Encouraging Participation from ALL Students.

This article discusses some strategies for encouraging students to participate in their own education. Creating full student participation requires time and patience, especially when the teacher's socioeconomic, ethnic or cultural background is different from the student. Effective teachers agree that it is their responsibility to break though minority students' skepticism and distrust. Assuming this task requires patience and persistence, but the payoff is tremendous. The reward is greater openness and participation for minority students. Coaches know that the key to filling a team with talented players is recruiting. One coach said the most powerful recruitment technique is using peer recruiters. This attract students from all groups, not just one clique. Similarly, an advisor for a high school newspaper explained that recruiting a broad spectrum of students to work on the paper requires more than one teacher's personal network of students. Teachers' personal contacts with students work, but on a small scale. Getting a diverse group of students to participate requires cooperation from everyone. A teacher's goal should be to get everyone involved, especially students who lack confidence. It is important to make participation attractive.