Meet Map: Will, Student

Here is a transcript of our conversation with Will, a Map student.

Will: I am Will Judge, I go to Map Academy. I just wasn’t getting the attention that I needed because I learn at a much slower pace than everyone else, because I think the way the high school did it, they just fill a bunch of kids in a classroom, give you a lesson, like 15, maybe 30 minutes tops, and [00:00:30] they just send you on your way. I was feeling pretty left behind because I just wanted to learn the stuff they were giving me. Here, I can actually do that because I get whatever I’m working on, because I can choose when I’m working on here. Every day I come into school, I’m at least getting a task, two or three done. I’m actually enjoying the work that I look at [00:01:00] and do.

Back in public school, if they gave me a lesson and then expect me to do a paper after I didn’t understand the lesson, I just wouldn’t do the paper because I wouldn’t understand it. In public school, I was struggling with math majorly. That was one of my classes that I just constantly had Ds and Fs in. I never got above a C in that class. My first year here, though, [00:01:30] there was a math teacher. She just sat me down every single day and helped me work through the whole worksheet. It was something that I really needed because I just didn’t ever want to do math in my first year. I pretty much avoided it. She actually made me want to do math the way she taught everything to me.

If she showed me one example, [00:02:00] she would ask if I got it. If I say I didn’t, she would completely switch it up and show me another example. She’d keep doing that until I got it, until I found a technique that worked for me to figure out the problem. If I get stuck on a certain problem with like English and math, I can either email or go to that teacher, ask for help on that specific problem. [00:02:30] They will go not only to help me solve the problem, but go above and beyond. They pay attention. That’s what I’m looking for. For me, it’s more like beyond acquaintance, almost like family. I can talk to these teachers and open up to them and trust that not only will they—like, [00:03:00] if I tell them to not tell a lot of people, then they’ll stay on their word, but they’ll keep looking for help if it’s a serious topic.

They balance it out between learning and giving you freedom, because they let you go out at lunchtime. If you want to get lunch or if you just want to sit outside, they’re fine with that. You just need to let a [00:03:30] teacher know and come back before a certain time, which is at least 45 minutes. It’s pretty much just the trust factor. They trust you to leave the premises and come back at a certain time. If I were to look at my tracker, and I’d base it off the high school, then I pretty much have the credits [00:04:00] that I would have if I was still in public school. I’ve really been into law enforcement and incorporating my love of animals with that, like a canine officer. That sounds really fun. I still have to look at colleges for like law school, see what department I want to go into. [00:04:30] Even if I want to stay in this state, or if I want to move to a different state and go into their police force or sheriff, or police department or state police. [00:04:50]