Sinaloa Middle School

Recently I and many other adults had the pleasure of interviewing a score of eighth-grade students at Sinaloa Middle School in Simi Valley. May 24 was the day they presented their work portfolios and themselves to members of the community.

This was no simple exercise of viewing young art and essays and then patting children on the head with a word of encouragement. This program, set up by Sinaloa’s educators, is designed to place the students under a critical spotlight, no different from the same scrutiny they can expect on a future college or job interview.

As interviewers, we were expected to deal with these students on an adult level. The students astounded us all.

Placed in conversational settings of two or three students per adult, I was amazed at how intelligent, mature, opinionated, enthusiastic, thoughtful and sincere our young citizens can be when treated with respect.

In this setting, the students were equal partners, engaged in discussion rather than targets to be spoken at.

They all handled themselves extremely well and I, for one, am reassured that Sinaloa’s educators are preparing them for fine futures.

Nowadays it’s too easy to think of youth as some sort of illness. It is not.

It is merely the transitory stage everyone is required to muddle through before taking their place as adults. As adults, it’s our job to help them get through this period, not to ignore them and hope for the best.

Principal Leslie Franks, Assistant Principal Donna Freeman, the staff and all the other educators at Sinaloa Middle School understand this and have done a great job at helping these particular young people on their way to successful adulthood.

GARY SELVAGGIO

Simi Valley