Student Advocacy Group

The Linda Christas Student Advocacy Group is a political action committee that works toward the reform of the so termed "one-size-fits-all" education delivery model for high school and middle school students.

Background

During the late 19th century, two men, John Dewey and William Harris, advocated an educational system in the United States modeled after training methods used by the Prussian military. Dewey and Harris both understood that the Prussian system, with its use of bells, whistles and klaxons, combined with time limited subject segments throughout the training day, was effective in establishing disciplined behaviors, as well as delivering relevant subject modules in impartial ways. What Dewy and Harris also realized was that the Prussian delivery training model provided few adjustments for individual differences in aptitude, learning style, interests and skill levels.

While Linda Christas supports the position that there may have been, and still may be, substantial merit in using such a system when the object is to train individuals to react in synchronized fashion, Linda Christas maintains that such a system is largely inappropriate for today's middle school and high school students, especially given the value industrialized societies place upon creativity, and the subsequent relationships between creativity and individual fulfillment within those societies.

Mission

The Linda Christas Student Advocacy Group works toward the broadening of school accreditation criteria, particularly at the middle and high school levels. To this end, Linda Christas petitions and consults with a wide range of persons within the larger education community. This includes teachers, school administrators, school boards, parent organizations, school accreditation committees, as well as federal, state, and local government officials.

Currently, there remains much work to be done. The great majority of middle and high schools both in the United States and elsewhere continue to rely upon pre-planned curricula and standardized methods as mainstays for educational services delivery.

Goals:

• To increase awareness that students mature at different times and in different ways. (Grouping students by age often creates environments which invite disengagement by a large percentage of the student population.)
• To increase awareness that, prior to a curriculum being adopted for a particular individual, the student's learning style, aptitudes, skills, interests and maturity level need to be determined. (This is what has been labeled by Linda Christas a student first services delivery model.)
• To increase the awareness of the powerful influences peer groups have relative to academic achievement, and to encourage the adoption of programs to address this reality.
• To increase the availability of counselors in public and private middle schools and high schools by reducing the student to counselor ratio from its current average of 650 to 1 to no more than 100 to 1. (Current student to counselor ratios in middle schools and high schools largely prevent all but the most severe student problems from being addressed. Counselors need to be available for consistent proactive work with students aimed at providing each individual with a personal plan, a track to walk on, during the middle school and high school years.)
• To increase awareness that the use of drugs such as Ritalin to modify classroom behaviors is the result of misdiagnoses occurring with an estimated 60% frequency.
• To increase awareness that Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder diagnoses are largely based on subjective interpretations of behavior rather than on objective science. (Example: An instructor attempting to manage tactile learners using previously approved visual and auditory methods should be free to interpret a student's restlessness as a natural reaction to an inappropriate forced teaching model rather than behavior warranting punishment or invasive medical treatment.)