News Guest Writer
Last week, an opinion piece was published in the News entitled “Peer Education Meetings Lack Enthusiasm from Educators, Peers.” The article criticized the day student peer education meetings as “completely uninformative” and “generally a waste of time.”
To be sure, these Peer Educator meetings are very much works in progress. And, admittedly, certain peer educators did not maintain the level of seriousness necessary to run a truly successful meeting. But for the author of this article to make gross generalizations is not only rude, but unappreciative to the Peer Educators and to Holly Leopold and Jim Yanelli, who spend hours coordinating and organizing these meetings.
To suggest that the Peer Educators do not genuinely want to teach their peers is false and offensive. Of all of the organizations on campus, the Peer Educators are one of the most dedicated; we meet every week for an hour, and we also lead presentations in dorms on a weekly basis. The author, based only on his experience at two of these meetings, is making unfair generalizations about the peer educators. Having led and attended many of these meetings, I can say with certainty that they tend to be successful and worthwhile.
The author further complains that these meetings are “carried out very ineffectively” because day students “don’t want to be educated.” That statement reflects extremely poorly on day students as a whole. Boarders do not have the luxury of choosing which meetings to attend based on their schedules or interests.
And no, the administration should not have to give students ice cream as an incentive for attending the meetings. This is not third grade or the Choate Young Democrats.
Next year will be different. The Peer Educators will take these criticisms into account. We will do a better job of communicating to day and boarding students the time and subject matter of meetings. And we will try to present information in a more serious, interesting way. Holly has already prepared the presentation schedule for next year, and she has tried to schedule meetings at the most convenient times for students. The last meetings will be in April, not May.
But this is not a one-sided commitment. The Peer Educators are here to help students, and we have—despite what the author of the article falsely and inexpertly claims—done our research. It is the responsibility of the students attending the meetings to be respectful and attentive. The critical attitude held by the author of the article attacking the Peer Educators is exactly what prevents us from doing our jobs most effectively.
