The RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights has a contest called "Speak Truth to Power".
It asks students to make a video about a human right and submit their video to the center.
My kids picked voting because Illinois had recently passed a law making it possible for 17 year olds to vote in a primary if they will be 18 in time for the general election. We set a school record for registering new voters and my students are fired up. They'll be organizing an early voting field trip soon and more than 60 students have signed up to work as election judges on the day of the primary election on March 18th.
Here is their entry:
Follow me below the fold for more info...
There are 3 things I just love about this video, and they have nothing to do with raising test scores.
1) The interviews with their parents.
One student suggested a scene where she interrogates her mom. She wanted it to look like a police station interrogation room with a single light bulb over the mom and the daughter plays bad cop and then berates her for not voting when she could have. We couldn't pull of the lighting effect, but that idea inspired the other interview with the child whose parent couldn't vote because their immigration status...that one gets me every time I watch it.
2) How schools inculcate democracy, even if they don't know they do.
Voting for pizza or tacos, voting for class line leader, voting for what movie to watch...these are all the little things that kids said made them ready to go and choose which person would be the next governor. As a teacher, I never thought those things mattered very much, but it turns out the kids said it was really important to them.
3) I learned what issues are important to them. I assumed immigration and violence in the community would be their "issues" but who knew career and technical education was high on their list? Public transportation? I say it every year, but it's so true, I learn more from my kids every year than I I teach them. Turns out the fares have gone up so much, a lot of families in the community my school serves walk to work because they can't afford bus fare. I never would have known that without doing this project.
Won't you join me in being proud of their video and their project to register new voters?
So please, watch the video and pass the link to as many people as you can. I'd like to tell my kids that what they care about is also important to others. Send them some love and some likes and some views. They'd really appreciate that.
Thanks in advance, Daily Kos is the best community out there.
Victor