I cannot fight a battle of which I do not understand – many problems exist out of my control, but short of donating to causes or volunteering my time and efforts, I can only watch from the sidelines. I do feel that I have the ability to change some realms however – problems I have a chance in solving.

Being a teenager has exposed me to the many problems public school systems have. I’ve noticed that schools have great difficulty communicating with families. More than just a problematic phone or email system, I feel it represents a need for a drastic reform of “communication”. It is one of my dreams to create a solution to these problems.

The truth is that schools haven’t adapted to the Internet and technology. They tend to be very afraid when it comes to these areas – afraid of problems, of glitches, of the uncontrollable events that tend to result, and of the possible lawsuits from overly protective parents worrying about their child’s privacy.

These pitfalls and challenges make a good platform very hard to create. But just imagine – what if students had a core place to get school news and information directly tailored to them, a place where they themselves can chime in on events and post their own thoughts – a platform where it’s even possible to hold virtual “art shows” and galleries?

It won’t be easy. If Facebook proved anything, it’s that students aren’t stupid anymore. People discuss and share collaboratively on these social networks, making up for what the school lacks. They discuss homework, chat, and interact on these sites, even though federal law prohibits underage signups to these networks. It’s a new world. The kids adapted, and schools must do the same, but they’re not, and that’s a problem.

If “Gaggle”, an email service designed for students and one we use at our district, is the school’s answer to technology, then we’re all in trouble. Gaggle has everything teachers and administrators would want – automatic censoring, content detection, and thousands of filters, even filters that detect the amount of skin shown in a photo.

To administrators, this is heaven. But to students, it is nothing. The interface is unintuitive and clunky compared to alternatives like Gmail. It has too many limits, limits even teachers will admit, because when a Holocaust essay I’m trying to email home gets blocked for the word “Nazi”, I can only shake my head. This is exemplified in the way our district actually forces us to use Gaggle (blocking other email services, even taking grades on email usage) makes it even more hated. Gaggle doesn’t work for the student.

So classic methods aren’t working. To be put frankly – students aren’t stupid, and schools are. A newer way that appeals to both is working. It has to be a compromise that adapts to students and appeals to administrators. We should be creating a platform.

It’s very hard to compete with services like Facebook, but why should we? We should offer something different. You can find school news on Facebook, but it’s not nearly as centralized as a school platform would be. It really can be a great thing for our generation, and the one that follows it.

Ultimately I hope of expanding a platform to the entire nation, or even worldwide. Perhaps other schools will not use my solution but their own. In either way, students will benefit, and when they do, so do schools. I know schools are trying to fit in with this generation. Our district has Twitter accounts (but ironically, they are blocked), and they really do try hard to connect. It should be easier for them.

Schools were made for students to learn and to enjoy. Both would be made a lot easier if schools would take the time to think about what they were doing, instead of blindly marching forward.