While no school or student is immune to marginalization, members of the school community have the potential and power to create inclusive environments.

Turning a head and avoiding the awareness that marginaliation and intolerance exists in our schools is a dangerous illusion.  School environments are  microcosms of a society.  Thus, these environments reflect both the positive and the negative found in a community/society.  As such, we can build on the strengths of a school environment to empower participants to build a community that has no place for marginalization and exclusion.

Students are the experts in marginalization in the schools environment, and given a voice have ability to effectively address these issues.

Students are the heart of a school.  Their existance in this community is centered on the spoken and unspoken norms. While other school participants may have keen awareness of many of these norms, it is not possible for them to connect to all the norms - especially the ones that are specific to student interactions and relationships. To fully connect to these norms, students must be given the verbiage, the time, and the power to share their knowledge and insight.

Each student has unique leadership abilities that are easily discovered and developed.

There are many kinds of leaders, each with different skills, vulnerabilities, and styles. Likewise, there are many ways to lead and promote change.  Thus, to honestly promote leadership throughout a school environment, we must be willing to empower students to find their own leadership potential and to celebrate the diverse leadership represented within their own school.

Projects and programs are only successful if they are meaningful to students.

School today spend much time and energy on developing and implementing character programs and projects for students.  However, at times these programs fall short of actually holding meaning for the studens.  There are three areas that tend to be especially vulnerable to this issue: (1) The activity is not cognitively connected to the target.  For example, mitten trees.  (2) The acitivity and the content may be connected but the students do not internally connect or find value in the target.  (3) The activity is developed soley by adult leadership and the students have little if any impact in the process besides 'showing up'.

We are currently creating content for this section. In order to be able to keep up with our high standards of service, we need a little more time. Please stop by again. Thank you for your interest!