Political Action

One of the hardest conversations I had with my students last semester was when I tried to get them to see the importance of voting.  I have a few that are adamant about voting, but the majority see no point in it and refused to go even if we took them to the polls.  Although it led to some interesting discussions, it was frustrating as a teacher because I couldn't get many of them to realize the improtance of voting.

Now we are in a new semester.   I gave the students the same essay topic as last semester, "Explain why you do or do not vote." The reaction was even worse ths semester than last.  I had a few students even go so far as to refuse to do the essay and just take the infraction and $10 fee that comes along with it. Later on in the week as I was avoiding grading papers I started reading about the House of Representatives passing a new budget bill.  This bill aims to reduce government spending by not cutting many social programs upon which many Greensboro residents rely including Head Start, utility assistance programs,WIC, AmeriCorps Vistas, and YouthBuild.  When I saw this, I talked to my boss and found out she has been following it pretty closely.  Long story short, we decided to do a presentation on the bill for the students as a way to connect politics to their actual lives.

Many of the students got really passionate about the things in the bill and the programs that might get axed. I told them that they could write a letter to a congressman this week instead of their normal essay if they would like.  I thought that would be the end of the lesson, but a few of my students were so fired up that they took it upon themselves to create a small video to send along with the letters.  Some of the fired up students are the same ones that fought me tooth and nail last semester about the futility of being politically active. They spent the entirety of Friday interviewing people involved with YouthBuild and have the first version of the video finished.  They aren't quite in the final stage yet, but I thought I would go ahea and share it here anyways.

They did a great job on the video. I am really proud of my students. We are going to try to overnight the finished video and letters to Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby on Wednesday or Thursday.

Change.org has a petition they are going to send to Congress, asking them to not cut out government funding for YouthBuild. Anyone who would like to sign it can by clicking the link.  I would appreciate anyone it, as would my students.