that way.
The problem is that Mr. Larkin doesn’t want to create changes by himself. He believes in student participation. However, students at our school are so apathetic and passive. They refuse to take a role in shaping changes, and as a result, many exciting ideas have fallen flat on their faces.
My staff and I can tell you about interviews with Mr. Larkin. There comes a point every time that we know there is no use asking how a new policy will work. He doesn’t know; it’s something a student committee will have to work out.
Ah, student committees. Mr. Larkin says schools should be learner-centered, not teacher-centered. “Kids are going to have the best ideas,” he says. So far, they seem to be keeping those ideas to themselves.
Last fall, Mr. Larkin floated the idea of an internet café in the lower library. A student committee was supposed to take the ball and run with it. So far, no committee, and only adults have offered ideas.
Last year, progress reports changed to self-evaluations, then back to the one-liner “Your daughter is passing at this time.” Mr. Larkin said he wanted student input before re-revising the reports. He got nothing and has had to go ahead with changes using only teacher and parent ideas.
Mr. Larkin has asked for student ideas on new school schedules, including one that would make every fifth day independent study. He has received three or four e-mails, all complaining about the current schedule, none offering solutions.
The list of big ideas goes on, from combining levels 2 and 3, to getting students using laptops in all classes. The principal asks for student input and gets none. Last month, he announced he wanted to give up his office. Among the 15 comments on his blog on what to do with the space, none appear to be from students.
Now, I’m not saying students aren’t making change; they are. Senior Natalie Casey started an art gallery. The Leadership and Social Change class proposed a schedule change. There is student involvement, but it isn’t enough.
Some of you may remember Katie Spinos, who died in 2007, less than a year after taking over as superintendent. As she started her job, she called on students to give her ideas about what they would like to change in their school system. She received how many e-mails? Zero. None. Given an opportunity to have a voice, we all backed away from the microphone.
Part of the problem is that students aren’t encouraged to have a say. We’re assigned books to read, labs to complete, and math problems to answer. We’re so used to there being a right answer, we don’t know how to come up with our own.
Now we have a principal who, like Spinos, wants to throw the ball into the hands of people who have never played ball.
Last year, the Devil’s Advocate asked students what it would take for them to recycle more bottles. Students wanted reminders on the announcements, flashy advertisements, rewards. One student said he’d recycle, “If I got paid.”
It’s a bottle. Recycle it. Our student body doesn’t take the extra minute to do what we know is right.
This year, approximately 30 athletes were suspended from their sports as a result of Facebook pictures of the students allegedly drinking alcohol. I’ve never seen students in our school so livid. “They can’t do this! It’s private!” people screamed.
But did anyone do anything about it? I couldn’t even convince my own staff to write an article. Sorry, guys. I love you, but seriously? Someone needed to stand up to represent the school’s charged voice. No one even wrote a letter to the editor.
“Yeah, but who has time for that?” you may be wondering. From academics, to jobs, to sports, family, and everything else, why should we make time for changing a school we leave after four years?
I won’t deny that it’s a lot of work, but seeing a change at the end is so rewarding. If I’ve learned nothing else from journalism, it’s that everyone has a voice. Everyone has something to say, something to contribute, something they care about. The trick is getting people to step up and open up. If I knew how to do that, I’d tell Mr. Larkin. If you know, maybe you could start a student committee.
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