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Educational Ownership

In an ideal world, students would go to school in a safe neighborhood where the school is filled with affirming, positive people and where the parents are fully involved in their child’s education.   

Unfortunately, many of our children do not live in this ideal world.  They live in the real world where they do not get enough constructive, loving, encouraging adult interaction.  

In many cases they are surrounded by negative influences that translate into low attendance, reduced class participation, mediocre academic achievement, increased discipline issues, and poor personal decision-making.  We cannot solve many of society’s negative influences.  However, we can give our children a way to effectively deal with them.  Character education, goal setting, and educational ownership are programs to help children make sense of difficult situations.   They teach children how to develop an “I’ll Make It Happen” attitude.  

When students take educational ownership, they take personal responsibility to do something positive to change their lives.  Students realize there may be challenges in their path, but they do not have to become insurmountable roadblocks to their future.  With ownership comes dignity and self-respect.    

In order for students to take more educational ownership they need three things.  First, they need a sense of purpose—to know that what they are doing is important and worthwhile.  Second, they need a sense of belonging.  They need affirming, constructive adult role models, positive peer influences, and they need to become engaged in one or more school activities. Third, to take ownership of their education they need a sense of direction. They need a vision of where they are going and how they will get there. Students need to know how to set and achieve goals.  And they need to learn how to take action on their dreams. 

An effective goal-setting program should teach students how to use these principles to take more ownership of their education.  It should give students samples and practice, and show them how to measure their progress toward reaching their goals.  The program should identify potential roadblocks and help students learn how to overcome them. It should have opened-ended, discussion-stimulating questions, and give students meaningful real-world examples they can relate to and talk about in class and in home discussions.  

With educational ownership, students will embrace your efforts to help them succeed.   

10/09/06

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