The project is based on these observations:
The beliefs, attitudes and health young people need to thrive as adults largely form outside of school—education institutions reflect, rather than establish, who we are.
About 70 years ago we extended the protected period of childhood from the early teens to the age of 18, partially, to better educate young people. Because of who we are as a people: independent, suspicious of authority, practical, high school has had limited success. Too few achieve, too many drop out.
It requires more than most education systems can accomplish to turn around students not oriented or prepared to take advantage of school.
People do what they think will help them satisfy what they perceive as their needs and desires. They do what they believe is worth the effort and what they feel capable of doing. The classroom often fails such criteria in the eyes of students.
People make decisions based on a negotiation between personal attitudes and beliefs, and those of the cultures around them. Young people’s families, peers, communities, cultures, often channeled through media, powerfully impact their behavior.
Cultural wisdom is something that is built, not something that happens by accident.
Young people want to know how to live. They believe some adults can help them.
Sustained dialog between people who share circumstances and/or care about one another does more to inform beliefs, attitudes and decision making than anything else.
Older teens confound families and educators alike, often causing both to give up on them at a time when their potential has never been greater, nor the dangers closer.
The Internet and mobile technologies finally provide an opportunity to reach out to young people and do what no school has ever been able to without the principal going door-to-door.