ued by their communities. Part of the high school experience can include community in-
volvement in service that really matters. We need to integrate what happens in the class-
room with what goes on in the community outside the classroom walls.
Kathleen Kesson and Celia Oyler (1999) describe the efforts of Rebecca Jim, a guidance
counselor in northeastern Oklahoma who organized the Cherokee Volunteer Society for mid-
dle and high school students (both Native American and other teenagers), an extracurricular
group that committed their efforts to environmental problems in the area. The students took
on Tar Creek, named a Superfund site in 1983 but largely ignored by the federal and local au-
thorities. Jim knew that she and her students could accomplish far more if they involved class-
room teachers who would agree to integrate the environmental work in their curricula. Sci-
ence teachers taught students how to collect water samples and monitor water quality. The
senior classes of two English teachers put together an anthology of writing on Tar Creek in-
tended to make information on the environmental problems accessible to the local commu-
nity. The students involved also organize an annual Tar Creek Fish Tournament and Toxic
Tour, which heightens public awareness and reminds the community that no fish can survive
in the creek. The students in this area are involved in challenging work that brings the school
and community together. They are honing valuable academic skills through work on issues
that have immediate relevance for themselves and their community. Many of the students and
their families are experiencing a wide range of serious health problems and they are optimis-
tic that their work can make a difference, if not for them, then for future generations. These ad-
olescents, through their work in school are making a legitimate and valuable contribution to
their community and in turn they are perceived as valued community members.
This approach to secondary education means schools can stop focusing on what students
do not know, a deficit model of education, and start focusing on what they can contribute to
the world and their communities. Skill acquisition and knowledge construction are exciting
and worth doing when young people have a reason for learning. The question for educators
is, “How do we work with and develop the tremendous amount of knowledge, talent, and po-
tential that students bring with them to class?” and “How do we help them channel their
skills and knowledge in ways that have meaning and relevance to their lives and the commu-
nities they are living in?”
In my human development classes for preservice teachers, I introduce research and the-
ory, but I try to focus discussion on three sources of knowledge. We talk about my students’
own experiences as teenagers, their observations in schools, and the literature and theory
about teenage life. An example of the literature we read is Michael Dorris’s (1988)A Yellow
Raft in Blue Water, which depicts the life of a Native and African American teenager and her
search for identity and community. It is also about her discovery of the strong and complex
bonds she shares with her mother and grandmother. Among other books we read is Paul
Monette’s (1992)Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story.It is about a gay male growing up in the
1960s and his struggle with homophobia and coming to terms with his identity. My students
find these coming-of-age stories exceedingly useful for exploring the world of adolescents
and figuring out what it means to be both a teenager and a teacher. The diversity of the liter-
ature helps them go beyond the media images of adolescence that are familiar and seem-
ingly simple and to develop images of youth that have depth and complexity.
Schools should be organized to create experiences for children and adolescents that re-
flect who they are in the world. Schools should also be places where it is possible for stu-
dents to both acquire and critique the values of the adult community. Forcing students to
learn ideas they feel little connection with is successful for reproducing society exactly as it
is, but unsuccessful in nourishing a generation in which individuals feel like legitimate stake-
holders who can make a difference in the moral and democratic life of their communities.
Immersing students in relevant and challenging work and learning and sharing decision-
SUPPORT 231