“If students from Leyden are going to be our leaders in the next 20 years, then I feel pretty good about that…”
A few days ago, I was chatting with one of our incredible teachers, Mr. Bill Krypel, about how great our students are at Leyden and he looked right at me before saying the above quote. I smiled, and instantly, it got me thinking. He was right. We really do have an incredible group of students and if they are going to be the one’s running our businesses, towns and organizations, then we are going to be okay. But, what I also began thinking about was how often society and the media looks at young people and schools, not just at Leyden but everywhere, and quickly measure “success” based on any amount of different quantitative figures.
Test scores. Attendance rates. Graduation rates. Disciplinary referrals. The list continues. People will even push it; performance on the sports field, at dance competitions or on stage. Somehow, this “data” is used to show just how successful, or unsuccessful for that matter, a school can be. Does this truly measure success though? I believe that most people would agree with me when I have trouble agreeing with that. Instead, I began thinking about what “success” means. Success that can’t necessarily be measured with a number.
No, I thought about our student who, in a conversation with our Principal, Jason Markey, simply mentioned that he notices things are different around school. “People are holding doors for each other, and just being nice.”
Or our Boys Soccer team, who were playing the #2 team in state last month and took them to double overtime, losing only in the last 20 seconds of the match.
I think about the countless times our Leyden family has come together to support a member of our community in need. Just this year alone, we have raised over $5,000 to support these causes.
I think about our Kindness campaign, where more and more people are joining in to spread a simple message; kindness matters.
Or I reflect on our Make a Difference Day that just took place. Simply because they wanted to do good, 360 students joined 40 adults as we took part in 15 community service projects at the same time throughout our communities. 360 students on a Saturday morning, just because they wanted to help. Nothing more.
It’s always incredibly interesting to me that when people measure how “successful” a school is, all of these would be left out. Yet, in all honesty, this is what truly makes for a successful school. As I left our Make a Difference Day event last weekend, I was in awe of what was accomplished by our students; as I tweeted that afternoon, there is not a greater group of students around. Anywhere. So proud of what everyone accomplished that day. Yet, this won’t show up on any state report cards.
Someone once told me that a true measure of a successful school is whether or not you would send your own children there. This has resonated with me, and it is more real now than it ever could have been since we are expecting our first little one in just over three months (we couldn’t be more excited!)
Without an ounce of hesitation, I know that I would be proud to send my child to Leyden High School.
Make a Difference Day sounds great. I think that would be a good idea to implement in our school as well. Here we have just completed a day of working for a school in Lesotho, South Africa. But your days sounds like a good addition where you focus on your community. I agree with you, many ways to measure the success in schools, and most are not used in the discussions at all.
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