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How do I get involved in SOS?
Attend an event, or a meeting, or email us. Anyone can
be involved in the SOS process. Our team includes both
strong supporters of the of SOS process and skeptics,
and members who are concerned about distress at Mission
and want to work with the community to lower distress
without lowering achievement. Come to an SOS event and
speak your mind. All events involve cross stakeholder
groups of students, teachers, administration and staff,
and parents.
When are the next meetings?
Meeting times will be set after school begins and our
students know their schedules. We will post those here
and on the Mission website.
Will lowering stress at Mission lower our school
performance?
It is not the goal of Mission: SOS to lower the
achievement levels of Mission students. There is a
difference between distress and stress. Stress results
from trying to meet deadlines, improving performance,
watching exciting movies, and handling unexpected
events. Distress is a result of chronic stress. As
parents and students we can learn to tell the
difference. Distress can keep us up at night, disrupt
relationships, isolate us from our support networks,
change eating habits, and lower achievement levels.
Distress in this country and in many countries across
the globe, costs billions of dollars to educational
institutions and businesses in associated health care
costs and lost productivity. There is no downside to
reducing distress on students and community members.
Isn’t stress normal?
Stress is normal and many would say necessary, but
chronic distress is not normal and is destructive over
time to both health and achievement. There is anecdotal
evidence and data from the student survey that points to
the existence of high levels of academic distress within
the Mission San Jose High School community. It is the
effects of chronic distress that Mission: SOS
would like to reduce.
Can we really change at Mission?
It’s been said that institutional change reaps results
over 2 – 5 years, so yes; Mission can change in baby
steps over time. Today’s SOS leadership may not see the
benefits of the work they do at Mission, although
younger members of the community may reap the benefits
of the work put in today. Careful change and timely
assessment of interventions using a well thought out
rubric will increase the effectiveness of the change
process. Data based solutions are site based and, we
hope, well planned and managed over time.
Individual change occurs in a single “light bulb”
moment. What a speaker says, the anecdote they tell, a
story offered by the student in the row behind you at an
event, an incredible passage read in a book or article
that you picked up; each of these moments has the
potential to profoundly affect your life. Some of the
best support and learning opportunities an individual
can have is through a process like this one. But like
any great learning opportunity, it’s only worth what we
put into it; we have the opportunity to change, but it’s
just that, an opportunity not a certainty.
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