More than “Education”: Why Focusing Only on the Basics Is Not Enough for Forest Hills Public Schools Students
How do we inspire the “bounce” in our students’ steps from kindergarten up through 12th grade?
Most parents can appreciate this sentiment. We watch as vibrant elementary-aged students leap from the bus or car into the school building, eager to discover the skills they’ll learn next. But by the time students enter high school, growing nerves about earning “perfect” report cards or populating college applications brings trepidation. The energized “bounce” sadly turns into more of a mandatory drag.
Preserving and restoring this “bounce” is the challenge Forest Hills Public Schools’ Superintendent and Board of Education (BOE) explore daily to help keep kids engaged beyond the rigorous academic program.
Before we dive into some of their solutions, it’s important to note that at its core, Forest Hills Public Schools encourages excellence. In fact, according to the district website:
All three high schools are ranked among the top public schools in Michigan and the nation according to U.S. News & World Report: (FHC, FHE, FHN)
FHPS ranked No. 1 for the best school districts in the Grand Rapids area by Niche
In the class of 2018 for all three high schools, 178 students graduated summa cum laude and earned a cumulative grade point average of 4.0 or above based on eight high school semesters
A record number of students earn National Merit recognition each year
This challenging academic focus is the answer for many students.
Yet, the Board and Superintendent also share via the District’s website that the staff at Forest Hills Public Schools is committed to knowing every student’s interests and gifts and providing educational opportunities that will maximize each student’s preparation for the future.
Superintendent Behm talks regularly with students. During the November Board meeting, he echoed what a recent national article has identified: the anxiety to perform to academic perfection is one of the “bounce robbers.”
The New York Times piece called “Teenagers are Struggling, and It’s Not Just Lockdown” talks about the journey of a top high school student through the fears of making it in college. It cites University of Michigan data revealing parents’ worries over their kids’ mental health and fears they may not stack up to their peers in college. Helping teach the whole student and broadening kids’ perspective on “success” are a few ways to help them navigate these stressors.
From Support FHPS’ viewpoint, this is why it is NOT in the best interest of 21st Century students to narrow FHPS or the Board’s focus to “only education” – or, as a small group has called for – limiting our kids’ education to the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Academics, grades and an emphasis on the core curriculum will NEVER be downplayed by Forest Hills Public Schools.
What Superintendent Behm and the Board of education explained they are doing is layering in a variety of opt-in programs rooted in what data shows for 21st Century Learning: Kids desire hands-on experiences that energize and help them see how the classroom lessons apply to the bigger picture and “real world” that awaits them after FHPS. They’re preserving that “bounce.”
FHPS students are thriving, with opt-in access to programs, such as:
Project NEXT, which exposes them to careers, professionals, projects and even internships they can list on their resumes
Gone Boarding, a program run in collaboration with global brand Burton to let kids create their own recreational boards while learning about business
Language immersion programs to send them into college and work fluent in multiple languages
Odyssey of the Mind for team-building a problem solving
Global Learners Initiative to learn more about how we live and work in a global society
While the group challenging Forest Hills Public Schools and its Board are deeply focused on stripping away opportunities from our kids to limit them to the basics (going against research findings), Support FHPS celebrates the ways our elected BOE balances research and best practices with first-person student interviews to TRULY deliver what is best for the children of our district.
What is best is different for every single child and we are grateful for the optional paths FHPS is laying out for kids and parents to explore together with educators.
Join us in preserving and protecting the integrity of Forest Hills Public Schools and our invested Board of Education. Save our schools from this harmful attempt to rob students of their bounce the District is working tirelessly to inspire.