BY BRANDON SLOANE
Historically, whenever American students have faced a crisis in their lives that needed resolving they have turned to protesting. An early example of this was in the 1960’s when students protested racism in the United States through picketing and civil disobedience during the civil rights movement. One would think, based on its past effectiveness, this method of protesting would not only continue, but also increase. Unfortunately, today’s students don’t know how to effectively protest (or don’t care) and are slowly seeing their ability to make a difference dwindle.
A vital aspect to protesting is dedication to the cause. However, this is becoming harder and harder to find. One reason for this decline is that today’s young people like to make a mockery of a good cause regardless of how they feel about the subject. This not only undermines what the organizers of the protest are trying to do but it also can make the cause lose its credibility when people see that the protest isn’t being taken seriously.
For example, the recent scheduling change from block to a 7-period schedule. Many students were very upset about this and tried to start a protest through a Facebook event page. While the event started off strong, with many students posting their own ideas about ways to get their voices heard, the constructive comments were drowned out by others who used the event page to start their stand-up careers. They posted vulgar photos and messages that insulted the group and what it was doing. The end result was that the protesters could no longer get anything useful accomplished.
Another vital component of effective protests is to actually know what the cause is about. While this may seem obvious, but it is something that can’t be assumed with today’s generation. During the 2009-2010 school year, Senate Bill 6 was under consideration by the Florida legislature. One of the provisions of the bill was that teacher pay be based on student test scores, not tenure or experience. Both teachers and students rallied to combat this bill and keep it from passing. One of the events that happened was a school wide walkout in the middle of the day. Hundreds of students walked out of their classes to “protest” the bill. Unfortunately, the majority of students who walked out had no clue what they were walking out on. They just saw it as an opportunity to get out of doing work for an hour. If students are not informed, they can’t possibly hope to effectively protest.
Hope is not lost however; there are still several very efficient and powerful ways for students to get their opinions heard. One method is writing emails and letters to local and state level legislators. They are the ones who make the laws, so if you want to make a change they are the best people to talk to. It is also important to get your parents involved. Parents are smart and know how to organize, and more importantly, they are the ones who elect the congressmen. By holding the power of the vote, parents and other adults can help dictate legislative policy, since politicians need their votes to get reelected.
But, the most crucial facet of protesting correctly is doing it in a safe and mature matter. If students do not learn to do this, very soon the adult community will no longer respect our opinions or take our demands seriously. That is a luxury we cannot afford to lose.
