Change certainly has not been a new thing at SLA. Teachers and students reflect and re-evaluate themselves, so much so that it’s a core value of the school. While individual change is common among here, changes within SLA’s inner systems paint a different story.
Since students have been attending SLA, many different programs at the school that have come and gone. The main reason leading to termination of these program is lack of student involvement. SLA is a safe and engaging environment with a diverse community. The problem isn’t creating change, but being able to sustain that change.
When students would hear about a new club or program connected to the school, while they knew of it, students just didn’t participate.
We have to ask ourselves: “Does this change fit a need that SLA actually has?” “Does this program have something about it that SLA needs?”
A major reason why programs haven’t lasted at SLA is that they served no purpose to the overall community of the school. However, some programs are absolutely necessary — they just need the right kind of introduction and support. More specifically, we can look at change within SLA: past, present and future.
The three we are going to focus on are: Student Government, SLA Recycling Program (SLARP), and finally Prom Court.
For starters, Student Government began as the name entails, a system ran by students, governed by president, vice president, etc. with student representatives from each advisory. Student Government proved to be ineffective in the overall structure of SLA. This could be attributed to the idea that Student Government didn’t fill a need. If a student has problem, he/she can go directly to Lehmann or their Advisor, rather than reporting to a student president.
Next, SLARP is a capstone project trying to encourage SLA to recycle. The program shows how sustaining change is difficult is SLA. In recent time, new recycling bins have been scattered around SLA. But even with those, students haven’t been recycling, they’ve just been throwing their trash away in normal trash cans.
The students know that they have to recycle, but it’s not something that is necessarily enforced to them.
Finally, Prom Court is another capstone project trying to incorporate Prom King/Queen into SLA proms. The court potentially presents a conflict for SLA’s future. While Prom Court is a tradition in many other schools, it is new addition to SLA. Being a new addition, many students are apprehensive about adding a Prom King/Queen thinking it’s “not an SLA thing.” In the end, the program did not cause much of a stir at prom.
Students need to ask themselves: “Does this change fit a need that SLA actually has?” Who’s to say? Only the future will tell.
Unsigned editorials are written and approved by the SLAMedia Editorial Staff. They do not reflect the opinion of Science Leadership Academy and its employees.
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