This piece does what youth/teen radio does at its best. It takes an issue that affects young people and give us a fresh, bracing look at it through the eyes and experience of a teen. We hear a bright girl bravely exploring her own story, approaching her own teachers and asking things like, "Did you see potential in me?"
Tracking is a familiar phenomenon in schools, especially big urban high schools. It's tempting to see it as a necessary evil. After all, a lot of kids just don't care or aren't ready to do high quality schoolwork, right? Jaimita's story could make a person rethink that complacent idea. How many students have their aspirations prematurely killed through tracking? For that matter, how many are put in non-college tracks simply because their school's college-track program doesn't have room for them?
Highly recommended for any magazine show or to kick-start a discussion on high school in general or tracking in particular.
Review of Tracking
John Biewen
Posted on June 13, 2006 at 11:34 AM
This piece does what youth/teen radio does at its best. It takes an issue that affects young people and give us a fresh, bracing look at it through the eyes and experience of a teen. We hear a bright girl bravely exploring her own story, approaching her own teachers and asking things like, "Did you see potential in me?"
Tracking is a familiar phenomenon in schools, especially big urban high schools. It's tempting to see it as a necessary evil. After all, a lot of kids just don't care or aren't ready to do high quality schoolwork, right? Jaimita's story could make a person rethink that complacent idea. How many students have their aspirations prematurely killed through tracking? For that matter, how many are put in non-college tracks simply because their school's college-track program doesn't have room for them?
Highly recommended for any magazine show or to kick-start a discussion on high school in general or tracking in particular.