With the formation of a new Rhetoric School comes new opportunities for our students. Among them, joining the Prefect Council. In an effort to learn more about this form of student government, we sat down with head of school Ron Hoch to ask him some questions. Those questions and answers follow.
What is a Prefect Council? How is it different from what you would think of as a traditional Student Council?
A Prefect Council is a form of student government, but it’s different from the typical form of student government in the sense that it’s an appointment process instead of an election. There’s pros and cons to both, but I think a lot of times elections become popularity contests and don’t necessarily allow the best prospects to rise to the top. So that’s one difference. The other, most significant difference, is prefects have a higher level of responsibility than your typical student government. A lot of times student government in high school ends up being really minimal in terms of student responsibility ... they’re helping with menial tasks ... they’re a committee to plan a dance .... it’s just really minimal responsibility. What we’re trying to do is infuse student government with purposeful leadership development. So what that entails is two things: one, partnering each prefect with someone at the school to have a learning opportunity — whether it’s with a teacher or with an administrator, so they have that life on life interaction. They can have that discipleship factor. They can have some leadership development, just as they interact. But then the second piece of that is giving students responsibilities that live or die with them. Giving them tasks, giving them responsibilities, giving them initiatives where the Prefect Advisor is really just a facilitator and if the students don’t follow through or if the students do a poor job of following through, then that is going to be reflected in the initiative not working or not succeeding. And being OK with that — being OK with failure — but giving them an opportunity to rise to the challenge. And to learn through failure.
What will those student responsibilities be?
There’s really three blocks or three categories. One is that sort of internship with a faculty or staff person. Another is organization of grade-level specific service and social activities. Those are the two “s”’s I use, SERVICE and SOCIAL. And then the third would be school-wide service and social opportunities. So there is a social component; they’re still planning fun activities. It’s doing team building and bonfires and things that are enjoyable. But it’s also understanding that we want more for students, so it’s pushing them to do community impact and serving others through that, too.
What does the selection process look like?
Students applied and everyone who applied was then interviewed by a group of faculty and staff. That group who were doing the interviews then debriefed together on their initial thoughts. We took some time off just to kind of let it process and deliberate and then came back and actually made the selection.
So what was that application like? Just their name and grade? Or what did that entail?
I mean it had their name and grade on it … but it’s also asking what they think their strengths and weaknesses are. It’s asking what their vision for the Prefect Council is. It’s asking them what their ideas for service projects and social opportunities might be. And it also includes a parent signature piece, because we want the parents to be involved. If a student’s going to apply, we want their parents to know that they’ve applied and to have some sense up front of what that’s going to entail and for the parents to approve that. So that they have support at home, too.
You were part of the group that read through the applications and conducted the interviews. What were your overall impressions when you finished that process?
My biggest take away was that we have really impressive students. It was NOT an easy process to narrow it down to four — two for eighth grade, two for ninth grade — so we took 11 applicants and narrowed it down to four and that was VERY difficult. Very challenging. I’ve been a part of this process at other schools, and there was always at least one or two rounds that you could do pretty easily. Even before the interview you had a sense of who probably wouldn’t make the cut … but this was really challenging. The biggest take away was just the quality of our students.
[ The four members of the 2020-21 Prefect Council:
8th grade: Addison Hutton and Elijah Lorson
9th grade: James Fries and Maddie Ladner ]
What were some of the things that you told the seven that didn’t get selected?
There was most certainly some disappointment from those that didn’t make the cut. The things that I tried to tell them — and I hope that even if they couldn’t hear it in the moment, that they’ll hear it as they process and think it through — is, one, there’s still opportunities to be involved and to serve. We still want them to be involved, we still need them to be involved. Looking for other ways to still be leaders. To still be involved and engaged. The second thing was that this isn’t the end; they can apply again. There’s opportunity still down the road to get the title, to get the office.
What are your hopes for this first year? For these four individuals?
This year’s weird, obviously, so I don’t know that we’re going to be able to do a lot of the things that I’d hope to do with the Prefect Council. My main goal this year really is just getting the program up and running. Getting it on its feet … working through some of the kinks … getting the processes in place. Getting people used to the fact that there is a Prefect Council. Some of those initial planning and logistical pieces.
So these first four will have a big part in determining what the Prefect Council will look like?
Yes. For sure.
And this first year creating the Council can be on their list of service projects.
That’s right. One of their projects is helping us to figure some of these things out and making sense of it. They have a formative role. But, in a sense, what they’re doing is helping us to hit the ground running next year, too. And because of COVID, they can focus on that and be deliberate during that slower start to more normal service and social activities.
[Ultimately the Council will seat 10 prefects, two students each from 8th through 12th grades. Eighth graders will serve a single year term and represent the entire Logic School. Ninth and eleventh graders will serve two year terms.]