Two years ago, as a member of the Latino Inquiry at Santa Monica High School (Samohi), I proposed the creation of an after-school activist class as part of Inquiry's ongoing effort to help Latino students achieve academic success. I felt that if we, as educators, could help disenfranchised students gain a greater sense of political awareness and agency, we would also be providing them with the knowledge and skills necessary for success at Samohi and the world beyond high school. Together with student Robert Flores, I drafted a proposal for the Latino Activist Association that was presented to and approved by then-principal Dr. Sylvia Rousseau.
In the years that followed, I worked closely with Samohi principal Dr. Mark Kelly and UCLA professor John Rogers in devising a plan to offer an activist class to Samohi students for both high school and college credit. The plan culminated this semester in the formation of Education 98: Education and Power, a class which is being offered on the Samohi campus to Samohi students with funding made possible by the UCLA Extension and the UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.
The goals of the course are as follows: to study and analyze the Students' Bill of Rights, to engage students in critical research in relation to those rights, and to allow students venues for presenting their research findings and proposals for furthering students' rights on the Samohi campus and other California public schools.
For their first assignment, students wrote philosophy statements which focused on the question, "What does every student deserve?" This assignment was modeled after a similar assignment that I completed as part of my Master's Portfolio for UCLA's Teacher Education Program. The following essays were written by students in my class, Education and Power. Student work from this course will be featured regularly in Teaching to Change LA throughout the 2001-2002 school year.
