I’ve written about the various stages that PSCS students tend to move through, with the first stage typically being “euphoria.” Students can’t believe it when they find themselves in a place where everyone is so focused on helping them engage in activities that bring them joy.
This can fade when students can begin to grow bored. No one is forcing them do anything. They haven’t yet learned the skill of self-direction, so they don’t know what to do with themselves.
I was describing this behavior pattern to a family visiting the school. I said that by the time PSCS students head off to college, they’ve had years of practice at self-direction and support in learning how to handle responsibility. Sometimes, they report being disappointed in their first semester in college because other students are only there to party and mess around.
I can relate: I wasted a great deal of the first three years of my college experience simply going through a process of growing up.
“Those students are just entering stage one,” the visitor said to me. “They go off to college, and it’s the first time they ever get to make decisions that affect their life. They’re in a state of euphoria.”
Looking at it through this lens, it makes sense why 50 percent of incoming freshman at U.S. colleges fail to graduate within five years. They’re learning responsibility and maturity in an environment that expects them to already have those qualities. If you don’t wake up for your 8 a.m. class, you flunk.
I will never, ever tell any visitor that PSCS is a “college-prep” school. We provide a rich abundance of academic classes that will help college-bound students have what they need to succeed, but that’s not the focus of our program. Our focus is on helping students learn a set of skills that will carry them to wherever they want to go next. It turns out, however, that those skills are precisely what will best prepare them for college.
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