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What about the third R – Relationships?
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | June 9, 2008
June 9, 2008
In this morning’s Oregonian, the opinion column is titled, Putting our money where our kids are (reducing the dropout rate). Click here to read the entire column. The column is in response to an earlier editorial Putting schools on the spot
Both editorials contain advice and opinions about Oregon’s startling dropout rate (43% according to Portland Mayor-elect Sam Adams).
Today’s column, by Scott Eave, vice president for human resources at Gunderson Inc., cites “The Silent Epidemic,” a 2006 report for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “which interviewed high school dropouts, (and found that) … more than 80 percent of the students surveyed indicated that teaching and curriculum needed to be improved to make school more relevant and engaging , and (that schools need to ) enhance the connection between school and work.” The author also points out that in 2005; the Portland school board adopted more rigorous graduation requirements with the goal of ensuring that students are better prepared for life and work after high school.
Rigor and relevance, clearly essential goals for our education system, but in my opinion, these columns, and so many other articles I read about our drop out epidemic, fail to address the third (and most important) R … relationships.
In the process of developing this course (ABOUT Making Connections), extensive research demonstrated that a significant part of students’ success is directly linked to having a one-on-one relationship with an adult who truly cares about what happens to them. And yet, so little is written about this essential element in the life of a kids at risk.
There is no question that kids need (deserve) opportunities to engage in experiences that demonstrate the relevance of what they are learning to their real lives. They also deserve to leave school with the skills and knowledge they will need for continuing their educations, and with the ability to find and fill jobs in the workplace. But, for so many of our kids at risk of dropping out, before rigor and relevance can shape their future, they need to feel comfortable, able to learn, welcome, and safe in our schools and classrooms. In other words, they need relationships.
Only when this need is met can they move on to the next steps on their ladders to success.
Tell Us: What do you think? Are relationships more important than rigor and relevance? What do you believe is the key to keeping kids in school? What works for your kids? What does not?
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Topics: Dropouts, In The News |