Innovation in the Face of Barriers
One of the schools I visited with great anticipation was the 1st Epaggelmatiko Lykeio Peramatos, a Greek vocational high school. From a former teacher, I learned about a program that had had a profound effect on the culture of the school. Greek vocational schools are designed for students who do not have plans to go to university and instead intend to go directly into the work force. These schools offer certifications in a wide variety of trades: nursing, electronics, plumbing, data analysis and more and present some valuable opportunities to students. However, they do not have a great reputation amongst Greek society. Many people, including, unfortunately, the students, think them as places for the lesser students to attend - students who aren't smart or motivated enough to hack it in an academic setting. As you can imagine, this perception has an impact on academic performance and behavior in a school and it's something that the teachers and admin work hard to remedy. I had the privilege of talking with Nikos Nikolaou, a retired educator who was instrumental in implementing a program that has successfully tackled this problem.
The Mentor program was created a few years ago at a vocational school in Kesariani (a suburb of Athens) by a team of teachers and psychologists with the primary goal of "getting to know our students and conveying to them that they have worth." It consists of teachers being assigned 4-5 students a piece with whom they will meet one-on-one for three 15 minute meetings over the course of the first semester. The logistics of these meetings have obviously been carefully thought out - teachers are given a set of possible questions to ask students with the aim of getting to know them, along with some resources to tap into if the students reveal problems that the teacher is not qualified to tackle. In the school I observed, the principal - Marios Mouratidis - is an incredibly dynamic leader who supports innovation and empowers teacher leaders. I could feel it as I walked the halls of the school with English language teacher Christina Passali. The vibe was lively and spirited, and students were constantly stopping her and other teachers to talk. I asked Christina if it had always been this way and she said that she'd definitely seen the Mentor program, along with other things the teachers are doing to reach out to the community, have an impact on the students attitudes towards themselves and what they're doing at school. Although the logistics of the program do include some complexities, the basic concept of giving every incoming freshman student an adult who takes the time to get to know them is both simple and profound. Research has shown the positive impact of having a caring adult relationship on students' academics, psychological, and physiological well being, and this program is one effective way educators in Greece have found to make these relationships happen.
Another incredible program I had the good fortune to experience is the Youth to Youth program. This program was created in 2016 when Greece faced an ongoing humanitarian crisis as thousands of people left their homes and fled across the Aegean sea as a result of civil wars in countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. ACS joined with the NGO the HOME project to "to help the refugee minors integrate into the society, support them psychologically and inspire them to create a viable future." Just about every Saturday, unaccompanied refugee minors join with students of the American Community School in Athens to learn English and Greek language skills, mathematics, and computer skills. The students rotate through four one hour classes taught by ACS teachers, with a break for lunch and athletics. The lessons are wonderful, but the aspect of the program that really had an impact on me was the fact that student volunteers from ACS worked and played with the students throughout the day. Yes, the obvious goal is improving refugees' essential skills, but the greater effect is to connect them to the community - to peers of their same age. When I spoke to Julia Tokatlidou, the director of the program, she told me that the program has had a profound effect on not just the students who are refugees, but also the student volunteers, the teachers, and the wider community.
I am scheduled next week to visit another innovative program at a local public high school that seeks to connect the school with the larger community. It's called the Parent Academy and is a monthy seminar open to parents, teachers, and anyone else in the community who would like to attend. Each of these meetings feature guest speakers on a number of topics related to student success and well-being; at an upcoming meeting, a psychologist will speak on the topic of violence in schools and what can be done to ameliorate it.
These programs are obviously the work of many devoted people over the course of many years to address very crucial needs. While we, in Paradise, are not facing the exact same challenges that Greek educators and students are, we can take a page from their empowerment of innovation. Administrators, teachers, and students work together to solve problems in creative ways. I've seen this sane spirit in Paradise - we just need to find ways to encourage and support the people who will be instrumental in making our schools and our community thrive.
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