Recent streak of student walkouts in Colorado's second-largest school district is an eye-opener to many who have long held that present generation of American high school students are reflection of so-called selfie culture, engrossed in self-promotion and insensitive to continuous changes around their world. Hence, when the conservative majority of the Jefferson County School Board proposed forming a committee last month (September 2014) as part of driving an agenda to re-write the Advanced Placement history text to "promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights" and deemphasize topics on "civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law", it was thought to be a low-key, but significant, policy shift for the suburban Denver school district. Although the conservative majority of the school board anticipated some degree of howling from the district's teachers and very minimal intensity of protest from parents, it never thought of a strong organized protest from the district's youngest stakeholders. Leveraging means from the present day tools ranging from social media, mobile communications and video chats to the more traditional way of spreading message through word of mouth, the teen-age students of the Jefferson County School District were able to organize an effective, but peaceful, protest movement that sent a clear message to the board's conservative majority that tampering with the course curriculum for the purpose of promoting narrow political objectives would invite vigorous opposition. In the following days, students, joined by their teachers, walked out of class, and parents lent their moral support to their kids' protest movement. The Jefferson County school protest against the political maneuvers by conservatives to tinker with the AP history curriculum has drawn national attention too, and coincides with a large student sit-in protest thousands of miles away in Hong Kong. The movement in Hong Kong is aimed at the authorities in Beijing for limiting the scope of universal suffrage in the 2017 polls to elect the chief executive of the island nation. Although the agendas of the two student protest movements on two far-apart continents are vastly different, there are few striking similarities between the two:
(1) Effectiveness in Focus and fervor of both movements
(2) Demand for more say in matters that affect them the most
(3) Disproving the commonly held notion that the present generation of students are more or less aloof to issues, ideas, or actions remotely related to politics
(4) Dexterity and deftness in organizing the protest movement by students without any official involvement of political establishment
The protest movement by students, teachers and parents in Jefferson County School District puts a spotlight on the importance of civic engagement in school course and curriculum issues in an era when there is a concerted drive to push radical political agenda through tinkering of school syllabi. After days of vigorous protest, the Jefferson County School Board bowed to the will of people on October 2, 2014 when it decided to form a committee, involving all stakeholders including students, parents, academics and administrators, to address the course curriculum issues. Also, the protest movement won a clear political victory during the crowded October 2, 2014, board meeting as the conservatives-dominated Jefferson County School Board stripped the so-called controversial language related to promoting patriotism over civil disobedience from the final resolution that calls for creating a panel to address AP history curriculum issues. Students in the district delivered 40,000 signatures supporting their protest from around the nation. The protest movement in Jefferson County School District in Colorado, hopefully, opens a chapter of renewed interest of student engagement in academic issues of national importance and sends a clear message to the rest of the country that it's the common people who are the true harbinger of change if they pursue with resoluteness and sense of purpose.
(1) Effectiveness in Focus and fervor of both movements
(2) Demand for more say in matters that affect them the most
(3) Disproving the commonly held notion that the present generation of students are more or less aloof to issues, ideas, or actions remotely related to politics
(4) Dexterity and deftness in organizing the protest movement by students without any official involvement of political establishment
The protest movement by students, teachers and parents in Jefferson County School District puts a spotlight on the importance of civic engagement in school course and curriculum issues in an era when there is a concerted drive to push radical political agenda through tinkering of school syllabi. After days of vigorous protest, the Jefferson County School Board bowed to the will of people on October 2, 2014 when it decided to form a committee, involving all stakeholders including students, parents, academics and administrators, to address the course curriculum issues. Also, the protest movement won a clear political victory during the crowded October 2, 2014, board meeting as the conservatives-dominated Jefferson County School Board stripped the so-called controversial language related to promoting patriotism over civil disobedience from the final resolution that calls for creating a panel to address AP history curriculum issues. Students in the district delivered 40,000 signatures supporting their protest from around the nation. The protest movement in Jefferson County School District in Colorado, hopefully, opens a chapter of renewed interest of student engagement in academic issues of national importance and sends a clear message to the rest of the country that it's the common people who are the true harbinger of change if they pursue with resoluteness and sense of purpose.
