Students to outgoing Supt. Cortines: Don't trust us with technology, get us new textbooks and listen to us

Students to outgoing Supt. Cortines: Don’t trust us with technology, get us new textbooks and listen to us

Dec. 11, 2015 1:13 PM PT

Don’t trust us with technology, get us updated textbooks and listen to our perspectives.

These were some of the varied responses high school students had after sitting in on a conversation between outgoing Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ramon C. Cortines and Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez on Wednesday about the country’s second-largest school district. Students from HS Insider as well as the Mayor’s Youth Council attended the event. Below, find some of their reactions:

Cortines says technology is effective and it works, but in my opinion, it doesn’t. Technology in the classrooms doesn’t solve problems; it’s a distraction, and creates more problems. I’ve witnessed, first-hand, people using iPads and/or laptops and playing around with them. The camera rolls are filled with silly selfies of kids goofing off. And I’m not afraid to say that I’m one of those kids. If I’m doing this, and an honor student, who’s to say that other kids won’t?

--Luis Valente , South East High School.

An environment does not make a student, but the district isn't providing us with an environment of motivation ... If he wants to improve schools he [should] start with those on the lowest step.

--Alejandra Lopez, Crenshaw High School

One of the things that really got my attention that Cortines had said was his idea of understanding the perspectives of the students and relying on them more often.

--Britney Portillo, Middle College High School

Will additional money buy new up-to-date textbooks? Having to be in an AP World History with a book from 2005 is not helpful.

--Giselle Gandara, Middle College High School

One thing I found interesting about what Superintendent Cortines said is that the most fragile students in the LAUSD system are high school students. Not the elementary. Not the middle school students, but the high school students. I feel that this is important because as a high school student I’ve noticed changes over the years such as taking away the CAHSEE [California High School Exit Exam] and giving us more subs.

--Daniel Addison, Dorsey High School

Twitter: @dhgerson

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Daniela Gerson

Daniela Gerson was a community engagement editor at the Los Angeles Times. She left in 2016. As a journalist and educator, her work focuses on multiethnic communities and innovations in participatory media. She was previously the director of the Civic Engagement and Journalism Initiative at USC’s Annenberg School. Gerson was the founding editor of Alhambra Source, a research-based site investigating how local news can foster civic engagement. She also developed Reporter Corps, a program to train young adults to report on their own communities. Gerson has contributed to the Financial Times Magazine, the New York Times, PRI’s The World, Der Spiegel, WNYC, and was a staff immigration reporter for the New York Sun. Daniela is the recipient of Alexander von Humboldt and Arthur F. Burns fellowships. A graduate of Brown University and USC Annenberg, she speaks Spanish and Portuguese, and can get by in German and Hebrew.

Students to outgoing Supt. Cortines: Don’t trust us with technology, get us new textbooks and listen to us

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