I’ve been meaning to post on this for a while now, but I just haven’t found the time to blog lately. Sara’s post inspired me to comment on this, though, and to share a bit from my own experiences.
Overall, I think the walkouts are an appropriate way for the students to make their voices heard. Are there some who are just capitalizing on the opportunity to skip school, as I’ve heard all sorts of news media ramble on about for the last few days? Sure, but to suggest that this is the only motive for the actions of everyone in the group is (IMHO) wrong.
There are plenty of high school age “kids” who are qualified to have an opinion on this issue, whether or not you agree with them. I wonder if the same people would criticize a walkout on a different type of issue, such as protesting the distribution of condoms or the teaching of evolution as a fact? I suspect that walkouts on issues such as these would be looked at in a more positive light.
Now for the personal experience… When I first heard about this, I couldn’t help but think back on my high school days, in which I was part of a protest that involved leaving class during the first period after lunch and standing in the quad for the remainder of the day. Lots of people weren’t happy about it back then (including my parents, especially after they saw my picture in the paper the next day), but I still believe to this day it was the right thing to do.
I remember the same spin being put on it back then: “oh, these kids are just trying to get out of class”, etc. And I’m sure some of them were, although the fact that we were organized and stood in the quad instead of just leaving did help prove the sincerity of our motives a bit.
One really funny part that I remember was the attempts by the administration to quietly dismiss us. One of our demands was to have an intelligent debate with the people on the board / administration that had the power to change the policy. They attempted to appease us by suggesting that they instead arrange a meeting with us and the student council (ASB, or whatever they call it, you know the class president and all those people), who could then “represent our interests” in a discussion they would have with the board members, etc. We pointed out that these people could not represent us adequately in this situation, and turned down that option.
In the end, nothing changed, but I still felt it was a valuable expression. I did end up getting some Saturday detentions in the end, but even that wasn’t so bad, because I had a report due the next Monday which I probably wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t been forced to sit there at school.
8 Comments
I disagree, of course.
Should we lower the voting age then? Walkouts accomplish nothing, classroom discussion should have started so the kids could express their opinions and learn about a subject that a few know completely about.
They remind me of rebel kids, bratty kids or kids who throw a tantrum in the middle of a crowded place because if they can’t go to the party their lives will end.
Yes, life is “unfair” in the eyes of kids because their selfish eyes can’t see past the hard work of the parents that “think” they know best.
The change I see is from kinds of “viral” conversation or respectable demonstrations that show the voice of numbers not disrespectful walkouts or picketing.
Just because they aren’t old enough to vote doesn’t mean they are incapable of understanding the issue, or that their opinion on it should not matter.
Classroom discussion *also* perhaps would have been helpful, but it’s likely that the teachers (if they allowed such discussion at all) would attempt to steer the conversation in the direction of their own personal opinions and then shut it down if the students did not comply. But, perhaps more importantly, they never would have gotten as much attention as the walkouts did.
Why do you assume that these people (just because of their age) do not know enough about this issue? That (to me) is a totally invalid assumption.
Lots of high school age “kids” are totally capable of understanding issues like immigration, and thankfully a lot of them are smart enough to see past the rhetoric that a lot of talk radio hosts like to spew about this particular subject. I’m not saying everyone who participated in the walkouts was this well informed (and of course the news media and radio shows played plenty of excerpts from the ones who made fools of themselves), but I’m sure there were plenty who do feel that this is an important and legitimate issue that justifies such actions.
Like I said above, I think it’s wrong to insult the intelligence of everyone who participated, or question their motives, just because *some* may have been in it for less noble reasons.
1. Then why not decrease the age to vote?
2. It’s invalid to think they do too. But from my high school experiences (with prop 13?), no one really knew.
3. Kids don’t watch talk shows, they chat on myspace and if they have a political view it’s most likely from hearing their parents complain.
4. I just think they should be in school and if they want to protest they should do it on their own time. The school losses money when they no show, meaning more of my tax dollars go to shit like the war. If they want respect they need to acquire it first and walkouts wont get my respect.
I also think that if this was a different topic like banning myspace or something trivial like that you would have a different view.
1. Voting is different than expressing your opinion on an issue. This is particular issue is not up for a vote by the people (at least not yet), so I don’t see where you’re going with that.
2. By default, you should not discount the opinions of a whole group of people based on your own limited experiences. Just because no one in your class knew what prop 13 was about, doesn’t mean that no high school students at the time did. I’ve met a lot of pretty intelligent high school age kids. Are you really saying that everything you believed when you were in high school is basically worthless since you weren’t old enough to have a valid opinion?
3. This may be the case for some, maybe even the majority, but that still doesn’t disqualify all of them from having an opinion.
4. There are some things that are more important than money. If they protested in an after school meeting environment, it would not have been nearly as effective at getting attention and making their voices heard.
Are you saying that you would never respect a walkout as a form of protest? Would they only earn your respect by going through all the proper channels first? If so, I would argue that sometimes the “proper channels” are ineffective and insufficient. When the US declared their independence from the British they were violating the law. Civil rights icons like Rosa Parks violated the law by doing things like not sitting at the back of the bus when it was required by state law. Do you discount these efforts because they were illegal?
I’m not sure what the myspace thing is about; are you talking about the schools preventing access to myspace from the school networks? If so, sure I would have a different view because it’s a completely different issue. I doubt any students would organize walkouts based on that kind of thing, but if they did, I’d have no problems criticising them for it, because that’s a totally unrelated issue to this.
I’m not saying that all walkouts are automatically justified, just that they shouldn’t automatically be dismissed as a bunch of kids just wanting to ditch class.
this doesn’t specifically apply to this issue, but there are only three ways to change the laws in this country.
become a legislater and change the law
pay / lobby a legislater to change the law on your behalf
break the law, appeal your conviction to the supreme court, and get the law declared unconstitutional
law breaking is an important, active part of politics in this country. many of the kids protesting would be directly effected by this issue (or have family that would be) and when a government threatens to take away your livelihood or attacks your lifestyle everyone (no matter how old or where their citizenship lies) has the unalienable right to stand up and say, “this agression will not stand, man.” that is a founding principle of the united states of america, land that i love, and no one…not you, not the school districts, not money, not parents, not tax payers, and definitely not the legislaters can take that away.
calling these humans with these unalienable rights “just kids” is not only stupid, it’s unamerican.
I’m being a devil’s advocate of sorts on this issue because I don’t agree that these *kids* should be protesting because *I* honestly think the *majority* see it as a ditch day. Of course there are reasonable times of protest and to some this is one of them but from my stand point the walkouts seem *disrespectful* in it’s tact, maybe a little of it is because I don’t think it accomplishes anything since the smart people that Jared refers to is the picketing screaming kid that wants you to honk when you pass by while they’re walking on the LA freeway. Those smart kids should instead be educating others or producing more of a resourceful tactic.
But then again I’m stupid and un-american so what do I know.
I’d also like to say that we should talk about the subject matter more since a lot of people don’t even know what is being proposed. Personally I for one was for it, I always thought *Illegal* immigration is a huge problem but when I read reports and statistics I think differently.
A little fact for the republicans: the proposition for amnesty is (could be) derived from the the french government. (true but a joke since all ‘pub’s hate the french.
i didn’t say you were stupid and unamerican, just your comment. i know that you are smarter than me; i don’t have enough evidence to know if you’re patriotic or not.
I understand, I said it for the “shock and awe”.