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s Adventists we have always recognized the connection between school and the “real world” as a catalyst for change within it. “Thought, investigation, opinion, found their fitting goal only in volition and action. Their definition of Christianity was broad enough to include every matter connected with human welfare.”1 One of the roles of an Adventist educator is helping students understand the power of agency they possess. When students realize this ability they begin to understand the power of influence and engagement. David Yeager, renowned researcher, has found a link between academic persistence and student interest. “High school students who were asked to connect their schoolwork to their values and personal passions were more likely to persist even when academic work became challenging or boring. These same students went on to finish college at significantly higher rates.”2
Purpose, interest and agency are all key in helping students find success.
Central to the idea of agency for the Adventist Educator is its place within our world view—the understanding of our spiritual position as creations of a loving God who values our curiosity, autonomy and growth. We were placed in this fallen world as agents of change, care and redemption. Helping students find and use their voices, seek maturity of thought and decision making become necessary skills to fulfill God’s purpose.
Though educators have to tread cautiously when it comes to contentious or political topics, encouraging students to become vested in pertinent issues that affect them and others is an important step to improving schools—and the outside world.
Actively learning about the impact of individual actions on larger society can start among the youngest students. In Boston Public Schools (BPS), for example, kindergarteners spend eight weeks constructing projects in their classrooms that would make Boston “a more interesting and fairer place for children.”
Using cardboard and other recycled materials, students create their own exhibitions that have included things like a “hug bank,” a hotel for the homeless, and many water parks. The city displays their creations at City Hall. “Kids actually get to brainstorm an idea together that feels empowering or powerful and build it together,” says Marina Boni, an early childhood program director for BPS.
For older students, that feeling can lead to concrete change into high school and beyond. At her admissions-based New York City public high school, student Emma Rehac noticed that few students of color from outside the neighborhood attended. These disparities pushed Rehac, who is a student of color herself, to get involved with Integrate NYC, a student-led group that advocates for intentional integration programs and unscreened admissions across the sprawling New York City district of 1.1 million students.
Rehac, now a college student, credits her involvement with Integrate NYC to her middle school teachers and counselors who prepared her to see the inequities between students through conversation and relationship building. In the end, she says, those teachers “taught me what kinds of support I needed and how to seek those out for myself.”3
REFERENCES
1. Leonard, D. L. (1898). The Story of Oberlin. Boston; Chicago: Pilgrim Press.
2. Yeager, D. S. (2014, October). Boring but Important: A Self-Transcendent Purpose for Learning Fosters Academic Self-Regulation. Retrieved from https://www.perts.net/static/documents/yeager_2014.pdf
3. Berwick, C. (2021, January 22) Students Excel When They Find Purpose—So How Do We Help Them? Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/students-excel-when-they-find-purpose-so-how-do-we-help-them
encounter
H. Stephen Bralley, M.Ed.
Director of Secondary Education, North American Division
Helping Students Find Purpose Leads to Success
SPRING 2021
