The path to high school reform: moving past inertia: high schools seem to possess an incredible force that, no matter where else they may attempt to go, leads them back to the status quo.

The mind of a high-school-age student is so filled with emotion, ideas and energy that the path from thought to thought can seem random--a situation analogous to my thinking regarding high school reform.

A high school friend of mine wanted to be a cartoonist. No one would take him seriously (which I always thought was somewhat the point if you were going to be a cartoonist). My friend had his drawings made fun of by kids and especially by teachers. I'd love to say his name was Gary Trudeau or even Berkeley Breathed, but as far as I know, he still goes by Robert Levins because the fact is he gave up drawing and now digs wells.

Now, well-digging isn't that bad of a job if you didn't like what you learned in high school and if you live in an agricultural area dependent on irrigation. However, the connection between well-digging and whatever it was that Robert learned in high school is pretty specious, and the one creative talent he may have had was actually discouraged by his high school experience.

In a book written by a high school student who dropped out of school in order to walk the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to the Canadian border, the author explains that he took the trip as a rite of passage. The author believes that the American culture lacks such a transition into adulthood. (I always thought getting through high school was that rite of passage.) I could empathize with him for wanting to stay away from high school.

In a recent issue of Parade magazine students were quizzed about how safe they felt at their high school. Here's a response from one student: "Since my school put cameras in all the hallways, there has been less trouble. But now I have that strange feeling a camera's always following me."

Here's another, "I go to a small school. We don't have metal detectors or security guards. We do have teachers who ask us about our lives, and we all know each other. That's why I feel safe."

I worked in a high school once that had one fourth as many seniors as freshman, but they always publicized that their drop-out rate was 7 percent. You had to read all the way to the very fine print to discover that the drop-out rate was figured quarterly.

While I was working toward my teaching credential in the 1970s, one of my professors summarized a study of the social groups at a high school. Each of us in that classroom thought they must have been studying his or her own high school--although no two of us attended the same school. Most likely, recent cortege graduates today would share a similar feeling.

Making learning relevant

The complexity of high school reform may have its roots in the need to make academic learning relevant to students consumed by learning how they fit into the social fabric of life. To most adults the connection may be evident, but to many students the demands of the world seem to change as randomly as the thoughts in their heads.

Winnie the Pooh is alleged to have said something like, "Eating honey gives you a very wonderful feeling, but there is a moment just before you eat the honey that is even better." Many have noticed that high school reform is a very wonderful thing to do, but there is a moment just before high school reform that is even better. Unfortunately, the moments after high school reform can seldom compete with that moment before. That's because high schools seem to possess an incredible force that, no matter where else they may attempt to go, leads them back to the status quo.

It may be no coincidence that inertia is the one concept that remains with me from my year of high school physics. My thoughts on high school reform may be random, but I know of a cartoonist, a trekker, 75 percent of a freshman class, lots of principals and thousands of teachers who are very hopeful that reforming high schools is something we get right.

George Manthey is a professional/earning executive for ACSA.