Twelve years ago Beth Decker had a revelation. The high school English teacher was going over an assignment with her students, but no one was participating. When she realized no one had done the assigned reading, something became very clear.

“They told me they didn’t see the point in doing the work,” said Decker, who now teaches at Liberty High School. “They didn’t make the connection between high school and the real world. They had no fear – no concern about failing their classes and not graduating. They saw high school as something that had to be endured – not something that will give them a foundation for the rest of their lives.”

Alarmed by her discovery, Decker reworked her lesson plans to incorporate real-world concepts so that students could see how the content applied to real life. Then she stepped away from the classroom to do some her own studying, researching adolescent literacy through the Strategic Literacy Initiative to find the best way to get teenagers engaged in the classroom. After years of compiling her own research, Decker developed Get Real! A Reality Project For Teenagers, which was recently recognized by George Washington University’s Freshman Transition Initiative as a curriculum that successfully aids freshmen in their shift to high school. Get Real! is only the second program to be recognized by the university since the initiative was established in 2004.

Get Real! is designed to prepare students not only for high school but for life beyond high school. Through the program, students learn about goal setting, time management and prioritizing, but they also examine a question they’ve been asked their whole lives: what do you want to be when you grow up? But Get Real! takes it a step further and asks who do you want to be?

“There is this huge hole in the way we think about education,” Decker said. “Students aren’t seeing the urgency of what’s ahead for them after high school. They don’t realize this is their transition to grown-up land, and they need to think about their futures. They need to think about what kind of human beings they want to be.”

Decker compiled the Get Real! lesson plans she developed over the years into a workbook, which she uses in her Foundations For Success courses that all Liberty High School students take their freshmen year. In the class, students learn essential skills such as note taking and summarizing, but they do so while learning about concepts such as budgeting and cost of living.

In one assignment, students use a computer program that asks them to decide what type of life they’d like to live, including the type of house, the number of cars, the type of clothes they want to wear and whether or not they want children. After clicking on all the details they’d like to see in their future life, the program calculates how much that lifestyle will cost, what type of job they’ll need to support that lifestyle and what type of education is needed to get that job.

Decker said the program’s reality checks change students’ attitudes by the end of the school year. “I’ve had students tell me that the assignments and discussions we have in class make them nervous about the future, but I tell them that’s a good thing. The world is a scary place, so it’s good to be nervous. At least they are thinking about what lies ahead.

“As teachers, we want to create the most well-rounded adults we possibly can. Get Real! is a gateway for students to realize that there really in a purpose to high school. With the workbook, they do journal writing and it gets them thinking about the bigger picture, and they need to do it now. They can’t put it off. The real world is closer than they think. They need to know the consequences of their actions.”

Decker brings in newspaper articles to keep the content real and up to date, and keep the students informed about the economy, the housing market and unemployment rates. They discuss these topics in class and she encourages students to continue the conversation at home. She even created a parent companion for the Get Real! workbook to facilitate the dialogue.

“I’m not trying to tell people how to parent their children. I’m not saying that parents are failing their children, either, but I know from experience that it can be difficult to talk about these bigger issues, and the parent companion is designed to guide the conversation and open up the channels of communication.”

Decker said the recognition from George Washington University is welcome validation that her program is working, and she’s already been contacted by school districts across the county that have heard about her program and are considering incorporating Get Real! into their curriculum.

“It’s good to have feedback from experts who have looked over the program and have decided that this is something worthwhile. That stamp of approval means a lot. Until now, I’ve only had my own experience, and in my classroom, I’ve seen the failure rate go from about 35 percent to less than 10 percent. I saw a problem and I developed a program to try and fix it – to fill that need. I put it all in the book to save other teachers the work.

“Students need a program like this. They need to make the connection between high school and real life. I can’t be the first person to see a need for a program like this. Every adult I talk to tells me they wish they’d had a program like this growing up. I’m not saying my program is the best. But students need a class that will help them make these connections. They need to do it now before it’s too late.”

Decker said her students have asked her what she’ll do if the program goes national and she becomes famous, but she laughs at those ideas. “They ask me if I’m going on “Oprah,” and I tell them that if I do, they’re coming with me. They have helped me shape this program and make it what it is. They inspire me and I couldn’t have done it without them. Who knows what the future holds – but I could never walk away from this. This is what I was born to do.”

For more information about the Get Real! program, visit www.getreallearning.com.