Scholastic Administrator Interview with Adam Fletcher

“Meet Your New Boss,” an article by Caralee Adams, is a rambling homage to what I have named Meaningful Student Involvement, and what she simply titled student input. Adams managed to interview almost every major figure in the student voice movement in the United States, including me.

Working from the question, “Ever asked students to weigh in on how their teachers are doing? Find out how these schools incorporate student opinions into key decisions, and why this can make a school stronger and better,” Adams shoots her article all over the place.

In addition to mis-reporting that I’m not working with schools anymore, she did quote me saying the following:

“We can change all the rules we want, but back here in reality land, until the hearts and minds of people leading the system-teachers or principals or district administrators or state superintendents-are [changed], those policies and rules don’t really matter,” says Fletcher. The real barrier is the attitude of adults. 

“They are inherently threatened by the capacity of young people to lead their own education.” Yet, integrating student feedback throughout the school can lead to some of the best results in engagement and learning. “There is no place throughout the education system that young people cannot have deep and effective levels of impact that adults can’t have,” says Fletcher. “Everything can be better because of student voice.”

Written by Adam Fletcher, this article was originally posted to http://commonaction.blogspot.com. Learn more at adamfletcher.net!