Students learn to flex power, teachers say

Anti-war activism has been rippling through Marin schools and pouring into the streets in recent days as students are demanding that their voices are heard.

A spontaneous walkout of Sir Francis Drake High School students, who chanted their way down Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and across the Miracle Mile to San Rafael, surprised many motorists and police officers earlier this month.

It was an outburst that had been brewing since the beginning of the school year, when young activists in several schools in Marin began meeting to learn about the current world political situation and to take a role in changing it.

Drake history teacher Paul Grifo, has no doubt that this is a student-led movement.

"In the last couple of years, there has been a slow, emerging awareness among high school students of the world at large," said Grifo, who has been teaching for 13 years. "They see themselves as players, not as observers. I didn't see that in my first 10 years of teaching."

Students say they will continue to educate themselves, form opinions and speak out in whatever ways they believe will make them heard.

"Students are finally standing up for what we believe in," said Piper Crowell, a senior at Marin Academy in San Rafael. "Just because we can't vote doesn't mean we don't have strong opinions about politics and what's happening today."

Since the March 5 rally, which police said put the teens in danger and created havoc for law enforcement and the community, students have staged another rally that included almost every school in the county, but this time student leaders met with police and worked out logistics for what turned out to be a peaceful and orderly march.

While public schools do not condone walkouts or class-time protests, they do permit students to form clubs that meet during non-instructional hours and assign faculty advisers to work with the kids. Their role is to guide students in their own pursuits, rather than lead them.

Grifo, who is the adviser to Drake's Social Justice Club, said world events, such as the free trade pact and protests that surrounded it, environment concerns and globalization, and media coverage of these issues have helped create awareness among students.

The current generation of young activists say their parents have provided them with the resources to learn and a sense of open-mindedness that has given them the confidence to stand up for what they believe.

"My parents definitely taught me to care about doing some kind of volunteering and helping someone besides just me," said Althea Trevor, a junior at Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo. "They have given me my foundation about what's right and wrong."

Trevor said that while her parents are opposed to the war in Iraq, they have taught her to think for herself.

"What they did teach me is that it's important to think about things before you just believe them," Trevor said. "It's not just an outgrowth of liberal hippies spawning all these activist children."

Her father, George Trev-or, who practices law in Corte Madera, said he has studied Islam and the Middle East extensively and lived a number of years in Israel, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is strongly against the war.

"My opinion is this is the best recruiting poster for terrorists and al-Qaida," George Trevor said. "I think this is a 20- to 30-year war, and these kids have that to face."

But George Trevor sees his daughter's activities as her own doing, noting that Althea became active in the anti-death penalty movement on her own in middle school and started a social justice club when she attended the private San Domenico School in San Anselmo. She began the social justice club early this school year after transferring to Drake.

"They basically organized this themselves," George Trevor said. "We've always told her: 'Educate yourself and question what is around you.'"

"What I mostly find encouraging is they feel self-empowered - they don't feel like victims," Grifo said. "Somehow, there's a kernel of optimism among students.

"I don't think it's a parental handoff of boomers saying 'Kids, you've got to protest,'" Grifo said. "I think this is originating with them."

Grifo feels that his role is to guide students so they work in an orderly manner to achieve their goals, but added he agrees with some of their sentiments.

"You should tell those kids and especially the very irresponsible old hippie teachers to keep the kids in school and actually learn something," Chris Coscia said. "Or they could have just gone to the pro-liberation rally that very same day, held by people who came from that part of the world, to see why this action should take place."

Activist Roni Krouzman of San Rafael has been helping students organize social justice and peace groups, and has been teaching students about anti-war activism since early in the school year. Krouzman is not affiliated with the schools but has led workshops during noninstructional hours - for a stipend at some and for free at others.

Krouzman has helped organize Marin Students United for Peace and chapters of the group at individual high schools, such as Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley.

Krouzman, 25, has a history of activism from his days as a student at Boston University and is now making his living, a meager one, he said, as a speaker, leadership trainer and organizer.

"My goal is to help people learn more about the world and come together and change it," Krouzman said.

