Marin Voice: Train teens on proper path to empowerment, resistance

It’s conventional wisdom that when an individual or group feels politically powerless, it often leads to violence.

Many people who appear to have felt powerless were involved in the historic siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. More recently, a huge number of online postings from those who feel powerless about changing health care insurance applauded an alleged murderer as a hero for gunning down a health care company CEO.

This is particularly important for us in Marin right now as a man who was elected president has aroused fear and anger by promising actions that the majority of us do not want, including deporting many of our immigrant neighbors. Meanwhile, Jan. 6 remains in the news, and the murder in Manhattan and subsequent manhunt, arrest and indictment remain fresh.

Our most tuned-in kids followed these stories, and many more picked up on their parents’ emotions and discourse. How do we help them channel their emotional responses into positive action? How can we train them to respond effectively? How can we help them learn?

A first step is acquiring the knowledge and skills to impact social and political currents. We should train them to become highly rational catalysts of change. This means channeling any anger they feel and any desire for change into constructive action, not into destructive physical or verbal acts.

As much as we may be tempted to focus on the larger issues rather than starting with the very remote and powerful forces of the federal government, I think it would be wiser to begin by targeting something more manageable, such as effecting change in their own school. This could be a type of training exercise. The changes could and should be incremental, not extreme.

The best example of this I’ve experienced took place in a public high school where I was teaching. A group of five students quietly transformed the role of students in decision-making. This was a calculated act by the students, not one encouraged or directed by teachers. After the school principal had ignored requests and protests for years, this small group developed a proposal for a student-faculty advisory council, empowered to review school rules and make recommendations to the school board. They presented it to the editor of the local newspaper and elicited support. They garnered the support of three school board members and some educationally engaged parents. This pressure was sufficient to get the previously intractable principal to approve their proposal – no violence, protests or high-profile publicity.

These students were exemplary and very few others could do this without training.  But effectiveness like this can be taught. Training students to develop these skills would most likely fit in a social studies class, perhaps in a unit on education in America.

First, they should learn the importance and process of diagnosis. Find out what students feel about rules they think are fair or unfair, what voice they think students should have in school decision making, what is missing in the school curriculum, and other topics they suggest. This can be done through a survey or by interviewing select students.

Then they should examine and deliberate on the data they’ve collected. From that data they can prioritize a few changes. These changes could be to revise present school policies and practices and/or to add new ones they think are needed to address the concerns expressed by students.

After considering potential obstacles, they should develop strategies related to overcoming them.

The game plan for implementation is more challenging. Since this is not like the example I shared, the school principal needs to be included in the final stage, and perhaps even meet with students to assist them in the best way of presenting their recommendations to the school board.

These are small changes in the much larger picture, but the knowledge and skills developed will be there for larger challenges and goals as well. In the process we as teachers and parents can also learn ways of becoming more effective and more powerful in how we affect political changes.

Mark Phillips of Woodacre is a professor emeritus of education at San Francisco State University.