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WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Progressive individuals, organizations, foundations and media all have important roles to play in confronting the conservative, corporate and military influences in our educational system. Below are lists of ideas for action and groups that offer useful resources and background information.
IDEAS FOR ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS:
1. Everyone can raise awareness and stimulate constructive dialogue by circulating this call as widely as possible. Use One Of Your Social Network Accounts to Share this National Call Now:
2. Consider holding a community or chapter meeting to discuss how your neighbors would like to move forward
3. Organizations can devote resources to youth outreach and education. For example:
Create a youth/student led leadership component of your organization.
Develop a speakers pool for youth groups, classrooms and workshops at youth conferences.
Sponsor essay/video/spoken word contests with themes that will educate and engage young people. (See Poets for Peace).
Send your regular news releases or specially written ones to editors of high school student newspaper; place ads in student papers and offer them op-ed pieces for publication.
Provide literature and other resources to enable students to do peer education. There are many models that can be adapted for this work.
(See the various groups listed below)Organize teams to distribute youth-friendly leaflets at school entrances. (See http://comdsd.org/index.php/youth)
Contact schools about participating in career/college fairs with a display highlighting career and volunteer opportunities for social change activism. (See http://www.projectyano.org and War Resisters' International's The Right to Refuse to Kill programme)
4. Become involved in shaping education policy:
Monitor activities of businesses, the military and conservative organizations in local schools; protest when such groups violate policies and laws on access to campuses and student education records; propose new policies, if needed, to restrict their activities. (E.g., see http://www.projectyano.org/educationnotarms/, . . . other references?)
Monitor and oppose efforts to replace public education with for-profit, corporate-run charter schools. (See National Education Policy Center, Rethinking Schools, Classroom Struggle re. reports and studies )
Investigate whether students are being involuntarily placed into military indoctrination programs like JROTC or are being tracked into the military by denying them access to college prep classes and other alternatives to the military. (See Education Not Arms Coalition)
Form alliances with parents, students and community groups working on education-related issues.
Become involved in the selection of school district governing boards:
Do surveys of candidates for elected board seats and circulating their answers to questions on key issues.
Run candidates in board elections.
IDEAS FOR FOUNDATIONS:
Give a high priority to supporting efforts to resist the militarization and commercialization of schools.
Support outreach and educational initiatives to teach progressive values to young people.
Support both youth-led organizations AND community groups that educate or support youth activism.
IDEAS FOR MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS, JOURNALISTS AND BLOGGERS:
Present stories and analysis that will raise awareness about the problem of allowing conservative groups, the military and commercial interests to influence the educational system.
Make a deliberate effort to cover organizing that focuses on youth activism and movements to resist the militarization and commercialization of schools.
CONTACT THESE ORGANIZATIONS FOR VALUABLE ORGANIZING TOOLS AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
GENERAL EDUCATION POLICY AND ALTERNATIVE CURRICULUM:
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
http://annenberginstitute.org
National Education Policy Center
http://nepc.colorado.edu
Zinn Education Project
http://zinnedproject.org
Rethinking Schools
http://www.rethinkingschools.org
Educators For Peace
http://educatorsforpeace.info
New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE)
http://www.nycore.org
Teachers for Social Justice
http://www.teachersforjustice.org
Education for Liberation Network
http://www.edliberation.org
Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch (on charter v. public schools)
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-charter-schools/
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/27/225748846/diane-ravitch-rebukes-education-activists-reign-of-error
The Myth Behind Public School Failure
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/the-myth-behind-public-school-failure
COMMERCIALISM AND CORPORATE INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOLS:
Public Citizen’s Commercial Alert/Education
http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/education/
Teaching for Change
http://www.teachingforchange.org
MILITARISM IN SCHOOLS:
The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Schools (NNOMY)
http://www.nnomy.org
The Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (Project YANO)
http://projectyano.org
The Military Recruitment Project of the New York Civil Liberties Union
http://www.nyclu.org/issues/youth-and-student-rights/military-recruitment
The War Resisters League
http://www.warresisters.org/counterrecruitment
Veterans for Peace
http://www.veteransforpeace.org
Demilitarizing Youth Facebook page (NNOMY)
http://www.facebook.com/DeMilitarizingYouth
We Are Not Your Soldiers
https://www.wearenotyoursoldiers.org
We Are Dissenters
https://wearedissentewearedissenters.org/ rs.org
YOUTH ACTIVISM AND EXPRESSION:
What Kids Can Do
http://www.whatkidscando.org
On Earth Peace
https://www.onearthpeace.org
Youth Activists/Youth Allies Network
https://www.yayanetwork.org
Committee Opposed to Militarism & the Draft (students’ rights)
http://comdsd.org
Queers for Economic Justice
http://q4ej.org
Fellowship of Reconciliation
http://www.forusa.org
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
http://www.mxgm.org
Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice (YMPJ)
http://ympj.org
Youth For Peace & Security / United Nations Security Council
https://youth4peace.info
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