At a recent CAST STEM meeting, the students and Principal Jacque Rodriguez surprised me with this thank you video.
At the risk of being self-indulgent, I wanted to share this tribute because I felt like this video, produced by students, captured what has been so special about my time at CAST Schools.
First, it was MADE BY STUDENTS! At the risk of repeating myself for the millionth time, the biggest change we need to make in schools is we need to put students in charge of their own learning.
The other point highlighted in this video is that at CAST Schools, we have focused on areas in our city that previously did not have such high quality programs – most notably the Southern half of Bexar County.
When they surprised me with this video, Superintendent Dr. Jeanette Ball also pointed out that she appreciated my insistence on always pushing, and always asking why. I am a bit of an outsider in education, having worked as a teacher, journalist and in public policy rather than working my way up the ranks as a principal or district administrator. And in a field that can be very top down, full of state mandates and requirements, there is often a tendency to default to compliance.
In a time when public education is sadly facing many major threats, I think the job of those of us who love it and see it as essential for our future is to also be willing to ask the tough questions: could we do things differently? How might we give young people more control over their learning?
So finally, I want to close by repeating: this video was made BY STUDENTS! CAST STEM is one of our smaller high schools, co-located on a community college campus, and so they have limited arts programming. And yet the creativity of our students bursts through in so many ways. Our students are capable of so much – we just need to figure out how not to limit them.
Jeanne Russell
Executive Director, CAST Schools