The Students Perspective

< < < My Brother Brian And I

When thinking about my reform and the changes I want to make to help students in all schools find success, I thought that I should ask current high school students their opinion on the schools they are currently attending and what they think enables or disables their success. I then interviewed two high school students, all from different backgrounds and environments.

The first student I interviewed was a boy named Quinton. Quinton is currently a junior at Waukegan High School, an under resourced school that faces many problems getting students to believe in the importance of education. However, Quinton was different then most Waukegan High School. As well as being a student at Waukegan High, Quinton is a two sport athlete in both football and track. He is enrolled in all honor courses including his favorite, physics. He has aspirations to be the first in his family to attend a college, where he wants to major in engineering. When asked how he would compare himself to his fellow classmates, Quinton said that majority of his classmates do not focus their attentions on their school work and only the students focused on academic success are enrolled in challenging honor classes. I then asked him why he thought this. Quinton responded by telling me that students who are enrolled in honor classes are pushed to do their very best in school and they naturally become comfortable with trying their hardest to learn the content their teachers are teaching them. He then added that students who are not in these challenging courses do not apply themselves when he knows they have the intelligence to do better in school. After leaving my interview with Quinton I was both optimistic and saddened. I was optimistic for Quinton and his future aspirations of graduating high school and continuing his education in college. I was also saddened because of the acceptance of failure that exists. Students like Quinton see their fellow classmates underachieving and know they can do better, but yet we do not enforce challenging courses that will push these students lacking the drive to achieve academic success.

The other student I interviewed is currently a junior at McHenry High School, a predominately white school with very little diversity. His name is Brian Madson and in fact is my brother. Going into this interview I had the advantage of already knowing an immense amount about Brian and his goals. Brian has always been a very determined and focused student that has always achieved academic success due to the goals and aspirations he has set out for himself. Brian is currently enrolled in all honor classes, two of them being Advance Placement. He has never received lower than an A on any report card and is determined to keep it that way. When beginning the interview I asked Brian to treat me as a complete stranger, that way I could interview him as just a student and not my brother. I began asking him questions regarding both, his academic history and future. I then asked him what he thought allowed him to succeed in school. His response was simple. He stated that his teachers and classes challenged him to work hard and do his very best, which forced him to study the course material and apply it during class. I then asked him what he thought could be done to help all students succeed in school. He told me that in order to help all students succeed schools need to instill classes that push students to learn, rather than make it easy on students to pass.

To hear that both Quinton and Brian, two very different students growing up in two very different communities, think the success of students is mainly because of the classes the students take was remarkable. They both stated the importance challenging classes had on their academic successes and both believed that in order to increase the academic success of all students, regardless of background, there must be challenging curriculums that offer courses that will push students to succeed in schools.