Every month, the Niles-Buchanan Rotary Club welcomes a new group of students from Niles, Brandywine, and Buchanan high schools to join us for lunch every Monday for the month.

We meet upstairs at the Riverfront Café in downtown Niles, and the students sit and talk with our members over lunch. Then they are asked to introduce themselves and share some of their school activities and future plans with the whole group. When the meeting is over, it is back to work for Rotary members and back to school for the students.

So far, this year’s senior students have been especially articulate and engaging when they speak to the group of Rotarians.

Standing up in a meeting and speaking to a group of mostly strangers is not something all of us adults handle all that well, and for 17- and 18-year-old kids to do this with charm and confidence is really something to see. You can tell these young folks have had the opportunity to interact, the chance to stand up and talk, and to do so in a clear, focused way.

Speaking skills and listening skills are not often assessed on the standardized tests we live by nowadays. Yet, in the world of work after high school and college, they are abilities that will be needed to succeed in most professions. Learning activities like group work, where students interact and problem-solve, then report their group’s discussion to the whole class, are wonderful opportunities for students to speak and say what is important. Again, the bubbles filled in on paper-pencil tests or clicked on computer tests might not reflect speaking and listening abilities, but they do contribute to critical thinking skills, which are so essential to long-term academic success.

Thank you to all the teachers and parents of this year’s Rotary seniors. You have worked to produce some fine representatives of the younger generation.

 

John Jarpe is superintendent of Brandywine Community Schools