Students at South Broward High School spends 7 hours a day 5 days a week, walking the same halls, using the same classrooms, and becoming familiar with the school like it’s the back of their hand. After spending all that time here, kids start to notice that there are things that they would change about the school. Different kids from different grades were asked “if you could simply wave the magic wand and bring a change in your classroom, your school, your classmates, the education system, what might that change be?”  

“I think I would change some of the teachers because some teachers can be really mean sometimes. It’s a teacher’s job to help students out when they are having trouble with something and not get annoyed easily,” said Junior Valerie Kimberly.

“I would change those bathrooms. This place looks disgusting,” said senior Max.

Put your hat back on and think about more things you, as a student would like to change about the learning experience, go beyond and think this through for a few moments. From the student’s perspective, what could we be doing better to improve our learning experience? If you were sitting in your class, or your friend’s class, what would you be thinking? Would you be fully engaged in learning? Would you be eager to come to class?      

“Schools should be more open to incorporating new approaches in the curriculum including practices such as mindfulness and meditation. Curriculum should be more practical instead of preparing students for college and future career, school should prepare students for life, including teaching them how to manage finances, relationships, health and help us fulfill goals and achieve success however individuals define it.” said Sophomore Alexandra Lopez. 

“Students should be given the opportunity to develop their unique gifts, talents and abilities each day, there should be some regular time in the school day to explore individual interests and passion.” said Sophomore Jamyl Julio.

“Students happiness, mental health and well-being should be placed in front of everything. Social-emotional development should not come at the expenses of meeting standards of preparing students for next grade level.” said Junior Juan.