Be It Chance or By Design, You Sometimes Never Know What the Future Holds For You!
by Cathie Maglio, Blended Learning SPECIALIST
I was in a school library recently when a student came in to take a make up test. His teacher said to me that this student had just received a scholarship to play football at a nearby college. This student never expected to go to college. He did just enough to get by during his junior year and was thinking about going into the military. Now, with the scholarship in hand, he is getting serious about school and doing his work, not to just get by, but to succeed!
This student’s story got me thinking. In my travels as a blended learning specialist at JFYNetWorks, I see so many students who just want to do the minimum or less in school and never think about what the future holds for them. The choices these students make now could affect the opportunities that await them as they get on with life. They never think that an opportunity for them might be right around the corner and they may miss it because of their lack of motivation.
JFYNet offers students, on level or below level in their studies, a unique opportunity to increase their level of skill and be ready for passing the MCAS and receiving an Abigail Adams scholarship or bypassing remedial college classes and going right into credit-level courses. I wish they realized the impact that JFYNet could have on their lives.
Students might not be thinking about going to college right after high school. If they are planning on working or joining the military, they might think JFY’s college readiness program does not apply to them. But what happens a few years down the line when a promotion at work is not offered because of not having a college degree? The person may then decide to go to college, but when he takes the placement exams and does not score high enough to get into college level classes he might look back to the JFYNet program he blew off in high school and wish he had taken it more seriously.
There are unforeseen opportunities waiting for all young people. I wish I knew a way to reach the students who do not take the opportunities offered to them in school, like the JFYNet program and many others, seriously. The school is trying to help them develop their skills and stretch their potential. (I know, this sounds like a teacher talking to a parent at Parent-Teacher night.)
If we could take each student and look into a crystal ball at his or her future, would they like what they see? Would that foresight make a difference? Would it change their behavior now? I wish I knew.
I have yet to learn a strategy to get students to understand the importance of the opportunities presented to them, opportunities that students a generation or two ago never had. I hope they recognize the time, effort, and money others have contributed so that they might have the best opportunities.
I want every student I encounter in my travels to succeed, in my JFYNet program, in school, and most importantly in life. I hope they will someday look back and thank their teachers and schools for preparing them for a future they didn’t see coming.
Most of all, I want them to be ready when an opportunity presents itself out of the blue, like the football scholarship that spiraled into the hands of that student in the school library.
Related Posts on ‘Remedial Courses’ click here.
