Ms. Marshall's Room
Youth value Ms. Marshall’s classroom/civics classroom because it feels like a second home to them and it’s a place where they can be exactly who they are without fear of judgment or persecution. Ms. Marshall’s class is where students find their voice and learn how to use it in an effective manner. It’s a place where your voice is heard by fellow peers and teachers and it shows you how you not only have a voice at school, but most importantly outside of school in the real world. This location addresses legitimate issues, problems, and challenges youth face by being involved in the outside world and politics.
Valerie Nava has been a student at Alcott and has had Ms. Marshall as a teacher for the whole four years of her high school career. Here is what she has to say, “I have been at Alcott College Prep for 4 years and Ms Marshall has been one of my teachers all the way through. Her class is where I can be myself without being judged or in trouble. She makes the class feel very welcomed, which means that I can go up to her and say anything about school, my personal life, etc. In her class, I feel like my voice matters and is not ignored. Not all students have a bond with their teacher. Honestly, without having her as a teacher or having this class, I wouldn’t have been able to define who I am or open up to anyone. By not having her class, I don’t think I would be into politics or know about current events around city of Chicago, as I do now. It feels good to know what’s going on, instead of not knowing. I personally wish that I had taken civics for 4 years because it has been a great experience during the 2 years that I have taken this course. I never thought I would be so involved in school like I am now. The outcome is wonderful because you get to meet people and attend events around the city of Chicago. For example, I met Rahm Emanuel, went to City Hall, a Lathrop community meeting, met candidates that were running for Illinois Governor, met Aldermen, I’ve seen real life story plays that involved gun violence, etc. What classes will you get the chance to experience this? That’s right! Civics is the best class to have!” If youth didn’t have this location/site, students would lose confidence and identity. They would lose confidence because they would feel as if they are being unheard and they’ll lose the ability to take action and learn how to help make a change in their community. They’ll lose identity because a lot of students, when joining this classroom, find that they enjoy politics and want to go further. They go further in their education and try to get into politics because they know that they want to make a difference and positively impact peoples’ lives. Mr. Estrada stated, “Often we hear how you, the ‘young generation of today,’ does not care about issues or concerns that plague our society, in school or outside of school. I strongly believe that this is far from the truth. I believe that given the opportunity and guidance, our students will act and solve those issues that not only affect them, but our society and community as a whole. You need to be a part of the process. You need to take lead! You need to have a voice! In order to do that, we must have a process. This is Civics!” We also asked him what impact will civics have on students. “You will be better students, sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters. You will be better leaders. The world is yours; civics provides an opportunity to identify areas of concerns but more important it promotes activism. You can not just complain; you must do something about it.” The benefits you get from this location is that your eyes are opened when you learn and see how the government really works. Most importantly, students eyes are opened when they start to see the issues in their community and want to take action so that these problems stop. They want to live in a safe community and it’s unfair that no one is doing anything, especially those who’ve sworn to help and protect the future generation such as elected officials. Yet, we still don’t feel safe because of the violence in our city. The challenges that affect youth in this community is that not many schools have a civics class. Some students don’t even know what civics is. This is a problem because students need to be involved in their community and some want to, but don’t know how or where to get started. The schools that do have civics only have one year of it, but don’t plan to expand it more. Mr. Estrada, the principal at Alcott College Prep, however, does plan to expand civics. He stated, “all should be a part of this process. The sooner we start the better off our community and society will be. We will eventually be big enough to do this and we plan to embed civics in our classes. Civics is not just a class or curriculum. Civics is citizenship, morals, values...... It is in everything we do.” With youth involvement there’d be less gang violence, death, gun violence, and, most importantly, school closings. We also made a survey, because we wanted to see how much the students who take civics value it. We found out that 96% said that they do find civics important. At least 83% said that Alcott should have a civics class available for all four years. Most importantly, 93% said that, yes, every school should have at least one civics class. This shows us that students value the class enough to know that others schools should have civics as well. They know that student voice is valuable and should be valued everywhere else, but most importantly, they want to show others students that their voices can be heard, and by taking this class it can happen. |
AuthorsValerie, George, Cynthia
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