On Monday, a new initiative was launched to help combat lack of participation, respect and engagement from students here at OA. Most teachers took some, or all, of their class time to have an open discussion with their students on how the Tiger Mindset will be integrated into their class and what it means for students in general.
The Tiger Mindset was created by history teachers Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Costello. They stated “it was born out of concerns about school culture raised by faculty and students regarding behaviors and actions they were seeing in the building”.
Both creators say they have been working on it for a few months. They reached out to both faculty and students to get advice on what should be included. To get everyone’s feedback, “a Faculty survey was created and reviewed, we met with administrative leadership and held a focus group with student leaders who recommended areas for improvement.”
Last year was unprecedented, as we have all heard. No one knew how to handle online learning and what effects their actions would have when everyone came back to be in school in person. Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Costello said “clearly the past year and a half has had a huge impact on all aspects of education. While we rightly place a lot of emphasis on curriculum and what happens in the classroom being impacted, it also impacted school culture and behavior throughout the country”. They believe “the expectations and day to day life of school radically changed during Covid”. Ms. Cleary also adds, “a lot of students have forgotten how to learn, how to study, how to prepare for a test because for so long we haven’t had that”. She has also noticed that post-covid, kids are “more apathetic than they were in past years” and thinks that “doing things the old way..isn’t going to be good enough, we have to delve deeper”. Hopefully, this new initiative can “help all members of the OA community begin the process of returning to a more normal school environment” says the creators.
“The goal now is to get everyone on the same page working together to create the best school possible.”
Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Costello
There were obviously a lot of opinions from students and teachers alike. Some students believe this is a good thing while others think it is pointless. A few turned it back on the teachers, saying they were not engaged or participating because the teachers only lectured their classes and they were bored. Or they said the teachers weren’t disciplining those who were acting up so students felt that they could get away with it.
Senior Jack Richardson believes that this new initiative is a necessary thing. “I feel like there has been a lost sense of respect for some of the kids in this school and it is starting to create a bad community” he says when asked if he thinks this is essential. Jack also believes that this sudden and noticeable shift in behavior is due to Covid. He has noticed “a huge change in the behavior of students post-covid”. He believes that, “some of these younger kids and grades don’t respect anything and since they’ve been doing everything over technology, they have poor social skills”. On the subject of technology Jack says, “some of these kids don’t know how to act around people… these kids [are] not able to have a conversation in person because they are so caught up in their phones”.
However, when asked if Richardson thinks this new initiative will be effective his response was, “I don’t think it will be helpful because the kids have to want to change, they can’t be told to change. And, I personally don’t think these kids will learn and actually try to change into this type of mindset”.
Ms. Cleary is a strong believer that your actions affects others. We need to “realize that what you do impacts everyone else and it’s not just about you it’s about the rest of the class”. She says you never know who is watching so you should set a good example so others will follow.
It is also important to note that these mindsets go beyond the walls of the school. She says that “being engaged and being focused prepares you to just be a good person in general. Thats a life skill that I think is overall important”. It is true that now is the time to set up good habits. It is important to work on ourselves so we can present the best version of ourselves once we emerge into the real world, post high school.
When asked if she thinks this will be effective, Ms. Cleary said “I buy into it and I think it’s important. I think it was nice that they didn’t give us a script and tell us we have to say XYZ”. Not giving the teachers a script allowed them to fit the new mindsets into their own class’s structure and it also lets the teachers interpret it how they want. In turn, they relayed the mindsets with a different spin each time so students really understood the full perspective.
Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Costello fear that “students feel these are just a ton of new rules”. Which is untrue, “the school already has a handbook that deals with rules and regulations. The goal of the Tiger Mindset is to help build upon the great foundation our school has already”. Students should keep in mind that “there is nothing radically new in the Tiger Mindset, it’s simply an effort to provide students and staff with a clear, consistent and flexible road map towards creating the type of place we can all take great pride in. Ideally it will help ensure that each member of our community feels safe, valued and is in a learning environment that allows them to maximize their potential”.
Ms. Cleary acknowledged the fact that she is “not going to walk in tomorrow and everything is going to be perfect, but even today in one of my classes after we talked about it and then I used one of the phrases with my student who wasn’t doing what they were supposed to be doing” and it was a positive response. She summarizes most people’s feelings on it by saying “you have to start somewhere and I think this is a good starting point”. Meaning this won’t be the only solution to the problem, but it is a good jumping off point and is laying the foundation.
Both Mr. Costello and Mr. Goldberg wish to say, “We love Easton and OA. We both live in Easton and our children go to school in Easton. Our goal from the beginning has been to help our community be the best possible place for everyone. No plan or initiative can achieve that immediately but our hope is that the Tiger Mindset helps our community continue to build on the amazing qualities it already has in place and helps us build and improve in areas of need.”