We are incredibly fortunate to have LEAD. Students gain conversational skills while exploring vulnerable topics as concrete as trends like cancel culture and as personal as creating community through conversation. LEADers learn to create lesson plans, work with partners and adult participants, and facilitate conversations between their peers.
But ultimately, LEAD is based on student’s engagement and the energy they bring to conversations. Beyond LEAD, we have seen mundane topics turn thoughtful when people want to meaningfully participate. A simple conversation about oranges could turn into the ethics behind farming, the value of nutrients, or even climate change.
Ms. Yuan’s previous school in Milwaukee had an incredibly successful LEAD program. Minority students voiced that they wanted a space for peer conversations at school; thus they created their own version of LEAD. Conversations were a hit due to the students’ positive attitude and enthusiastic energy to explore social justice topics.
At University Prep, there is a mindset that these conversations are unnecessary and invaluable. In our opinion, this is a reflection of the culture of privilege, arrogance and ignorance in the student body. Even if students lack interest in a specific topic, there is always an angle to be individually invested in if there is a desire for growth. With a culture of privilege, students feel like they could be doing “better” things with their time and therefore don’t attempt to push themselves in something that might not initially be of interest or that makes them uncomfortable.
The stigma that LEAD is a “waste of time” is a barrier to the program’s success. Consider the recent project in the English elective, Literature of Identity: Hyphenating America, where students led class conversations while our teacher acted similarly to a LEAD adult participant. Activities included spectrums, Venn diagrams and small group conversations. While these discussions were grounded in texts, every large “essential question” mirrored questions we have posed about identity in LEAD—the conversations that students tend to complain about the most. These English classes were immensely successful because students were engaged and came to the conversations excited to participate.
We acknowledge that LEAD is not yet perfect, and we constantly seek improvements by implementing feedback from LEADers and participants. However, a successful LEAD program requires engaged participants. In the future, we hope that students will feel empowered to make the most of LEAD conversations.