Mainstreaming Special-Ed Students: a Question of Time

Dear Extra Credit:

I'm quite passionate about the subject of student motivation. We have so many kids who claim not to care, but it is a coverup for lack of reading skills, lack of preparedness, lack of confidence, lack of time to study after work and other reasons.

To not care is to give oneself permission for failure. Many kids also won't work for a teacher they don't like. Some also don't care because the information has absolutely no relevance to them. It's hard for a hungry teenager to care about calculus when he or she is holding down two jobs to help his or her single-parent family. I could go on and on.

That's where Rocket Corps has helped. These are student interns at Richard Montgomery High School. At RMHS, we have fewer than 200 kids (less than 10 percent) who have less than a 2.0 GPA. Peer tutors, mentors, peer confidants and friends, and role models of every color, race and nationality are who help here. I've got more than 95 classes with student interns who help teach, and yes, help motivate.

My interns really help. It's a more personal, peer-friendly process that reaches beyond the adult-centered curriculum. It is a means to make passing more important -- a reason to, at the very least, pass. It places role models, often of students' own culture or ethnicity, with kids to encourage them to be successful.

Juliet Good

Coordinator, Rocket Corps program

Richard Montgomery High School

The interns also learn more about the subject while teaching it. This is a terrific program.