William Smith High School Jerika Miller Summary

In this article Jerika Miller, age 17, is interviewed regarding her experience at William Smith High School, and how she believes that other high schools can be turned around like William Smith from failing high schools to successful ones. Having moved around and changed schools often, Jerika found William Smith to be a good school, and settled there for 3 years. She says that the reason she liked William Smith better that the other schools, was because it was more personal. The students are not just ID numbers, but individuals with names. Everyone knew everyone and wanted to know what was going on in each others’ lives. This school also put an emphasis on community.
The article continued with questions for Jerika about how she thinks the school made the switch from failing to successful. She liked how the school was project based and emphasize the students as being members of society. She says, “Being part of a group motivates you to be more involved in everything.” She says that although it is difficult to get the students to be engaged, when the teachers connect with their students, the students can ask questions in what they feel is a safe environment. She gives a word to other struggling high schools: “Putting out the message that [the
There are always the studious students, who will still succeed no matter where they are. But the majority of students will only succeed based upon their teachers. Of course, there will still be those students who will never care and not succeed, but the number of those who do care will multiply if the teacher shows that he/she cares. During my high school observation, I noticed how one of the teachers was very “down-to-earth” with the students. He would go around the room and answer their questions, and after class he would ask the students “how everything was going.” He listened to their stories, asked questions, and added