Could our schools do more to get young people engaged? Surely the answer has to be Yes. I'm still annoyed that I had to learn about a "pocket veto" in high school while learning little about how social change really happens (with apologies to my government teacher whom I adored).
Well, Hamid Shirvani, president of Cal State Stanislaus, has some ideas:
Read his article in the Modest Bee here... and then write your own for your paper!
Well, Hamid Shirvani, president of Cal State Stanislaus, has some ideas:
The answers are many. The solutions few. But one essential element is clear -- public education has failed to prepare our young people for civic life.
Read his article in the Modest Bee here... and then write your own for your paper!
posted by Hans Riemer at 6:30 PM
4 Comments:
"Think government isn't about you? How many of you have student loans to pay? How many have credit card debt? How many want clean air and clean water and civil liberties? How many want jobs? How many want kids? How many want their kids to go to good schools and walk on safe streets? Decisions are made by those who show up. You gotta rock the vote!"
How inspired was I when I heard that four years ago? I just so happened to be watching The West Wing, and this wonderful woman came on the screen and said those things and ended it all with, "You gotta rock the vote!"
It was years later that I replaced CJ Cregg's youthful idealism with my own cynical pragmatism. (I'm going to thank election day 00')
I'm sure as the President of California State University it's easy to point at public education and say, "You're the reason more students don't know what the majority whip does." It isn't that they weren't taught.
I think it's that they don't care. And why? Why should they? When patrotism as it is presented to my generation is as appreciated as a sweater from the Gap, what's the point?
I want to have kids one day. I want to breathe clean air. I want to live in a world that is safe. Tell me how these wants translate into civic responsibility (in a society where the list of things I can be damned for is longer than my arm)?
It's certainly one thing to say I'm disenfranchised. But to blame my education (or lack there of) is almost insulting. Just because I'm not 'rocking the vote,' doesn't automatically mean I don't understand or wasn't prepared properly to be a 'good American.' Show me something I can stand behind. Show me something I can be proud of. Show me something I, as a 20 something in the 21st century, can look at and say "I"m glad to have been a part." Show me that, and show it to all those who are being called 'ill-equipt for proper citizenship,' and I think the results my just shock the hell out of you.
The last things govt schools are interested in is getting young people engaged in anything. Want to be really be involved with your education and the world? Try homeschooling.
www.sepschool.org
www.maybewewouldbeamazed.com
Loan A Time.
Think About Loan, Think About Us!
Be relevent Be Quick!
Look for a relevent loan?
Look for a relevent loan Provider?
We have BEST solution regarding this in very efficient way.
Providing Complete info about Loan and Loan Provider!
Loanskey
I agree that it's foolish to place so much blame on one's education when we're talking about civic activism. We need look no further than the home to find a reason why the youth are still traditionally not higgh-percentage voters. But how has such a subjective term as "patriotism" made you so cynical about your role in the government decision-making process?
You and others sharing your viewpoint should care. Why? Because you will have to pay student loans, have credit card debt, want clean air and water,jobs, and kids. Our legislature is on the verge of cutting college loans by 12.7 billion dollars, and only civic activism is going to stop them. All it takes is a small group of devoted citizens to accomplish something special, something you can be "glad to have been a part of."
My government teacher speaks with great pride when she tells her students she helped end Apartheid in South Africa, and she should because I have no doubt in my mind that she did. People like my brother and I, who wrote letters to papers and officials voicing our displeasure with affirmative action, were able to at least get the issue on the ballot in Michigan for the next election.
perhaps I'm naive, but I still find myself inspired when I'm asked to rock the vote.
Post a Comment
<< Home