Media Arts Education, Sixth Graders, and the Dropout Rate

I recently read an article in USA Today about an aggressive initiative to keep sixth graders coming to a Philadelphia school. Thinking about my most recent experiences with sixth graders and high school students in Dallas, I’ve found that part of what influences young people’s responses to adults’ expectations about their commitment to school and learning involves what cloaks these expectations. Media arts education, in particular, has proven to be an invaluable tool in creatively conveying these expectations while compelling young people to use their schema and unfettered imagination to embrace learning in a school context.

Just last week, sitting in a classroom on a college campus in downtown Dallas, I typed on my computer, recorded some notes, and video recorded middle school and high school students eagerly taking on a history project inspired by conversations about Juneteenth. Juneteenth, a holiday commemorated by many, is still unknown to many others. After some discussion, creative writing, and a visit to a Juneteenth program, students were charged with producing a project to reflect what they had learned and what information and talent they wanted to share as part of this project.

Although this form of learning and creative exploration was new for most of the students, I witnessed, over the course of just three days, 12-16 year old boys and girls in Preservation LINK’s Youth Media Leadership Club and SIGHT & SOUND Program excitedly run from classroom to lab while brainstorming elements for their production. One student, in particular, a sixth grader named Rodney, eagerly tapped on the arm of the lead instructor, Dave Herman, to ask if he could go look up pictures for the project. When I later joined the students in the computer lab, I overheard discussions about what historical content should be included, questions about whether the correct date for a particular event had been added, and queries from the younger student to an older student about would be responsible for looking up additional information. In the lab, Rodney beckoned me over to view the visual elements he had found and I watched him excitedly explain his findings. Over these few days, Rodney had embraced the role of a visual historian and his excitement over his ability to discover and share with the group was contagious. He, like many of his peers in the class, had seized the opportunity to convey their understanding of history, and they each had a particular role in shaping this project. I watched another student, after getting a brief lesson in how to command attention, confidently teach his peers about the images he had found and how he believed these images fit into the larger story that the group sought to convey.

The students were empowered by this project and I smiled as I thought about media making and its ability to enliven the learning experiences of these students and countless others. In the same conversation about how sixth grade experiences predict high school dropout and the massive amounts of media youth consume, there should be more discussions about how media literacy (i.e., the ability to analyze, evaluate, summarize, create) requires many of the same types of skills needed to be successful in most classrooms-whether the subject is algebra, geometry, physical science, language arts, speech, etc. I am convinced that more conversations in this direction, accompanied by more empirical research, will help us better tap into the creative strengths of sixth graders so that their personal investments in their education makes quitting high school nowhere near an option.