Superintendent's Corner
.jpg "Superintendent & Chief Learner Dr. Jason Glass")
Dear Jeffco Families and Community,
This week, Evergreen High School had their graduation ceremony at Red Rocks Amphitheater. An Evergreen teacher, Chad Mott, delivered this speech to the graduates. It is a message of hope and confidence in this next generation of young people and of optimism that tomorrow will be better. It is also a message to the rest of us to be the kind of people our kids can look up to.
I go to a lot of graduations and hear a lot of speeches. After hearing this, I knew it needed to be shared to people in Jeffco and all over this country.
Graduations are special celebrations for all those who were part of getting that young person across the stage. This one was even more so for Chad Mott – his daughter Lily was one of those Evergreen graduates.
Do one thing every day that scares you. Daunting advice from the brilliant First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Thank you, seniors, for inviting me to embrace that wisdom...speaking at Red Rocks is a truly terrifying honor.
Members of the Class of 2019, we are all happy to be here for your send-off...some even ecstatic! You see, this class has been much maligned. We've been warned about you since your kindergarten days, and indeed you are a class full of challenging talents and personalities, a diverse and eclectic rogues gallery the likes of which we may never see again.
And why not? This is the first class born entirely in the new millennium. Generation Z they are sometimes called, or Gen Tech, Digital Natives, Post-Millenials, the ME-ME-ME Generation, or the iGeneration, and critics everywhere cast aspersions on their character and rue the day these guys come to power.
The iGeneration, the first generation to grow up entirely immersed in the internet, engrossed and ensconced in their iPhones, Influencers, and Instagram.
Intergenerational carping is an American pastime dating back to the days of Elvis and James Dean, and perhaps shall ever be, but we in education get to see these kiddos in ways parents, and other adults seldom do and can offer a more complex and nuanced perspective. We see them at their best, flexing burgeoning intellectual muscles, flashing dramatic flair, charisma, and creativity, demonstrating compassion, and pursuing their education with intense curiosity and ambition.
Critics assail the iGen’ers as addicted to their phones and screen time, fixated on that next ping, like, swish, or tweet signaling another notification, another instant gratification or impulsive high, with attention spans rivaling five-year-olds hopped up on Pixy Stix.
And why not? The biologists among us would explain that their teenage brains are absolutely awash in dopamine. They ARE hopped up, on stimulus from intense interaction with an incredibly broad cyber community. Is that such a bad thing?
Read more.
Jeffco students, parents, families, staff, and community members may engage with Dr. Glass via Facebook, Twitter @COJasonGlass, and through his blog, advancejeffco.blog.