By Robert Samuels
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 24, 2006

Jarel Evans thinks school's all right, though the teachers could be better and the textbooks a little more up-to-date.

"But what they really need to do is step their game up on the lunches," said Evans, a lanky 16-year-old who will enter 11th grade at Cardozo High School in Northwest this fall. "Sometimes, they'll be stale."

That's high school through a District teenager's eyes. About two dozen public high school students who were interviewed agreed that learning letters and numbers isn't everything. Their outlook on the city's educational system is determined by how much staff members seem to care about them, shown in everything from making fresh sandwiches to being nurturing instructors.

Every school has its problems, Evans said. Fights occur. Some students don't show up for class.

But an encouraging environment makes it possible to get a good education in the District, said Evans, who lives near Seventh and L streets NW. He said he dreams of playing professional football and likes having teachers at his games. In the classroom, he said, he appreciates being asked whether he needs assistance.

"That's what makes a good teacher," Evans said. "They'll come by and ask if you need anything, even if you don't ask for extra help. And they have to be a little funny."

Humor can help teachers relate to students better, Evans said. It shows that they don't take themselves too seriously.

If a teacher is too self-involved, the results can be harmful, said Ashley Byars, a 16-year-old student at Dunbar High School in Northwest.

"There was one teacher and I basically hated her guts," Byars said. "It was in the way she talked, always looking down on people."

One time, Byars said, the teacher told her class, "I don't care if you learn or not; I still get paid." The statement turned the class against her, Byars said.

An active interest in helping students succeed can make all the difference, said Adrian Robinson, 16, who attends Benjamin Banneker High School in Northwest. Robinson, a self-described class clown, said he sometimes prefers a teacher "who won't let me get away with anything." It forces him to do his schoolwork.

The education system will never be perfect, Robinson said.

Still, the students said they wanted just a little more from it.

"New textbooks would be nice," Robinson said. "The last president in one of my textbooks is Ronald Reagan."

And Lia Dove, a 16-year-old at Washington Math, Science and Technology High School in Southeast, said, "It would be good if we'd have more extracurricular activities."

Evans, of Cardozo, wants to make sure one thing isn't forgotten: "I'm telling you, we need better lunches."