Another Peer-spective
“Boy have we got a good one for you today!”
This is how Mr. O’Connor enthusiastically starts the peer leadership class he teaches every G block. The class of second semester seniors quiets down, and they begin a series of discussions and activities focused on ‘group development’, which they then apply with their freshman peers. What are peer groups, how have they evolved, and what perspectives surround them?
A large focus of peer groups is this concept called ‘group development’. Mr. O’Connor, a co-facilitator of the class, explains how group development has four stages: forming, storming, norming, and performing. It is the well-documented progression of the dynamic in groups. At first, interactions are nice and polite, and when individuals become more comfortable, there is room for disagreements. Afterwards, they accept their opposing views, and eventually groups begin to function without the intervention of the group facilitators. Ms. Roark, a co-facilitator of peer groups, comments how, “The senior groups and the 9th grade groups are very different now than they were in September.”
The group dynamic between the facilitators and students is unique to the peer leadership program in the sense that although the facilitators are the authority in the class, everyone’s opinions and ideas are of equal value, and this can bring a little bit of informality to the class. Ms. Roark explains, “[The dynamic] is one most student’s won’t experience in any other part of the school.” It can be challenging to adjust to this on both the student side and the teacher side. Mr. O’Connor reflects how, “It took me a little while to get use to [the dynamic]. I’m used to teaching kids at ‘arm’s length’ – and this is more about sharing opinions about life, and what we think of the world, and culture… And then, the expectation the kids had was that they wanted me to tell them what I thought… It went really well.”
Peer leadership was implemented in 2010, modeled after a Princeton initiative, at the same time the school transformed its schedule to blocks and intensives. Both facilitators, Ms. Roark and Mr. O’Connor, have been working on the peer leadership program for several years.
The class is comprised of 18 seniors who learn to be mentors for the freshmen. They learn activities and ways to have successful discussions on a range of topics, including personal lives, school culture, and opinions regarding discussing the teacher and administrative world. Then, the seniors bring these exercises and conversations to their freshmen groups. They meet with freshmen about every 2 weeks, with the groups made up of approximately fourteen to fifteen freshmen and two seniors. The goal is to discuss high school culture, along with the problems and issues of everyday life, and to learn more about each other. After students meet, the seniors reflect: what were the successes, the fails, and what can we improve?
For seniors, peer leadership is not just a learning activity, but an actual school course. However, because it is not a class like math or physics where there is a specific set of content that needs to be understood a certain way, the facilitators grade the students on a pass/fail basis. A peer leader can fail the class is by not showing up or participating, or by breaking rules that result in a disciplinary action.
Every year is a new group of leaders, and with this change in groups comes the change in how these groups evolve and behave. When discussing some of the issues that peer leadership classes have experience over the years, Mr. O’Connor mentions how he worries that groups wouldn’t developing the ‘right’ way, but has now come to understand that every group is different each year.
However, this program wasn’t an immediate success from the start, peer leadership has made the necessary mistakes that come with the learning process. One of these mistakes, Ms. Roark notes, is that “some students become peer leaders because they didn’t enjoy their group as freshmen… It’s a double edged sword”. Having a peer leader who can positively change the group in a way that their younger self would have appreciated is great, but it reflects how sometimes their seemingly “better” approach, does not work as well as they thought.
Besides these small failures, peer leadership has grown to see success in its development. Ms. Roark explains that, “The successes are small, but meaningful. When that student who has been quiet all year finally speaks up, and says something profound, and everyone is impressed, is a really important moment.” As pointed out b Ms. Roark, Peer Leadership is also important because it serves to break the divides between the senior and freshmen class, which is commonplace in many schools.
However, the freshmen class opinion of peer leaders is controversial. Some think that they are helpful at the beginning of the year to make friends and develop connections, but that they are not as effective towards the end. Some students also think the time could be better spent doing homework, and that it’s hard to connect with students in the setting, with students who often brush off the serious issues that are discussed. David Hamilton, a freshman, notes that, “They’re a great idea on paper and they make the school look better. However, they don’t really have a substantial effect on any of the students and most introverted students won’t participate or enjoy it while the extroverted students will.”
Mr. O’Connor also comments that some freshmen do not take advantage of peer groups. He remarked how “the freshmen can really get something out of this, if they put themselves out there. Some kids aren’t ready for that, or they’re not at a place where they want to put themselves out there. It can be a great thing when students have a senior they can look up to, and say hi to in the hallway.”
Erin Slotta, a peer leader, mentions something similar, “A lot freshmen don’t like peer groups, and I think looking back if everyone tried really hard to participate in discussion and the activities, our grade would be a lot closer.” Part of this may be because not all freshmen necessarily want to be in peer groups, contrasting the senior class where everyone in the class went through an application procedure and chose to participate.
Peer Leadership is a unique class. In the end, although peer groups are an important initiative, whether or not peer groups are effective is a question many freshmen raise. Their discussions and activities aimed at connecting individuals, talking about school issues, along with its culture are significant on both the freshmen and senior side.