Advocacy Project (Week 12a)

Wed. Nov. 1: Last week I introduced my 11th-grade guidance class to the concept of advocacy and enthusiastically started us all on the unfamiliar road of social justice and political discomfort. To be very honest, I have no idea what I am doing. I figured that I would just bring my students along with me on this whole advocacy project thing, let them figure out what they wanted to do, and sort of "fake it till I make it" from the planning side of things. Currently, still faking it…but, in some weird way I am not too worried about where we will end up. The reason for this is that I somehow surprised myself with my level of inspirational vision-casting during my opening spiel to my juniors. I have no timeline, no vision, no plan. But, boy did I sell it! Agents of change! Community shakers, hope makers! You are powerful and capable of making a real difference! We're going to do something meaningful this year! Anyway, at this point, I am totally committed to letting them design and lead. Of course, I am the key facilitator and will help guide them in a possible direction, but I also really want to see where they go with it. You had to see last Wednesday for you to really understand. Last Wednesday in guidance class I gave my students the floor, and the whiteboard, and my good Expo pens. For 30 minutes I watched them together have one of the most real conversations I have ever heard from teenagers. They weighed the effects of domestic violence and drugs on families, human trafficking in Hawai'i, cyberbullying, homelessness, racial inequality, aquarium fish trade, Styrofoam, etc. They wanted to do this! Who would have thought? ;) Considering production value, I could not have planned a better "lesson." The top two issues that arose were human trafficking and animal abuse, both common problems in Hawai'i and on our island. Again, not sure what's ahead. But, I'm excited to be on the ride.

Wed. Nov. 8: On Day 2 our class had a serious talk about the two primary topics of our advocacy project. Human trafficking had the top votes followed by animal abuse. There was an entire week between our class days 1 and 2, so, I took the opportunity to dig. I read a short book, Sold by Patricia McCormick, about a Nepalese teenage girl sold into prostitution by her poor farmer family for the equivalent of $11.00. The stress of her life- and so many like her- is unbearable, even to read about. I also read about human trafficking cartels in L.A. and the shadow lives of pimps and their women. My mother-in-law told me several months ago about a Hilo couple that saves girls from captivity in sex compounds deep in the forests of Mt. View, a 15-minute drive from my school's campus. Unfortunately, it was difficult to find any legitimate, publically available evidence on this or other local cases. With the internet being my primary tool I felt somewhat let down by my detective work. Anyway, the sourness of this issue is detestable and no doubt the reason why my students want to advocate for justice to be done. But, there was a part of me that felt by sticking our noses in this business we would also be in "danger," like a target; that I am compromising the safety of my students in some unknown way. Bits of content from the IRB CITI modules flooded my mind, and although not entirely relevant, I felt I was overstepping an invisible line. What would parents think and say about this project? How comfortable are my students in talking candidly and publically about the sexual exploitation of people/women? How much do I want them to know? I thought it right to pull back a little and present these concerns to my class.

After some conversation my class decided to agree with me that the topic of animal abuse would be a better place "to start" and human trafficking would have to wait for round 2. Although, it was interesting to hear them work out the pros and cons. A few students powerfully argued that it is good to get outside our comfort zone and talk about uncomfortable things. They said that they weren't little kids anymore and should be able to handle real issues like this, this is real life. And the small amount of discomfort we feel is nothing compared to the lives of those that suffer because of injustice. 

We decided it important to figure out a model for how our class would approach the advocacy project first, before taking on a hyper-sensitive and complex topic like human trafficking. I was relieved.  Next: defining the issue. In step with our process from Day 1, my students went to our whiteboard and began hashing out the details of what constitutes a "good issue." We agreed that in our "brainstorming" we had to be careful to try to only make claims supported by evidence and that reinforcing our ideas with factual information is essential. Like last time, I sat on the side and listened.

One of the most fascinating parts of this day's process was the automatic shaping of various student roles and the emergence of leaders; those who clearly showed the most enthusiasm for the project. Students were allowed to fall into their most comfortable roles: information gatherer, discussion facilitator, evaluators, recorders. I felt no pressure to assign responsibilities or force participation. I noticed some students were more talkative than others, but it was apparent that all 12 of them were engaged on some level. There was a natural tendency for students to add their ideas to "a list, " and at the end cast votes for the choices that they felt most passionate or interested in. At one point in the conversation, one student said that maybe they should look up information, like on their phones. I noticed that students had a hard time focusing their ideas and using specific language and talked about a wide range of animal abuse issues. For example, they brought up domestic and institutional cruelty of animals in captivity (zoos and SeaWorld), negligence of pet owners and caretakers (chained dogs, Humane Society), mistreatment of livestock (feedlots and slaughter houses), harmful use of antibiotics and hormones (size of chicken breasts from Costco), genetic modification of animals (no evidence for this), dog/chicken fighting (local underground gambling rings), etc. Our next step is to firmly identify our main issue and begin background research. Following that, we are going to recognize our audience members. In the meantime, we will draft letters to our families and school community to let them know of our intentions and action plan. I have emailed summaries of our class progress to students. Next meeting, next Monday.