Students
help solve civics issues through Generation Citizen
By
Taryn Plumb |
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
APRIL
03, 2014
MELROSE
— Just a little after 2 p.m., at the area known locally as The
Knoll across from Melrose High School, the daily bedlam ensues.
Cars
speeding, swerving, cutting each other off, double-parking or
blocking passage; pedestrians in peril; gridlock; honking horns and
hand gestures; the long, strained wait for a break in the constant
stream of cars trying to turn onto Lynn Fells Parkway.
“It’s
just a mess,” said junior Andy Griscom, 17, who is analyzing
potential solutions to the problem in a Generation Citizen class at
Melrose High. “We’ve taken to just staying in the school for an
extra 15 or 20 minutes to avoid the massive traffic jam that develops
every day without fail.”
This
is just one of thousands of parking lots at thousands of high schools
across the country.
But
that’s precisely the point. The nonprofit Generation
Citizen strives to prompt the youngest generation into civic
service by getting them involved and interested in issues that
personally affect them and their communities.
Each
semester, the Boston-based organization — founded in 2008 and also
operating out of New York, Providence, and San Francisco — sends
its cadre of volunteers to teach dedicated classes, which are offered
as electives. The volunteers, called democracy coaches, are students
from local college chapters of Generation Citizen.
This
semester, they’re working in 17 local schools, including Melrose,
Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain, according to Gillian Pressman, Greater
Boston site director. Previously, classes have been held in Medford,
Malden, and Lynn.
Projects
have included curbing teen smoking; expanding access to career
education; hosting mock elections to increase voter awareness; and
even tackling gang violence.
“This
makes it really hands-on, really concrete,” said history teacher
Michael Noone, who technically teaches the Melrose Generation Citizen
class but cedes most of the leadership duties to a democracy coach.
“The more they do it, the more they understand how they can impact
change.”
The
process serves a dual purpose: College students who serve as coaches
get classroom experience and the opportunity to hone their
leadership, critical thinking, and public speaking skills.
“You’re
learning the advocacy process and teaching it to students,” said
Billy Rutherford, a member of the Generation Citizen chapter at Tufts
University, where he’s majoring in history and Africana studies.
“I
learned a lot of things about education, civic engagement,” said
junior Ben Berman, 21, executive director of the Tufts chapter, which
has about 20 members. “Being a leader has been a tremendous
opportunity for me personally.”
The
Melrose class, taught by democracy coach Erin Goodyear of Emerson
College, started at the end of January, and students will be
participating in the Greater
Boston Civics Day at the State House on May 5.
When
each new class begins, students brainstorm a topic personal to them.
As Noone explained, some ideas included fixing local roads, examining
health care in the community, and improving school lunches.
They
ultimately settled on the Knoll because it “directly impacts the
students, but it also impacts the community at large.”
The
Knoll — named as such because of the large outcropping of land at
its center — is a one-way, circular parking area for both students
and the public (who use the adjacent dog park and athletic fields).
There’s only one entrance and exit, and it’s wedged between two
stoplights off the Lynn Fells Parkway.
It’s
such a source of frustration that students get vitriolic when
discussing it.
“Parking
at the Knoll is a nightmare,” student Elisa Lemack wrote in the
school’s publication, The
Imprint, in January. She noted the “daily traffic jam”;
overall dangerous driving by her fellow students, littering, idling
middle school parents blocking passage as they wait for their kids,
and locals double-parking as they use the adjacent dog park.
“I
have on many occasions feared for the safety of myself and my car
while parking and driving in the Knoll,” Lemack wrote, calling it
“altogether a horrifying place.”
So
how can it be fixed?
A
recent early-morning class — about a dozen students in hoodies,
headphones, and backwards baseball caps, a few filtering in with late
slips — considered the options.
Some
suggestions: Post signs to close entry at the heaviest traffic times
in the morning and afternoon; change the timing of the nearby traffic
lights; add a dedicated traffic light; create a separate entrance and
separate exit; install trash barrels to cut back on littering.
Griscom
opted for simplicity.
“Simply
bar entry in the afternoon from 2 to 2:30 and much of the jam would
go away,” he said. Putting up a sign saying as much “would reduce
the jam massively, making it so others can’t try to enter when
everyone else is leaving, reducing the number of cars around the
exit. It’s simple, effective, and, most importantly, cheap and easy
to do, making it well within our reach.”
If
he and his fellow students choose that option or another, the next
step, Noone said, is to figure out how to put it into action: Who in
city government are they going to speak with?
What
will be their strategy in doing so?
“What
specifically are we going to tackle to improve it?” Noone asked.
Overall,
the class “focuses on how things can be done in an orderly,
efficient way, and gives students a chance to demonstrate those
skills through the community project, which is a huge difference from
many other high school classes,” said Griscom, who has an interest
in science and said he will likely pursue a career in engineering.
“We learn about the steps one would need to take to get something
changed or improved in their community — call it the ABCs of
activism.”'
Anti-bullying
in Malden, allowing backpacks in Medford
APRIL
03, 2014
Other
local students in action through Generation Citizen:
Spring
2010, Malden High School: Prompted
by the death
of Phoebe Prince, students tackled the issue of bullying. After
doing a survey of ninth-graders, they held an assembly on the new
Massachusetts
antibullying legislation that included a PowerPoint presentation
summarizing their survey results. They also designed and printed
antibullying posters to be hung around the school, and helped revise
guidelines for bullying prevention.
Spring
2010, Malden public schools: Students
created a podcast in five languages, a ConnectED
phone call in eight languages, and a brochure to stress the benefits
of participating in the US Census.
Fall
2012, Medford High School: Students met with
school administrators to try to amend the school's no backpack
policy, which they pinpointed as a root cause of academic challenges.
Because they're not allowed backpacks, students often have to go to
lockers between classes and miss valuable time between periods to
connect with or get extra help from teachers.
This
school year:
Malden
High School: A class of ninth-graders at
Malden High School is working on improving car safety among infant
and youth passengers.
Salemwood
Middle School, Malden: Eighth-graders are
lobbying to increase peer support through setting up a council and
advocating for a resource room where information is available on
issues common to young teens.
Melrose
Middle School: Sixth-grade students have met
with parents, teachers, and school administration to establish the
school’s first student government.
SOURCE:
Generation Citizen
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2014 BOSTON GLOBE MEDIA PARTNERS, LLC
