Posted in DemEd in Real LifeSocial JusticeStudentsYouth Leadership on Apr 29, 2010 - 08:45 PM
Now, I'm not one for protests, especially not protests that end after a one hour march around some political building with people going back to their homes feeling they've done their best. However, I was moved to read about the protests of thousands of students in New Jersey this week (read all about it in the NYTimes here).What moved me about this student-led protest is that at such a young age, these students recognize how to magnify their power through unity against a single injustice: school cuts that compromise their education. From one Facebook invitation to protest these cuts that pulled their injustice triggers, 18,000 students were moved to the streets with signs and their voices.
Now, this injustice trigger--a trigger that instantly moves us to action--is something innate. Remember when we were children and we knew when things were unfair and glory be to God we had the pride and self-worth to be able to say right then and there staring into the face of our oppressors, "THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Slowly but surely, through the acceptance of certain authoritarian figures and structures in our lives, we learned to be submissive even when we have the right to get downright pissed and indignant. (See Milgram experiment and Stanford Prison Experiment for proof of our submissiveness.)
No. I don't like protests (not ones without some sort of economic consequence for non-compliance--think Montgomery Bus Boycott in the 1950's). But this protest is different simply because of the age of those participating. These young people, by following their injustice triggers into action, are stopping the submission process before it's too late -- that is, when they can't remember that they ever had an injustice trigger.
The proof is in the pudding.
About one student's reaction, Winnie Hu writes, "Emma Wolin, a junior at Columbia High, walked out of second-period Spanish with several classmates, even though the school had warned that they would face detention." This simple decision to face the consequences of her actions in order to uphold what she believes to be right makes Emma a hero. She is displaying the strength to overcome submissive social conditioning simply to act according to her principles--not her school's idea of "appropriate student conduct." Simply put, she is thinking for herself and what a victory for our youth!
This story proves beyond a doubt that if we reconnect our youth with their right to act against injustices with forethought and conscience, those youth would be a force to contend with.
"The tyrant, an individual, can never be stronger than thousands or millions, should they attach the proper value to their humanity, dignity, self-respect and freedom." ~Sayyid Qutb
Tags for this entry:
power,
activism,
injustice,
protests,
submission,
nonviolent resistance
Comments
May 06, 2010 - 01:31 PM
It’s funny that you mention this because NYTimes had an article on the morality of babies: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/magazine/09babies-t.html
And one of my students and I were just having a conversation on what “fair” really means. He understands it as equal—everyone gets the same. Whereas adults we learn about equity. It made for a great conversation on life, school, and especially democratic education.
May 06, 2010 - 07:13 PM
Wow, that article is incredible! One-year-olds… that’s just amazing.
Sara Schmidt
May 05, 2010 - 01:03 AM
Ammerah, I love how you bring this all back to our innate sense of fairness and equity, how we know justice before we’re conditioned to not know it. The whole “It’s not fair!” cry that we often relayed as children was always met (at least in my experience) with the reply, “Well, life’s not fair!”
It’s as if adults, faced with inequality their whole lives, must teach kids at an early age that this is just the way the world is and there’s nothing we can do about it—which is a shame, because it’s not the truth.