Is High School the Best Time of Your Life? A Word on Our Vision.

I remember trying so hard in high school. So hard to make it a wonderful time. Afterall, I grew up in the era  of 'Happy Days' (the TV show--not the actual fifties) Society tells us those teenage years are the best years of your life. I did everything I knew to make the best of it...to hide the fact that in many ways,  I was miserable. My version of coping with the pain of unpopularity was to try to be the super achiever. Great grades, leadership in clubs, involvement in competitions. I was seeking validation, but it was empty. What I really needed was accepting relationships to build my self-worth. I never got that in high school. From what I hear, the large school model has not improved. Perhaps it is even worse for today's students. Just look at the bullying epidemic and school shootings. Something is wrong.

I saw an Facebook post from Quick Trip the other day. It asked fans if they missed school days. What might surprise some, but not me, was the overwhelming number who insisted (some quite vehemently) that school was not an experience they remembered fondly, missed or in anyway would want to return to. The numbers I tallied about three hours after the post had 8 fans who liked and missed school, 11 fans who answered something different from the actual question posted, and a whopping 26 fans who made negative comments about their education. Three times more negative reactions than positive memories. So why do we continue to believe that the institutional model of education is good for everyone?

Here at eLemenT, we have always had the vision to change that negative school experience for teens. Knowing that, we have been looking into the possibility of showing the documentary of the film Bully. Just watching the trailer will break your heart. As I  watch with tears streaming down my cheeks, I know we are going to make a difference. We are going to rescue teenagers from the cruelty and offer-- maybe for the first time-- a place that values them for who they are. As we are talking to more and more families, we are seeing the need to build a scholarship fund. It is our heart to never turn away a student who wishes to join our program. At the same time, however, the cost of providing a location, tutoring, computers and curriculum is staggering. We are operating on a shoe string budget, and pouring our personal finances into this project. It is something we believe in so strongly.

If you too have the memories of hurt and frustration from your schooling years, please consider a gift to scholarship a student. If you or your child is a victim of bullying, please talk to us, even if you don't now have the means of paying the tuition. If I had been able to be in a program like ours, I would have jumped on the opportunity in a heart beat. How about you? If you would too, perhaps you can make it possible for a teen who is struggling today.

Quit School? Are You Kidding?

I got an interesting comment during our open house this weekend. One grandfather asked me an intriguing question, “Aren’t you afraid parents are going to get upset with you if you tell their teenagers to leave school?” (He had tuned out what I was explaining about testing kids for their learning styles and motivation, and had zeroed in on a book on our shelf—Grace Llewellyn’s Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education. I must assume he himself is a visual learner.)

My response? “That is exactly what we are here for.” His eyebrows shot up at that one. This man, who happens to have a loving and generous heart, is exactly where so many of us have found ourselves over the years…parent or grandparent to a child who simply does not fit the traditional school system. Having been through the system ourselves, state run schooling—or at least its counterpart in the private realm—has led us to believe that success lies only after meeting the requirements demanded of the institutional model. How could anyone lead a successful life as a drop out?

Drop Out? Who says leaving traditional education is the equivalent of giving up on life? Yet that tends to be the assumption. Like many areas of life, that assumption is wrong. Certainly there are those who drop out of school, only to live with marginal employment and the social concerns that come with poverty. While the reasons for that tragic scenario are complex and the answers even more so, leaving school is not necessarily the death knell of ambition. We at eLemenT have left that industrial model of education behind, only to discover time and time again a blossoming of confidence and excitement for learning that comes when a student is allowed to learn in the way that best fits. With the pace that produces understanding and with subjects that are fueled by his or her natural curiosity, students thrive. We have been amazed at what kids accomplish when they no longer fear being left behind, being teased and labeled, and in essence, fearing failure. Though we hate it, we know that schools create winners and losers. We refuse to accept that loser status forced onto students. At eLemenT, we hold onto the creed that Fairness is not everyone getting the same things, but rather Fairness is everyone getting what they need to be successful. Sometimes, that means leaving the methods of traditional school behind.

Our grandfather guest later admitted that he was himself, a failure at academics in school. Despite that, he went on to be a hugely successful entrepreneur. Once he considered how little benefit his public education had actually been, a smile crept onto his face and his eyes lit up. I am thinking he caught our vision. Sometimes the most vital step to success is to quit school.