Inspired by this article.

It’s time for high schools to reclaim their space.

We are not:
Only a sorting mechanism for colleges
A target market
The next great money-making scheme.
A business
A way to create the next generation of workers.

Sadly, we are not:
A cure of all of society’s ills (and please stop expecting us to be.)
Perfect. (Put a bunch of human beings in a room, and we’ll make human mistakes. That’s a given.)

But we are (or at least can be):
Democratic institutions
A way to help students become the next generation of active, engaged citizens
Places of learning.
Places for students to find their voices
Safe havens in an increasingly complex world
Challenging
Rigorous
But always compassionate
Advocates for all our children
Places to challenge, question and demand more from their world.

I want every SLA kid to go to college. But I also don’t need to help colleges see our kids as numbers.
I want kids to get wonderful jobs after they are done with their schooling, but I want them to understand they are citizens and activists (in all sense of that world) before they should see themselves as only workers.
I want kids to enjoy the benefits of living in a society with the goods and services that we have, but I want them to critically analyze what it means to live in that society as well.

I want our kids to be empowered to fully take part in their world, and I don’t want them ever to feel like their life — be it college, career, market influences, government — only happens to them.
I want our kids to understand that while they stand on the shoulders of giants, they still have the power to choose their own path.
I want our kids to understand that they are independant agents, able to choose for themselves, but I also want them to understand that they are part of a larger community and that their actions have implications.

And I want the adults who want to impose their agendas on our schools to remember that we are just the caretakers of the world that these kids will inherit from us. We should consider what lessons — both the implicit and the explicit ones — we want to pass onto them while we have the time.