Senior Presentations take 10

Every single year the onslaught of senior presentation stresses me out.  Until I go to them.  Then I am wowed and refreshed and amazed.  But the planning and the time and the anxiety pulsing out of the seniors- it's nearly too much.  I think it was our 10th year of senior presentations and it may have been the best season yet.

Two highlights for me:
I'll call him Fred. Did not want to present.  Begged to get out of it.  I almost gave in.  But then we forced it. I did tell him that if he started panicking and gave me a signal, I would sneak out and pull the fire alarm.  At least I knew that I wouldn't have to do that... We gathered a bunch of students in to the Humanities room.  Fred stood outside the door, taking a couple last breaths (or so I'm sure he thought).  But then he walked in and did a lovely job.  I watched as the minutes passed and he relaxed and started standing taller and taller.  When it was over and the clapping was done, I helped Fred clean up.  He looked over at me and said, "I'm glad I did that. I'd even do it again."  Ya-hoo.

Then there's Bob.  This guy came to us partly through a somewhat lackluster high school career.  Clearly a brilliant kid, but not a lot of motivation.  And plenty of distractions.  Last fall he really faltered as he searched for a topic that might hold his interest.  But then he said that he reflected on what used to make him happy, back when he used to be happy.  Wow.  Ouch.  But he found something.  Being outside.  So he fashioned his project around wilderness survival.  He ended up taking a NOLS survival course.  He learned about foraging for food.  He took a camping trip with his mom- they had to travel a couple hundred miles south to do practice any foraging due to our odd April snowcover.  His presentation in May was wonderful.  Started off with an image of him as a happy toddler out in a sandbox as he talked about his motivation for this project.  Went into the cools skills he learned through NOLS, the wonder he found as he dug into the biology that relates to foraging, the reconnecting with his mom on their camping trip.  He held up the foraging cookbook he had made, and offered us a salad made of foraged greens.  Then he got to his final slide.  It had a picture of a young man jumping for joy..  Here is what it said:
Effects of my Senior Project:

• Happier
• Better ability to focus
• Started eating healthier
• Learned a lot about diverse subjects
• The research launched many other projects

Wow.  What more would I ever want a child to get out of some 'homework'?  Happier?  More focused? More curious? And he's eating better?  The power of letting youth take the reins surprises me once more.