STEP had a great discussion on Friday as we tried to answer the question: how do we talk about modern-day civil rights issues in schools?

Here are some of the highlights:

• People want to talk about these issues. Sometimes, we need to talk about them. Schools should provide an opportunity to do so without fear of recrimination or judgment–explicit or implicit.
• To effectively educate on an issue, all perspectives should be considered. Students should be allowed–and encouraged–to develop their own well-informed opinions.
• It is hard to present and discuss modern-day issues. Because civil rights are often charged and emotional, we must strike a balance. No one perspective should be touted as the only correct one. No one should be allowed to discredit another opinion (or person) without at least hearing it first.
• Truth be told, this is something that we are still working on at Cary Academy. Very few STEP members have had the chance to talk about recent civil rights events (the cases in Ferguson and Staten Island, the repeal of Amendment One). Unfortunately, even when we do have those discussions, we find that one side is often promoted, and certain thoughts and opinions are left unsaid.

We are so happy to have had such an incredible group of experts, educators, and citizens at S.T.E.P. Forward: Closing the Gap That Matters on Thursday and Friday! It’s kind of hard to believe that after so many months of preparation, the conference is over!

It truly was an incredible opportunity to, as students, share our perspectives on education, policy, and reform with people who research these topics as a career. We are so glad that we got to play a part in such an important conversation, and we hope to continue sharing our perspective and taking STEPs to close that gap.

We are hoping to put together a highlights video soon. In the meantime, check out our Conference Materials page for videos of sessions, presentations, and links to additional online resources.

It’s hard to believe that, after so many months of planning, the conference is finally almost here! It’s a little overwhelming, but mostly exciting to know how many people will join us this week at S.T.E.P. Forward: Closing the Gap That Matters to learn about some of the most important issues in education and ways to address them.

We have presenters and attendees coming from all over the state, ranging from Ph.D.’s to elementary school students. It’s incredible to see such a broad range of interest in education, and we are thrilled to have this opportunity to bring together so many different opinions and narratives, as well as to share our own perspective as high school students.

If you’re not able to make the conference on Thursday and Friday, we will be posting videos of several conference sessions on our website. Please feel free to check those out and share them! “Closing the Gap That Matters” doesn’t end when the conference does: we want to continue to spread the message of S.T.E.P. and to encourage even more conversations about techniques that help every student achieve his or her maximum potential.

Friday, September 5th

After an incredible two months of summer vacation, we were thrilled to welcome S.T.E.P. members (new and old) at our very first meeting of the 2014-2015 school year.

It was great to hear why everyone joined S.T.E.P., and we have several goals to accomplish this year!

• Conference! S.T.E.P. Forward: Closing the Gap that Matters is coming up on October 16th and 17th, and we are so excited to include the entire club in the planning and preparation. Registration (on the Conference 2014 tab) is still open until September 30th–we’d love to see you there!
• S.T.E.P. in a Box! Who are we? What’s our mission? What do we actually do? If you’d like to create a S.T.E.P. chapter at your school, S.T.E.P. in a Box will answer those questions and more. We plan to visit at least two schools this year, so please email caryacademySTEP@gmail.com if you’re interested!
• Research! Last year, we started researching the connection between Myers-Briggs personalities and learning styles. This year, we hope to conduct more surveys and gather more data to draw some conclusions and come up with some solutions for students who are struggling to learn.
• Volunteering! We’re in the beginning phases of planning a workshop program that will be a partnership between NC museums and elementary schools to involve more hands-on activities in students’ learning. We would also love to do more volunteering projects like those we did at the end of last school year. If you have any ideas, please let us know!

Friday, June 6th

It’s hard to believe that after two weeks of hard work and activities, Discovery Term at CA has come to an end. We’ve all had so much fun working on our models of an ideal education, Skyping and speaking with several experts, visiting schools, the state legislature, and the Friday Institute, and so much more.

To celebrate the end of Discovery Term, the entire CA community came together to hear what everyone has been doing for the past two weeks. It was a great opportunity to practice an abridged version of our ideal education presentation, and we’re so excited to have had that opportunity to share all we’ve done with our fellow classmates and faculty members.

If you’re interested in hearing from some the experts we spoke with and seeing our presentation of an ideal education, please register for our conference here!