With high school graduation rates so low and students being unprepared for life and work in 21st century, everyone in the education world is looking for a silver bullet. Most of us in the field know it's a combination of solutions and not just one answer. Yes, some schools suck and so do teachers, but not all of them. Some communities have resources to serve youth and some do not. What we are experiencing now is youth who are shuffled through the educational system and ill prepared, not ready even for some level of higher education. I've seen it first hand. A young person who barely made it through high school can't cut it in community college, let alone keep a part-time job at a fast food chain. This is happening everyday in our country. The whole thing kind of disgusts me. Education has meaning and purpose when a young person sees the bigger picture. Part of what makes learning and education fun is the content. Schools are supposed to be a place you want to go to. Too often it's much more appealing to do something else than go to school. I applaud teachers and administrators who know that there's more to life than just academics. Without the supportive network and community, a young person will fail regardless of the 10-hour days and Saturday classes.
Enter mentoring. My last few posts on here always come back to this. Buying school supplies helps. Hiring better teachers helps. Overhauling school curriculum helps ... Smaller class rooms ... amen. However, as I mentioned above, none of that matters unless a young person is part of a community and has the support of a caring, consistent adult. All youth need mentors. Even the rich kids, too, but what I'm talking about are the kids who are from under-resourced areas. They lack positive role models they can look up to. Mentors are the ones who are supposed to open doors for you, listen, give council. I'm grateful that the education reform movement is getting so much spotlight, but most of it is at the awareness level. Want to know what to do? Become a mentor.
My organization, Stoked, recently had our Stoked Awards that honors mentoring pairs for overcoming obstacles and succeeding. We recently honored this kid named Jose. Jose came to Stoked when he was a freshman in high school from a low-income neighborhood in New York City after his mother passed away. He could have ended up like most of his counterparts when faced with a tragedy in their life by either dropping out of school or engaging in other at risk behaviors. With the help of a mentor, he was able to stay focused in school, gain a hobby, turn his life around, and graduate to become a freshman in college. Check out his story below. Become a mentor as well.