Bright Futures Response

Bright Futures

Bright Futures is a report and philosophical statement about middle-level education put together by a committee in 2009. The focus was on core beliefs, core principles, and the twelve core practices of middle-level schools in the state of Maine. These core practices were explained in great detail with an emphasis on the value of those practices to students, as well as demonstrations of how some schools have been succeeding at that practice.

As a student from one of the most successful schools with the laptop-per-student program, I can see how the technological practice is incredibly helpful and generally beneficial to the student.

One practice that I was particularly engaged in was practice 9 – Students have access to a co-curricular program that encourages all students to participate, develop skills, be a member of a team or activity, and simply have fun. Co-curricular, which I take to be the updated term for what I used to call extracurriculars, is a much more apt title, as these activities are often where a lot of the learning makes a more solid connection in the mind. I, for one, didn’t really learn to write in my own voice until I was writing speeches for Debate Team. My first few speeches were stilted and poorly put together when I had to recite them, and I quickly learned phrasing, vocabulary, and tone that I could use confidently, as if I were speaking off the cuff. Without that cocurricular activity, I certainly would be a much poorer writer than I am today.

The rationales for the core practices resonated with the philosophies and theories that we’ve been learning about in this class, and the “essential elements – snapshot – phase out” format was well-organized and pedagogically designed. I feel like I have a good sense of where the state wants our middle schools to be.