Rule Change Assignment

Last week I was privileged to receive an invitation from one of Kathy Yingling's 11th grade English students to hear a presentation on a proposal to allow junior and senior students to go off-campus for lunch.

In fact, I was the target audience.

The concept of the “Rule Change Assignment” was to have each group of students pick a rule they would like to see changed, do the appropriate research, arrive at a solution, and then present their proposal to someone with the authority to do something about it.

One group suggested having more cafeteria registers open for students getting breakfast in the morning, in order to avoid students having to choose between eating or being late for class. This was presented to the food service coordinator, and will, in fact, be implemented next year.

Other presentations were made to building administrators, and even the superintendent, involving rules about hats, cell phones, and parking.

Not only is this another good example of service learning – embedding curricular content within a project initiated and “owned” by the students, with implications for the wider community – it was an outstanding example of how to teach practical civic skills.

In my mind, civics education is not just about understanding “the three branches of government” (although that’s good to know), it’s about having the skills and knowledge to bring about positive change in your community, however that’s defined. (As I have argued previously, the school community is a logical place for students to become civically-engaged.)

Some of the civics issues that we discussed: What is the history of the current policy?  Why was it implemented?  Have conditions changed since its initial implementation?

Where is the policy; that is, is this a school policy, within the discretion of the principal, or is a district policy, which would require action from the school board?

The students had done a pretty good job of reaching out to the various “stakeholders”. Not only had they discussed this with the principal, they talked to business owners who might be affected. They had also given some thought to issues of liability, how infractions might be handled, and what parents would think of it.

Importantly, they framed their proposal as a solution to a problem that is of interest of the entire school: over-crowding in the cafeteria.

We also discussed who else they might want to try to bring on board, and how the involvement of student government might give their idea more weight. And finally: change seldom comes easily or quickly. Did they have the persistence to see it through, even if it would be their younger brothers and sisters who reap the benefit?