Scared of Change

I have been an involved at a local nonprofit organization this semester. Their mission is to inspire, empower, and prepare youth and communities to be social leaders, agents of change, and volunteers. They do youth and civic engagement programs and events in schools and community groups to address issues in young people's lives, such as bullying, racism, and violence, and give them the opportunity to make change. Kids around the nation have been able to make a real difference because of this group.

To an educator this sounds like a dream come true, right? Wrong.

When I visited one of the high schools affiliated with this organization to discuss plans for the upcoming year with some of the staff, I was quite surprised. There was so much tension and resistance on the part of these adults. They didn't want the students from our program participating in a scavenger hunt we had set up for them during lunch hour, because they'd be outside the lunch room. They even implied they wanted us to change the program's student leader.

These educators seemed as if they did not want us there after all. It felt like they wanted to control whatever we were doing there. But then why was there a program there in the first place? Why wouldn't they want their students to be leaders to try to eradicate schoolwide problems? We were there to help...

Of course they want bullying and other issues to stop in their schools. But the school's staff most definitely had a different subject-position than I did on this matter.

Traditional ways to stop bullying normally involve some sort of punishment. Getting sent to the office, detention, suspension. However, this organization handles issues in a different way, stemming from the mindsets of the kids themselves. It's an approach that the staff are not used to, involving a great level of leadership and power from the kids, and it can come off as unruly.

Another reason why the staff might be wary of the things the organization does is the fact that we discuss matters that are sometimes considered taboo in schools, like racism, suicide, and sexual harassment. These tender topics might be too much for some parents, and the school would have to answer to these complaints.

The staff at these schools where programs are in place want the best for their students, so these students can go about their school lives without getting picked on. However, it's just a question of the best way to get there, and that's where the differences and rifts lie.