Not Your Average Student Council: How Chicago’s Student Voice Committees Are Giving Kids a Real Say in Their Schools
November 12, 2018
By: Kate Stringer
Source: The 74
The students at Mather High School in Chicago wanted to do something. Their peers said they didn’t feel comfortable coming to school, weren’t paying attention in class, and sometimes skipped lessons altogether.
So a small group of students tried to figure out what the root of the problem might be. They talked to their classmates, interviewed teachers, and researched what other schools were doing to help students feel connected. Finally, they decided they were going to improve the relationships between the school’s 100 teachers and 1,500 students.
If they could do this, “students would feel much more comfortable in class and teachers would feel more motivated to work and have a mutual respect between them so these problems would decrease,” senior Minaz Khatoon said.