As an educator, I interact with students on a daily basis. Youth have the potential to do amazing things when they are supported and nurtured. This past week I had the pleasure of watching 120 youth leaders share their passions and hopes of making a more inclusive world. I volunteered my services at the #SOGenUin Global Youth Leadership Conference hosted by Special Olympics in conjunction with the World Games in Los Angeles, California. These youth have not only inspired greatness in themselves but the world around them as Generation Unified.
I had the ability to meet global youth leaders between the ages of 12 and 24 that have already begun to change their communities. Some of these youth leaders are individuals with disabilities and will not let it stand in their way as a barrier to help others. Kanchan and Jenish Amatya raised almost $30,000 for individuals with disabilities to receive job training in Nepal. Josh Kaplan, a 16-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona, created an inclusive soccer program for kids in his community. There was also Rithik Hukkis who sought to spread his love of cricket by starting a program to coach youth in India. Everywhere I turned there were young people making a difference by following their passions.
How can we help elevate our students to become social activists? We need to find ways to help our students follow their passions. I think about the traditional school setting that I work in. The rigors of the Common Core State Standards and the pressures to close the achievement gap. The problem is not the Common Core, the problem is the traditional approaches to educational experiences. Students should be learning the Common Core skills and applying it to their passions.
When I taught seventh grade I had my students research a nonprofit organization of their choosing. They had to apply their reading and writing skills that we had honed throughout the school year. Students were researching nonprofits across the spectrum from skateboarding to ASPCA to ones that personally affected their families. I saw students who were not engaged all year smiling and excited to create. I received phone calls from parents sharing that their child was excited about school. Students were out with their Go Pro cameras gathering video on their skateboard to create a PSA. As their teacher, I was proud but also left with the feeling that I had failed them in some way. I followed the curriculum, so was it my failure that it was almost the fourth marking period before these students were engaged? Or was it the culture of the school?
One of my colleagues I have the pleasure of working with, Wendy Morales, has been utilizing Genius Hour in her classroom. Students pick topics and create projects to explore their passions. At the conference, we also had the support of the Future Project, which has Dream Directors embedded in High Schools full-time to help students make their dreams reality.
We need to replicate these experiences for all students to explore their interests. I interacted with 120 youth leaders. Think about the untapped possibilities all over the world if educators helped to nurture our students to be socially competent.
For the upcoming school year, I challenge myself and other educators to start finding ways to get outside the box and help elevate our rising youth.
Want to learn more about our experience during the Summit? Here are blog posts I wrote that can be found on the official Special Olympics Word Press site.
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