Orange Middle School: A Step in the Right Direction

While educating the whole child may have always been the role of schools to greater and lesser degrees, it seems that doing so increases in importance with every passing year. To prepare students for the uncertain world they often face and will encounter in the years to come, schools must establish a safe, nurturing and supportive educational environment that engages students, maximizes learning, fosters academic achievement and growth, promotes healthy emotional and social functioning, builds character and a sense of community, supports teachers and involves parents through varied instructional programs, wellness programs, character education and collaborative work.

Beefing up security both in school and around certain parts of the neighborhood, having teachers meet twice a week to discuss students and providing a forum for teachers and students to discuss concerns are clear steps that can make a difference and it sounds like the Orange Middle School is on its way to meeting the needs of its students. What is less clear and a source of concern is why it took a mandate from the state before these relatively simple steps were put into place?

Many educators seem to have a very circumscribed view of their role that only includes academic instruction. Even then, doing things the way they have always been done is what many endorse. Educators have to recognize, appreciate and embrace the broader role of education and realize, understand and accept that the students they taught in past years are no longer the students they teach now—at least to some degree. Only now, in my district, after years of talking with teachers about the changes in the students they face and the changes in the classroom they may have to make, are they coming to realize that what came before may not be what is needed now. Educators must step up to the plate or step out of the profession.

Still, Orange Middle School should be credited for the changes it made. What might help the school move to the next level is the implemenation of an after school and even an evening recreation program so that kids have alternate places to go to stay out of trouble, engage in appropriate activities under the supervision of staff members and foster good relationships. Just as important, educators can look to form mentoring relationships with individual students.

Research notes that even one supportive relationship can bolster a child's resilience and good adaptive functioning even in the presence of overwhelming odds. Educators are in unique positions to be that one supportive relationship and to help children develop a different and positive perception of themselves and their world.