Finding the Best in the "Worst"

5th grade students at the Phillips Collection 

by Alex Winnick, Live It Learn It intern and undergraduate student at the University of Michigan

Anyone who has seen Waiting For Superman can tell you that DC public schools are the worst. The worst test scores, the worst reading levels, the worst systems. After spending a month as an intern with Live It Learn It, I can attach one final segment to this order: DC public school students are the best. The best personalities, the best minds, the best potential.

These failing test scores and substandard reading levels capture only a fraction of the schools in which I worked. They fail to represent the students’ natural intelligence, winning smiles, positive attitudes, and their innocence. They don’t congratulate the teachers and staff members, (both the permanent fixtures and those who ride in wearing red plastic name-tags) dedicated to educating the “worst.”

Live It Learn It enforces the notion that students everywhere want to learn; it is an inherent, human desire. Anyone who blames these students for ranking lowest in the nation is wrong. Anyone who believes these students are incapable of achieving high standards is seriously misguided. Students who jump out of their seats to answer a teacher’s question are not failing; students who can master the concepts of an entire lesson in an hour are not substandard.

Live It Learn It proves that these students can learn, and moreover, that they can learn just as well as any other student. While critics and education experts may have condemned our nation’s capital as the lowest, those of us who still believe in the power of urban youth can rally with Live It Learn It’s charge, and find the best in the worst.