Capstone Project….what?

I ended up at Weymouth High School last night with my sister.  At first I didn’t fully understand what was actually going on there, just that my nephew had some school fair or something.  But when I got there I found that it was the open house of the Capstone Projects from the Senior class.  I’ve heard this terminology before but never fully understood what it was.  Apparently, every Senior has to do a Capstone Project and it’s a big part of their final grade.

My nephew did his on Donald Trump and his road to success.  I was impressed, he did a great job on it and it was very interesting.  I was so proud of him.

I walked around the school to check out the other students projects and was blown away at how smart these kids are.  Some of them went into great detail with research, polls, graphs and charts and informational handouts.  I was really impressed.

The subjects varied greatly but all were very interesting.  One was on the diversity of races in the high school, and I have to say that I was surprised to see that the high school wasn’t as diverse as I would have thought.  Another great one that hit close to home for me (because my family is personally affected) was an autistic boy did his on…..well yes, autism.  He did such a great job on it and I even learned some things myself.  Another interesting one on eyewitness testimony really opened my eyes and made me think about the process of how one detail can put an innocent person in prison or let a guilty one go free.  A topic that I have mixed thoughts on was titled “You don’t go to private school but you still wear a uniform every day”.  This was about how kids are judged on so many levels and mostly their clothing.  If you don’t wear the “right clothes” then you are outcast and labeled.  There was much more to it but it reminds me how cruel kids can be.

A couple girls did their project together about lifting the school ban on wearing flip flops.  I have to say, it’s impressive at that age to take on the school about something they believe in.  Bravo girls, bravo.  Their project even made it to the Boston Globe newspaper, check out the article; Students weigh in on flip-flop flap.

So in the end I was happy that I ended up there, even though it wasn’t planned.  And I have to say that I’m happy we didn’t have to do a project like that back when I was in high school.