Homewood-Flossmoor High School has long been known for its outstanding academic programs. Administrators now are developing a new program that will continue the academic focus coupled with personal goals, such as a strong character and practicing good citizenship.
“Profile of a Viking” is what District 233 Superintendent Scott Wakeley has named this new emphasis on helping to develop a well-rounded student. Wakeley said it also draws on topics that are part of the district’s long-range strategic plan.
Wakeley said if parents were asked: “What are their best hopes and dreams for their children as they leave Homewood-Flossmoor High School?” he believes first it would be academics, but then there would be the intangibles, like embracing diversity, communication skills, knowing how to collaborate and problem solve, building strong character and being a good citizen.
Wakeley stressed: “We’re not going to lower our expectations for students in any way, we’re only going to raise our expectations … and we need to be specific and intentional about how we make sure that these things are infused in everything.
“Sometimes we focus so much on academics and grades and those things, that we aren’t as intentional as maybe we should be. We hope and make some assumptions that they (students) get that.
“We want to be more intentional and say when students leave Homewood-Flossmoor High School they’ve had the best opportunities of curriculum and programming in the country, but we’ve also focused on these things that our kids need.”
He gives the example of the digital footprint created by a student’s online activities through social media and digital devices. Those postings paint a picture of you through your activities and comments that over time could be harmful, Wakeley said, noting teenagers don’t always recognize how long-term these digital files are. H-F will start emphasizing the need for caution.
Coming out of the pandemic, administrators are seeing a trend in “dis-regulation,” a breakdown in how to problem solve, get along with peers, and have respect for decisions, even when things don’t go your way. “We’ve seen this not only with students, but with adults,” Wakeley said.
H-F also will be putting an emphasis on behavioral health to find the student that is struggling. Wakeley said staff will look at the overall student population and “help with some cognitive strategies not only to identify how (a student’s) feeling, but strategies to deal with that. We want to destigmatize mental health and behavioral health issues.”
As he sees it: “There’s a lot of smart kids out there, there’s a lot of capable kids. We also know there’s a lot of kids who aren’t resilient, and we need to be intentional on making sure our kids are resilient.”
Getting help for anxiety, stress and other mental or emotional issues should be considered as normal as going to a doctor for a physical illness. Wakeley said his point is not to hear a parent repress the idea that a child needs help, but to recognize that at some point “everybody goes through it.”
H-F Principal Clinton Alexander said the “Profile of a Viking” is for the 21st century student – the Generation Z population born between 1997 and 2012 – spelling out “a really clear vision of what our kids need as developed Vikings to go out into the work force and make a contribution to global citizenship and gainful employment, so I love the philosophy.”
Wakeley said “Profile of a Viking” was “born out of what we already had” in the strategic plan. At a 2021 teacher institute day, he asked staff to distill their larger ideas for student competencies into words or phrases, such as reflective and resilient, that they could list as bullet points and build upon.
“We want it to be very specific: When we talk about character and we tell our kids we want you to have good character, would you know one when you saw one?” Wakeley wondered. He’s asking faculty to offer specifics for every bulleted point on the list.
The work is ongoing, and soon will involve parents and students for input, he said.