by Ted McConnell
This is a story about the power of youth, positively influenced, to lead us. It's a story about young folks empowered by effective civic learning to bring about positive change. It's a story about a youth-led effort to increase civic learning opportunities for all students.
Patti McMaster (photo) is a social studies teacher at Evergreen High School in Vancouver, Washington. Patti is one of those dedicated, talented teachers that make all of us want to redouble our efforts to help all teachers provide effective civic learning to their students.
Patti teaches several civics classes and uses several supplemental curricular programs. Late last year Patti was helping a group of her AP youth and government class prepare for their participation in the Center for Civic Education's "We the People: the Citizen and the Constitution" program. Several of the questions the students must address in the We the People program this year ask the students to compare the US Constitution to their state constitution. The students told Ms. McMaster that they could not complete that part of the exercise because they had never received any instruction in state government. Sure, they had all taken a mandated state history course a few years back, but they explained that that course dealt with Lewis and Clark, the fur trade and the missionaries who helped build Washington State--not a word about the state constitution, state government and how a citizen can and should engage in the affairs of their state.
Well, these inspired students decided to do something about that. What could this group of high school students living 120 miles away from the capital in Olympia do to improve instruction? Plenty! As a group they decided to work on increasing instruction on state government and civic affairs as a public policy project.
Several of the students had previously been in a class where Patti McMaster taught "We the People: Project Citizen," a program that engages students in analyzing and influencing public policy. Some of them had also participated in NCSL's America's Legislators Back to School Program where they had met and talked to their representatives in the Washington Legislature. Armed with these tools, the students set about changing state education policy.
They wrote the broad outlines of a bill that would require the teaching of state government, economics and politics. Then the students met with Rep. Deb Wallace, who agreed to introduce the students' bill when the Washington Legislature convened this past January. Sen. Craig Pridemore (a former student of Patti McMaster) agreed to do the same in the Senate. The students also met with the state social studies specialist at the Department of Public Instruction and convinced him to give departmental approval to what the students were doing.
With the bill introduced, the students started a lobbying campaign to get it passed. They contacted students from all across Washington and got them to lobby for the bill. They sent letters, faxes and emails to members of the relevant legislative committees and legislative leaders. The students from Evergreen High were invited to testify on behalf of the bill before the House and Senate education committees.
The result? The bill, HB 2781, passed both the Washington State House and Senate. Patti McMaster's students were the guests of honor yesterday when Governor Christine Gregoire signed the bill into law (photo).
In three months these students had a real world crash course on how representative democracy works. Teacher Patti McMaster, who is an alum of the Washington Legislature's innovative Legislative Scholars program, says this experience "...is the proudest moment in a 29-year teaching career!"
Ted McConnell is a guest author and director of the campaign to promote civic education for the Center for Civic Education.
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