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Some schools -- call them Type A schools -- care a great deal about providing a responsive, healthy environment for their students to learn, grow, and interact. They do so by considering boys’ and girls’ thoughts, feelings, and attitudes, along with their academics. Communication is the key, between teachers, kids, parents, and administrators. An openness to ideas results, and these schools succeed!
Other schools care, too, but it is not so evident in the way they operate. In Type B schools, students are shuffled through year after year in somewhat of a turnstile fashion. Finding little interest in their ideas and opinions, these kids can only “communicate” through their behavior. A strong theme of rules, discipline, and control prevails.
So how does it work in your school? If you’re working in a Type B school and are content with things, then Talking Up! is not for you. However, if you’re working in a Type A school, or want to move toward that model, then you’ve come to the right place. Talking Up! is a primary method for students to communicate openly about their daily school experience, with words rather than acting out. Talking Up! is a barometer of what is, and a blueprint for what might be. Talking Up! is feedback to the student and to the school, a health-check for both. Talking Up! is the voice of your students, who want to be heard, acknowledged, and understood . . . especially during these tricky, unpredictable teen and preteen years.*
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