BPL featured in Southwest Airlines’ Spirit Magazine! (Thanks, Steve!)
Steve McCrea, an avid Big Picture supporter and educator based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, wrote a great letter to Southwest Airlines’ Spirit Magazine in response to an article about internships that was published in the December volume. In his letter, he tells Spirit that their article is related to Big Picture Learning’s work:
As an English teacher, I agree wholeheartedly about virtual internships and learning from our youngsters ['Reverse Internships,' December]. I also had an idea for virtual internships after reading Dennis Littky’s The Big Picture, based on the work at Littky’s high school in Providence, Rhode Island. Thank you for your article. I have eagerly forwarded it to my school’s principal in the hope that he will start to connect alumni with current students. Your article might be the push needed to start the program.
Steve McCrea
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Spirit’s Response:
Let us know if it works, Steve. And thanks for mentioning Dennis Littky. His Big Picture Learning program runs almost 70 schools throughout America, focusing on inner cities and underprivileged kids. They boast a dropout rate 40 percent lower than that of comparable schools.
The organization has recently branched out to include college students in an attempt to lower their dismal dropout rate: more than 40 percent, according to the American Enterprise Institute. Last fall, Big Picture started a program with Roger Williams University in Providence. Students in it work three days a week in area businesses. Your idea that this work-and-study method could apply beyond area businesses is right in keeping with our own thinking.