Last weekend I read an article about a private high school in Colorado that specializes in snowboarding. The tuition is around $30,000 per year and the school provides its students with training to become pro boarders. The first question that pops into my mind is, does the pro snowboarder world have space for the number of students this private Colorado high school trains each year? If not, then what's the point of the school other than to make money and say "dude" a lot? My initial image of the school described in the article is of spoiled, self-righteous teenagers who are out of touch with reality and think that they are, literally, too cool for school. Okay, maybe I have watched "The O.C" or "Laguna Beach" two many times. But I have to ask, whose parents in their right minds would pay $30,000 per year to send their child to a high school with a curriculum that lays out the option for students to spend half of each school day snowboarding?
I must also admit, however, that I could not stop daydreaming about the Colorado snowboarding school; those kids must be having the time of their lives! The school boasts about excellent academics so why not be inspired by the breathtaking scenery and top off strong academics with daily lessons in a sport that you love? And then I started to examine possible benefits of such a school. I snowboard and played soccer then volleyball from K-10th grade. I strongly believe in the power of sports to build character, self-estyeem and humbleness. Most athletes, like actors, take risks to improve their technique and experience physical and emotional vulnerability. Also, being part of a team is a powerful way to experience important life lessons about tolerance, indurance, responsibility, loyalty and relationships. It is possible that just as many or more students snowboarding in Colorado's exclusive terrain will grow to be socially responsible citizens as in any public school. Maybe the students in the article are more enlightened than the average high school-er because the students in the article were not only privileged in terms of dollars spent on their high school education but privileged to go to a school that revolves learning opportunities, time and expertise around what their students love.
Too often I hear people complain, myself included, that their primary education was or is too general. We learn to write; we learn a little about the civil war in 4th, 6th, and 11th grade; we learn a little bit about lots of types of math; we learn a little bit about lots of types of sciences; we sit through several choppy classes on how our government works and every so often we read a good book. Scratching the surface of a subject is not enough to understand our world. Learning about a particluar matter well enough to experience all the ups and downs, ins and outs, failures and triumphs and suprises of doing and spending time and focus is what changes us forever and teaches us about ourselves.
I want to go full circle and return to a word I used in the first sentence of this post, specializes. Why not specialize all schools? Why not teach students to follow through with ideas, thoughtfully approach an issue, and understand what they bring to the table as individuals. Confidence and enjoyment come with knowing a subject well, whether it be cooking potato soup or changing your state laws on carbon emissions. I think most public school systems are so afraid of limiting their students that they risk teaching nothing meaningful. Standards are often one dimensional. We emphasize product and not process; general and not specialized.
If you are a high school student and have a passion, even if it is not a big one, why can't adults help you excel at it and explore its potential? Why, in public schools, can't half a school day be spent in general academics and the other half spent learning about something we are naturally curious about? Maybe more schools should be divided by areas of interest rather than residential districts. If you end up not pursuing the interest beyond high school, at least you will have learned crucial life lessons along the way. Even though the government treats us like a number, we must not forget that we are people with unique interests and inclinations. Why is specializing at an early age only reserved for the rich and eccentric, or technical schools where the academics suffer, what about the rest of us?
As ususal, my post ends with an assignment: if you or someone you know goes to any high school that costs close to $30,000 per year please post a comment about what makes your experience in school so special. I am not going to insult you; as someone who may want to open her own school one day, I am seriously curious about the kind of education and life experience you are receiving.
In East Harlem, a neighborhood where half its residents never graduate high school, The Young Women’s Leadership School (TYWLS) has a graduation rate of 95-100%.
