SchwartzBlog

It feels like forever since I have thrown a post up, so here we go. This has been an unbelievably busy weekend. Friday night I went to rehearsal in brooklyn, then off to staten island to socialize and then the following morning back home. Saturday night was our homecoming dance, which was a big event for those of us in student council.

The homecoming dance is usually a precursor for the events of the rest of the year. Because as the first dance, it shows our administration what our students might do in the future. In past years it hasn’t exactly been great. Because in past years we had students take advantage of our generosity in providing them with a dance, by inebriating themselves before they arrived.

Students that make poor decisions, simply put, have in previous years ruined it for the rest of us, and this year both myself and the rest of student council wanted to do everything in our power to make this dance both fun and safe for our student body. So on saturday afternoon we were preparing. We had sold tickets, had permission slips signed, had chaperones ready to go, etc. And that night I did everything from selling concessions to directing traffic. Actually I did quite a bit of directing traffic. And I am pleased to report that not a single student was caught abusing a substance.

But after everything I did, I had nothing to do with that. Those students, and our senior class specifically, made the choice to take action and be responsible.

What I learned was that while I can do my best prior to the dance, I have no control over what some 700 students are going to do. So stressing over it does absolutely nothing. Student Leaders are constantly given the task of getting an event together that is both safe and fun. And for some teenagers, those words do not go hand in hand. So as Student Leaders our task is to empower students to be better, and then simply hope for the best.

The 2010 Homecoming dance was a success. Thanks to both the dedication of student council members, but more importantly to the responsibility and maturity of our students.

Thanks for reading…

A high school principal in Westchester County NY recently decided that presidential candidates would not be able to present their speeches to the school  before elections. This was because he felt that the speeches were too focused on entertainment and not enough on student government issues. Here’s the question: should a high school principal be able to control what is supposed to be a democratic election? is taking away those speeches give one candidate an edge over the other? do you think the outcome of the election would have been different if the speeches were read out to the school? Here is an article from the local newspaper on the subject;

http://www.newcastlenow.org/index.php/article/principal_cancels_student_council_president_speeches_at_last_minute/

What do you think?