Heal the Wounds of Your Students
Daquon Wilson served as a youth participant in the Midlands GradNation Community Summit. This is his personal reflection on the experience, and his thoughts on what more adults can do to support young people. This blog was originally posted on the GradNation/America's Promise Alliance website. To read it on there and check out other works that the organization does, visit:
http://www.americaspromise.org/opinion/heal-wounds-your-students
Being a part of the Midlands GradNation America’s Promise Alliance Community Summit was an amazing experience. I got to be a part of the planning of the event and a panelist on the student panel. I got to share my voice and opinions in a supportive community…but not all students have that. Not all students have opportunities like these, and not all students get the treatment they need.
When Dr. Joe Hendershott gave his keynote speech on wounded students, it impacted the whole audience. Many times, he said, students are labeled as “at-risk,” when they are really wounded. They are wounded by physical abuse, mental abuse, lack of resources, lack of support, and more.
This point was driven home by Dr. Shelley Stewart’s story. His story was so powerful that it left me speechless. The story of a wounded child. He was beaten, dealt with racism, walked five miles to school, didn’t even know his real name, and so many other terrible things.
He was a wounded student, but he had one teacher whose voice kept him going. His teacher told him that “as long as he got a good education, he could do anything.” This is the support wounded students need. They need someone to get to know them and become their advocate.
However, I know this could be hard for some schools. For my freshman and sophomore years of high school, I went to a school with well over a thousand students. Now I go to a school with a little over a hundred students, with some of the most supportive staff I’ve met. I’m not scared to share my thoughts in front of them, because I’ve had the chance to build relationships with much of the staff and student body.
In order to ensure that students have at least one person to turn to, the faculty developed a mentor/mentee program, where all of the staff have their own mentees. Now I’m not saying this to advertise my school, but because I truly believe this will work at almost any school.
Wounded students need that mentor who they come to with their problem. They need someone to listen, not just hear. They need someone to see them as another student, not a troublemaker. They need you to be their mentor. And it’s so easy to implement in a lot of schools. Many schools have some form of a “homeroom” period. This could be prime real estate for a mentor/mentee period. Even at an understaffed school, this has the potential for success, if you use all the adult resources you have: teachers, librarians, administrators.
If you want to help students do anything they dream of, then become their advocate. Become their mentor. Become their support system. Become the need they require. It may be hard, but isn’t it worth it to save a child and mend their wounds?
