Students should take their education into their own hands. RAIL Academy administrator John Bragg makes that possible with his class, Academy Daytime. Students who are looking to graduate early or complete credit recovery take this course.The class allows 9th through 12th grade students to complete main courses and electives as needed to ensure students are able to graduate on time.
COVID was a hard time for everyone in the world, including schools. Once quarantine and the pandemic hit, much of the education system transferred online. When Bragg heard about this, he knew what he wanted to do.
“Technology education, it was the way of the future. I wanted to get on the ground floor as soon as I could. It excited me to think about creating something different. After all, we had to build a plane while flying,” Bragg said.
Graduation is a ceremony representing a completed stage of education. While most are able to get there without help, some students may be falling behind in credits, failing in subjects or feel like there’s nothing left for them to do in high school. Bragg’s goals for his class ensure students will not have to worry about all these factors, and to help them move on to their next stage.
“My goal is every single senior in the building graduates, and we do not leave a single student behind,” Bragg said. “We have never had a single student not walk the stage on time for graduation.”
Inspiration for teaching may differ from educator to educator. Bragg wants to give any student the chance to graduate and go to college and make sure that this is possible for all of his students, just like when he was given the opportunity in his youth.
“Education is the great equalizer. When I was a junior my mom got a job at a college. That meant we got to go to free college,” Bragg said. “I would’ve never considered the possibility of going to college before she got that job, and when I look at what it did for me, I really wish people had the same opportunities I was given.”
Bragg’s philosophy is to put forth honest effort, and for people to treat others how they wish to be treated. He practices this philosophy every day in school.
“If you give your best effort, and you try to treat people the way they want to be treated, then you will see that mostly everything else is going to work out,” Bragg said. “I practice this every day. I try to be mindful about it, and I think we all know that when you screw up in treating someone in a way we should not have, we realize we feel bad about it, and we want to do the right thing, and with your best effort, just try your best to be a good person.”
Bragg’s impact here at Emerson, is one which most might take for granted but will never go unnoticed by the students whose lives were made better by his class and way of education.
