When principal Nelson Beaudoin came to Kennebunk High School, bullying and harrassing among students was a major concern.  Instead of putting more teachers on duty to prevent bullying, Beaudoin engaged students in the problem.

Beaudoin not only succeeded in addressing the issue effectively, but also demonstrated that a student-driven approach to school climate issues is preferable to a top-down strategy that depends on rules, monitors, and strict punishments.

Throughout this example, the principal shows how to invite students to participate in shaping their learning.  He is instituting a method to allow students to evaluate teachers and collaborating with students to explore how to make course work more relevant. 

In addition, the funding for civic learning is diverse enough to promote sustainability.

"When schools work on controlling students for safety or whatever reason, they usually find that students resist," says Beaudoin.  "Instead, I defined some things I wanted to do around student voice: service-learning, school-wide conferences, having students evaulate teachers, have teachers solicit ideas from students to make learning more effective, and overall making students relevant.  For me, it's about inspiration instead of control."


CURRICULUM

The school adopted the First Amendment model to emphasize civic engagement throughout the social studies courses. 

Democratic processes also crept into classes in other disciplines.  

For example, Beaudoin describes democratic decision making in an English class.  "An English teacher wants to assign a book the whole class is oigng to read.  She might have everybody do a free read, then students have to defend what they read and inspire other people to read it.  As a class, the students come up with three or four suggestions, then the class votes on which book to read. 

"It follows, in my opinion, that more students will read a book they chose; however, how do students know what they don't know?  As educators, we can expect some things from students and demand they learn some important things.  But we are not trying to make students carbon copies of ourselves and learn what the teachers know instead of learning what's out there."

POLICIES

Students are required to do thirty hours of community service to graduate, although Beaudoin says he dislikes the policy.  "I don't think we should give credit for servitude.  However, when we became a First Amendment School, I think that some of the thought behind service changed and the level of service improved."

Beaudoin's credits students' interest in service and willingness to tackle larger problems to the overall goal of making students perceive themselves as relevant.  "Schools should be working to help students believe they can make a difference.  They don't have to wait until they're 35 or 65.  They can make an impact right now."

CLIMATE AND CULTURE

One of the key pieces in developing a climate and culture that allowed civic learning was "Challenge Night." 

With some students, Beaudoin translated a video called "Surviving High School," which documented anorexia, steriod use, cliques, bullying, and teen suicide among adolescents, into a four-hour evening program called Challenge Night.

A 2005 article in "Teacher Magazine" [http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2005/09/01/01vocal.h17.html] describes the first event:

The first Challenge Night, according to students and teachers who were there, was extraordinary. It took place on a Thursday evening, and 90 students from grades 9 to 12 showed, engaging, for four hours, in activities that included watching and discussing a video on bullying, then “crossing the line,” an exercise in which students were asked to cross the gym floor if they’d ever been picked on or ridiculed.

“Every single boy and girl took the walk,” Beaudoin remembers. “It was the most emotional part; students were crying and hugging each other.”

The kids also suggested ways to improve the school and pledged to be kind and friendly. Bullying and harassment had become so prevalent at Kennebunk that parents were recommending more surveillance in the hallways. “Instead, I gave the problem to the kids and let them solve it. In essence, that’s what I do as a principal,” Beaudoin explains.

Thanks to word-of-mouth and some propaganda on Beaudoin’s part, three more Challenge Nights followed, until most of the school had attended, each student earning a fluorescent-orange T-shirt inscribed with “Crossing the Line, 2001.”

“It kept feeding on itself,” Beaudoin recalls, “until we reached critical mass where enough kids were saying what they wanted their school to be like and became convinced they had the power to revolutionize it.”

Parents and students say that cliquish, and sometimes nasty, behaviors decreased dramatically. “Soon students were sprinting to my door since they’d had so many issues with the way the school was run before,” Beaudoin recounts. In [his book] Elevating Student Voice
[http://www.amazon.com/Elevating-Student-Voice-Participation-Citizenship/dp/1596670150], he writes, “The lesson here for educatorsis that seeking to inspire will pay
greater dividends than seeking to control.”

COMMUNITY

Kennebunk is engaging parents and the community in a variety of ways.  For instance, at the Maine Readiness Campaign Forum, the school divides the audience into groups of 8 or 9, including parents, students, teachers, and community members, to discuss goals in preparing students for college, career, and citizenship. 

In 2005, Beaudoin initiated "200 People for 200 Minutes," a mid-summer program to discuss how to involve stakeholders in the school.

"There is all this research that says parents should be involved in schools, but when we asked how, we didn't know and they didn't either."  As a group, parents and teachers determined that parents would be included in the School Senate, and each month a parent group would run a forum for other parents.

For instance, "we had parents sit on a panel about the college application process.  About 150 people came.  The topic was very specific, and it addressed something parents wanted to know."

Parents also addressed how students could use MySpace and other Internet tools appropriately, and the school invited police to discuss how parents could guard against unwanted situations. 

Finally, parents started an accountability group to consider goals and assess whether the school was meeting them.

"The last thing I'll say is that we celebrate and really accent the fact that real parent involvement in the school is in a support role.  We encourage parents to attend student-led conferences, be part of the Booster Club, attend games or the art show or the science fair.  Any time we showcase students, we really want parents to be there."