Kristina Rizga's Mission High and the Twentieth-First Century Schools We Need
Want to feel 40 to 50 years younger? Then, read Mission High by Kristina Rizga.
On virtually every page in Rizga's great book, I relived my idealism of the late 1960s. She tells the story of a school that embodies the ideals which schools should exemplify. Schools (and our society) were not as good when I was a student. But, we believed that the day would come when schools like San Francisco's Mission High would be the norm.
Rizga describes the dignity, the dynamism, and the wisdom of the diverse students at the high-challenge school. In doing so, she reminds us why integration works. Bring all types of students together with all type of adults, and awesome things happen.
Maria, whose auntie was murdered by the gang MS-13 in El Salvador, originally struggled to write two paragraphs. Maria's teachers recognized her as "an intellect battling to find its voice." They helped her to build on her tenacity, to write and rewrite research papers, and author sophisticated analyses such as her essay onMendez v. Westminster.
Maria, whose auntie was murdered by the gang MS-13 in El Salvador, originally struggled to write two paragraphs. Maria's teachers recognized her as "an intellect battling to find its voice." They helped her to build on her tenacity, to write and rewrite research papers, and author sophisticated analyses such as her essay onMendez v. Westminster.
Darrell had a reading disability, and like many African American students, he did not see himself as a good test-taker. But challenging lessons, such as analyzing U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, taught him how to achieve "the highest high," a "sense of pride in his own thoughts and ideas ... [that] fed his resilience." Not surprisingly, lessons on the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 worked with students of all races just like it did for my kids in Oklahoma City.
Rizga recounts the backgrounds and the distributive leadership of Eric Guthertz, Mission High's principal (whose guidance is described here), of social studies teacher Robert Roth and language arts teacher Pirette McKamey. They treat each student as an individual. They build on students' strengths; they don't just remediate weaknesses.
These progressive educators teach a complete curriculum, not just bubbling in the Kristina Rizga's Mission High and the Twentieth-First Century Schools We Need | John Thompson - Linkis.com:
