Creative and Fun Diploma Endorsements

Here’s an idea for High School Principals and Superintendents.  With your high school diplomas, create an avenue for students to earn creative and fun endorsements.  (Note: This idea is borrowed from MIT.)

At MIT, when students graduate with their very prestigious degree, in many cases there are additional endorsements stamped on the degree. Examples of this include the ‘Pirate’ and ‘Charm’ endorsements.  To earn the Pirate endorsement, a student must take and pass the PE courses of sailing, fencing, pistol and archery.  To earn the Charm endorsement, students take a number of non-credit courses in elements of social grace (a valuable life skill for the uber-smart).

We could do the same thing in our high schools. Offering afterschool and ‘club’ like courses in any number of subjects.  Imagine students earning endorsements in Charm, Coding, Citizenship, Consumer Engineering, Advanced Languages, Trail Blazer, etc.

We talk about educating the whole child and motivating students, how about putting tangible action to those words.  Plus, these endorsements would look good on a student’s resume and college application. Thus, making our students slightly better candidates than the students from rival high schools. Which is also know as maximizing student opportunity.   

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

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