Going to the Source

Engagement. It’s the buzz word of schools these days. How do we get more staff engagement, parent engagement or community engagement? While these engagements are essential to the work we do in schools, we frequently leave out the most important voice. We too often are focused on what the adults in our system are saying and end up missing a critical audience, the audience for whom we are all supposed to be working — our students. 

Too often the voices of students seem to get pushed aside by well-meaning adults who ironically purport to be speaking on their behalf. Or we say we are including student voices but what we really want are the students to just report good news at a school board meeting. But what happens when you think of your students as people whose experiences should be taken seriously? Sure, sometimes their input can seem obscure or off-topic. But if you spend the time really listening to what they are trying to tell you, you may just be surprised at the genius they have within them.