The IDEA Blog
Charting a new path forward in education by sharing positive stories of change, providing perspective on key issues, and giving you the news and analysis you need to take action.
Raising a Generation that Has a 4.0 in Problem Solving: An Inspiring Talk
What are the issues we're all trying to solve right now? World hunger, wars against other nations, a failing economy, just to name a few. It can be so depressing and infuriating to be a kid of just almost sixteen and know that my generation has so many sorrows and woes to deal with that have been laid down by generations long gone.My generation will not need to be good test takers or be able to read 300 words a minute or be able to get stellar scores on the ACTs or SATs or LSATs. My generation will need to be innovators, thinkers, and above all: "Solutionaries." I recently saw a video from a TEDx talk that was uploaded onto youtube. The speaker's name was Zoe Weil, and she talked about...
Posted on Jan 21, 2011 - 10:32 AM by Claire Russell
A Fifteen-Year-Old’s Perspective on Testing
Hello Everyone!Here I am, it is 12:20 in the morning on January 13th 2011, and I am doing homework. Today was a snow day, and I, instead of staying home and doing homework all day, made the somewhat irresponsible decision of going out to my friend's house and having a snowball fight and making a snowman and laughing the whole day away. And now I am mad at myself for it. But, before I fall into such a pit of self loathing, I have to ask myself, why? Why is it so dreadfully important that I, a social fifteen-year-old, stay home out of the beautiful snowy weather and study? And at what point did I become so deeply involved in school that I would be so disappointed in myself for something...
Posted on Jan 12, 2011 - 09:18 PM by Claire Russell
My Future Takes a Stand
There are so many reasons why people stop writing: they don't have time; or they become apathetic about creativity; or sometimes they just don't know how to put what they want to say in words. For me, it has been an infuriating combination of the three evils that we, as writers, need to deal with that has kept me from putting pen to paper. But, tonight I have inspiration that the terrible writing block monsters don't even try to put up a fight against.Tonight, I write in remembrance of four young men: Justin Aagerg, Billy Lucas, Asher Brown and Seth Walsh. Justin and Billy were fifteen and Asher and Seth were thirteen. These were boys about my age who took their own lives this past...
Posted on Nov 01, 2010 - 12:00 PM by Claire Russell
Lucas: A Puppy with a Purpose
I stood waiting in line under the fluorescent light of my local Super Wal-Mart, a container of juice in my right hand. This was a very rare scene for me because I don't shop at Wal-Mart as a habit, but what made this occasion really rare was what was in my left hand. I looked down at the leather leash in my fist, the kind they usually use for service dogs in training. I followed the leash down until my gaze was met with soft brown eyes. At my side sat a six-month old black lab puppy wearing a red 'Guiding Eyes for the Blind' bandanna and a matching red collar with a name-tag that read: LUCAS.Lucas is one of countless young dogs across the US in training to become a seeing-eye dog for the...
Posted on Aug 06, 2010 - 07:50 PM by Claire Russell
A Glimpse of Compassion in Room 114
In my Waldorf grade school, compassion and inspiration were the norm, which was a beautiful thing. However, in my current public high school it is much harder to come by, which is something I dearly miss about my old schooling. Words like "stupid" and "retarded" are thrown around like they mean nothing and like they aren't hurtful. However, every once in a while you can truly see the heart of the student body, and that is precisely what inspires me to write about this.I never intended to take a band class, but I had heard the teacher was awesome and well loved. So I decided to do it. I play percussion, so I don't always have much to do, but it's great fun just to sit and watch the teacher...
Posted on Apr 14, 2010 - 05:27 PM by Claire Russell
Success or Just a Broken Promise?
Before the beginning of this school year, I made a promise to myself. I vowed that no matter what happened in my new school or whatever experiences I would have or problems I would encounter, I would not change who I was or what I believed in.As the summer came to a close and the fifth of September rolled around, it seemed so surreal, it almost seemed like my class and I might actually just meet in our little classroom, and embrace each other like we did every year, and say how much we missed everyone, and have many conversations about all our adventures that summer. But it become apparently clear that this was not how it was going to happen. And somehow I ended up in a brand new school...
Posted on Mar 22, 2010 - 05:00 AM by Claire Russell
Uncle Sam Wants YOU… and he’s waiting in the cafeteria
He stood there like a statue -- dressed head to foot in the full uniform of a United States Marine. His hands were behind his back with unmatched pride. He stood behind a table that was sitting in the middle of my cafeteria. The banner on the front of the table read "Marine Recruits."Another man, slightly older, stood beside him, also in uniform. My peers looked curiously over at the table, and most of them wandered over and talked to the two men. The kids asked them questions and looked through all of the material the men had brought.
Later, I talked to one of my friends, who had gone over to talk to the recruiters. He announced that he had decided that day to join the Marines. I...
Posted on Feb 15, 2010 - 03:16 PM by Claire Russell
Reverse Pressure: The Pressure to Fail
In schools across America, young teens walk their halls with the heavy burden of perfection always upon them. Whoever instills this need for being flawless is often the one pushing young people. Their parents, their teachers, their family. However, at my school there is a new kind of pressure that is exceedingly different from the classic one: The pressure to fail.Meeting the status quo. That's what it's all about. Don't do too well, don't stand out. Kids use the term “rebel” fairly often in my school. In dictionary terms, this means someone or a group of people who rise up against the government. In my school, it's someone who fails. Someone who steals. Someone who is not in a good place...
Posted on Jan 10, 2010 - 02:20 PM by Claire Russell
Bullied by a Role Model
I write today from my heart, which, like my head is very confused and upset. I have been at my new school for nearly three months and I am happy to report I have not once been bullied, or teased -- until today. We all went through getting teased when we were children, and I have to admit I even did my fair share of teasing when I was young too, but it's an easy thing to fix. When you're teased as a child, you run to your teacher for comfort and advice. The scary thing is, this time the bully was my teacher.It was the end of the day and I was walking with my friend to basketball practice. My teacher stood in the hall. I called to him, "So, did I get an A on that assignment?" in a joking...
Posted on Dec 20, 2009 - 02:00 PM by Claire Russell
The Mention of Detention
Just so everyone knows, I will be blogging every two weeks. Usually on Sundays.English 9, period 2. We were all hurrying into our places at our desks before the bell rang. My friend swore loudly and announced he had forgotten his homework.
“I am so getting a detention,” he said unhappily.
You see, if you forget your homework, come late to class, come unprepared to class, grab the wrong binder for that class, fail a test, speak out of turn, or goof off, you receive a mandatory one-hour invite to an after school detention. If you miss, skip or are unable to attend this detention, you receive a two-hour detention on Friday. If you fail to attend the Friday attention, you get a “quiet”...
Posted on Nov 22, 2009 - 02:39 PM by Claire Russell
From Student to Conformist
Hi, my name is Claire Russell. I am a freshman at a mainstream public high school in rural Maine. I attended a "Waldorf-inspired" alternative school from the moment I walked into my first day of kindergarten, until the day I graduated from eighth grade last June.I loved school. Every minute of it. There wasn't a day when I thought it was a drag to go to school. It was perfect for me. We learned to learn. My teachers taught to teach. We weren't tested, graded or analyzed. I had a second family of twenty-four kids my age and a teacher who probably knew me better than I knew myself at most times. The thought of leaving broke my heart a little every time I thought about graduation. It seemed...
Posted on Nov 06, 2009 - 06:58 PM by Claire Russell
Posts by Claire Russell
