Posts Tagged ‘Citizen Schools’

In my book, I featured the work of Eric Schwarz who, 15 years ago, created an experiment of sharing his love of writing with a group of middle schoolers in Boston.  He started somewhere!  His good friend, an EMT, shared his love of first aid with another group of middle schoolers.  Ultimately, their work became Citizen Schools, involving 4,000 adults in 7 states, who share their passions, and provide a way for young people to discover that nurturing their interests are key to their future success. From such a small experiment, a strategy for transforming education in this country has emerged.  Check it out.

Fortunately, I’m still on the Citizen Schools mailing list and I just received a recent video of a young African American particpant of 11 years ago,  now a senior at Boston College, who told his story at a recent Boston Conference on revolutionizing ideas.  Please watch this 12 minute video.  If you are looking for a way to contribute and share what you love in the world, there is no better place than with young people through this program.  The research is starting to affirm the impact on the lives of middle school kids who are given this opportunity by their school districts and by the willing adults in their communities. As we know, our education system is unfortunately busted.  We can await a national policy fix, or we can do what we can.  The research is indicating that doing what we can, with what we already have (our passions and a willingness to share), is making a significant difference.