Students like Lauren Becker, a junior at San Domenico, said Krouzman and Marin Academy teacher Mark Stefanski have given them the opportunity to learn what they can do.

"I feel that I have gained more confidence with my opinion," Becker said, referring to meetings with the two adults. "They can educate the students without pushing them."

Becker said it is important to her, personally, to understand issues so she can justify her opinions.

"As a student at San Domenico, I want to make sure I am not shoving my opinion down peoples' throats," Becker said. "I want to share true facts with other kids in Marin."

While she wants to make students' presence felt in the county, Becker said she does not want to cause violence or turmoil.

Stefanski, the adviser to Marin Academy's peace and justice coalition, said world events are forcing kids to ask questions.

"Teenagers are trying to carve out their identity as it is, and now that they have these political events, the challenges are more immediate," Stefanski said.

Students with other voices also are heard at Marin Academy, Stefanski said, noting the Republican Club held a small counter-demonstration when Peace and Justice Coalition students rallied.

Tamalpais student Jordan Phillips finds activism a must in a democratic society.

"When people aren't active and don't care, the government becomes oppressive," Phillips said. "Your president should support you. By being active, you are making your voice heard and that is what you are supposed to do in a democracy."

Students at Tamalpais and others schools are hoping to put on debates so their classmates can hear all sides of issues and become more informed.

On Tuesday, Marin Academy students are playing host to "Students Standing for Peace" at 7:30 p.m. at the Marin Interfaith Youth Outreach Teen Center at 1115 Third Street in San Rafael. The evening will include speeches, readings, music and open microphone time.

While police are pleased that students are including them in their protest planning, they say the new activism comes at a price.

The police presence at last week's march and rally at the San Rafael Public Library involved 75 officers from San Rafael, San Anselmo and nearly every other department in the county. The event cost about $25,000 for all of the agencies, according to San Rafael Police Chief Michael Cronin.

But disruption was minimized and no students were injured or arrested, police said.

I grew up in Marin. I was one of the few conservatives in high school. Lot of really loony toons moral relativist kids taking classes from aggressive homosexual professors who make jokes about copulating with sheep and tenured history professors who spend 6 months not teaching history, just talking about the local football team and various tidbits in the news and then give you 1 test at the end of the class with 1 day of review that I could have passed walking in there that day.

I just posted this on another thread. It fits here, too:

The most disturbing complaint came last Friday, the day of an anti-wars protest in Montpelier. A female sergeant claims she was confronted by teenagers outside a convenience store near Plainfield.
This comes about as a result of indoctrination by leftist teachers in the public school system. The next generation of adults who have been brainwashed by these anti-american types will produce leaders who will not stick their necks out for any reason any where. This is what we have already with the Democrats. A few more years and there will not be any hope, period.

"Students need to learn before they can flex power, otherwise they are the ignorant masses. What are they learning in the communist training camps, I mean, public schools?"

It would be nice if they could read, write and do math. They could branch out into politics later, eh?

I recently critiqued two papers written by a colleague's high-school-aged son. My colleague is an asian, and a genius at numerical methods and fluid mechanics. His son is barely literate.

His first paper was tendentious and repetitive, replete with spelling and grammar errors. He repeatedly begged the question and cited no sources.

The second was a book review. About the only good thing I could say was that it was clear that he had indeed read the book. It was filled with oxymorons like 'realist ideals' [sic]. Characters 'gave up their livelihoods' for money.

I was pretty brutal with him but I told him it was better to get scathing criticism from me than from the teacher.

Once upon a time, they taught 'rhetoric'--partly the art of persuasion. Organize your thoughts, collect supporting evidence, make a persuasive argument. Rhetoric hasn't been on the curriculum for more than 50 years...

--Boris

It's sad. My husband said his public school experience was dreadful (fortunately he was only in public school for 2 years). A lot of the teachers don't teach. They would rather sit there and read Playboy magazine or talk about the last football game than teach. The only time he learned anything from some of the teachers was when the principal had to visit the class for teacher evaluations.
You can only imagine how cynical he is about public education.

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