During the days that followed May 1, I began to gather various bits of information about the circumstances surrounding these two tragic deaths. I learned that the police gunned down Randall, an excellent student in my 11th grade class last year, in his own neighborhood, in the early morning hours of April 26. Edgar, a freshman whom I did not know personally, was shot in the back of the head while sitting at a bus stop on Easter Sunday.

In the days and weeks following these two tragedies, I experienced a profound sense of despair. I questioned my effectiveness as a social justice educator and wondered, "Am I contributing enough to efforts aimed at ending violence in my school and in my community?" As Jean Paul Sartre said, "Life begins on the other side of despair." While pondering the untimely deaths of these two precious young people, I felt myself falling into an abyss of sadness.

But I emerged from this abyss with a profound sense of hope. That hope is grounded in my belief that this culture CAN be healed! It CAN be transformed! It CAN nurture and protect its young people. And it CAN give them the tools they need to perpetuate peace!

I considered all the amazing work aimed at promoting peace that I have witnessed as a student in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. I thought of Venice High teacher Joy Kraft. In her Life Skills class she teaches students to see the damaging effects of racism, sexism, classism and homophobia and helps students devise non-violent solutions to these social ills. I thought of Morningside High teacher Chris Morrisey and his efforts with Project Peace, a peer-mediation program that he is helping to establish at his school. And I thought of Jennifer Yee, a Ph.D candidate in Higher Education and Organizational Change, whose dissertation focuses on the role that mentors play in helping activists foster unity and wholeness within communities. I realized that in addition to Joy, Chris and Jennifer, all the teachers, researchers and scholars in this Graduate School are my heroes. When I face difficult situations as a teacher, these people inspire me to work through those difficulties. They renew my sense of hope and courage by reminding me that I am not alone.

The tragedies that we uncover in our work in urban schools do not consume us with hopelessness and apathy. Instead those tragedies remind us of our callings and prompt us to take action. We understand that we cannot afford to sit by idly while so many attacks are being made against our society's young people.

We know that we must research and analyze the problems that we encounter. In our research we must search for causes and solutions to the problems we find. We must study these solutions and put them to work in our own practices both within and outside of the classroom walls. We must study, we must think, we must ask hard questions and we must work towards even harder solutions. And we must do these things because we believe as Vaclav Havel said that "None of us as an individual can save the world as a whole, but each of us must behave as though it were in our power to do so." We know that there are no quick fixes to the problems that our young people confront on a daily basis. We know that creating meaningful solutions requires commitment, intelligence, dialogue and most importantly patience. We are up for the challenge. In a culture that is dominated by violence, competition and greed, we in this Graduate School are working together to create a society that is guided by love and defined by its commitment to peace, community and justice. We focus our energies and utilize our talents in the educational arena because we know that education is one of the most powerful means of helping to construct the kind of society we dream of.

When I think of Edgar and Randal, I feel a deep nameless ache that I know will always be with me. But that nameless feeling helps to sustain my hope. Hope for a world that is worthy of every one of its precious children. We in this Graduate School sincerely embrace the idea expressed by Martin Luther King that the universe is on the side of justice and that justice will eventually win. And that is why we are here today.

George Acosta teaches English at Santa Monica High School.

Go to student work

In the description of AP Computer Science curriculum, the College Board states the following topics should be covered:

• Privacy
• Legal issues and intellectual property
• Social and ethical ramifications of computer use

The purpose of this project is to research some ethical, legal, and democratic issues that concern technology.

Assignment: Pick one of the general or specific topics below (or you can discuss with me any other topics) and write a 3-4 page double-spaced paper discussing the details of the topic you have chosen. You need to include at least 3 legitimate sources and include a bibliography.

You also need to tie in the topic’s influence on democracy. For example, is it fair? Does it protect people? Does the law discriminate against certain groups? Do certain groups have more privileges than others? How would each issue affect the average school child? Is this an example of free speech? etc.

• Squatters – buying & selling domain names for profit
• Intellectual Property Copyright Laws
  • WIPO
  • Napster
  • Plagiarism
• Obscenity Laws
• Privacy Laws
  • (Edwards/Leahy Digital Telephony Legislation (HR 4922/S2375))
  • Cookies Encryption
  • Encryption
• Equal access to technology in schools
  • Digital High School grants
  • Socio-economic status
• New proposed legislation affecting technology
• Candidates’ stances on technology issues
• Overview of current laws affecting technology
• Proposals of taxing email or internet access
• Cost of Internet Access (aol, earthlink, issue of advertising, etc.)
• Hacking

One place to start looking: http://library.thinkquest.org/26658/links.html

Joanna Goode teaches Math and Computer Science at Santa Monica High School.

As a teacher, I have been particularly interested in this year's election. Both Bush and Gore have made education a pivotal point of their platforms, and voucher initiatives in both California and Michigan press the point that some are so unhappy with public education today that they want an alternative. What frustrates me to no end is that none of these candidates or ideas seem to be informed by educators. When did our profession become a job, and why didn't anyone tell me?

I understand the concern of the public that students seem underprepared for our technologically advanced society, and some are underprepared for an industrial society of generations past. Many students graduating from high school don't have the basic literacy and mathematical skills they need to flourish in our society. However, there are legions of educators out there, myself included, cognizant of these realities, and working hard to make a difference. We have been through university training programs and know more about educational systems and theories than the average politician or businessman whose only base of knowledge is that he was once a student. I am particularly angered by men such as George W. Bush, Al Gore, and Tim Draper (backer of California's voucher initiative), all men of privilege who know little about the struggles of marginalized kids in schools who rely on public education to fix what society cannot. What do these men, especially political scions who have not had to do anything on their own merit to be successful, know what kids need?

We as educators need to wrangle the rhetoric back from the politicians and chart the course for education ourselves. We don't need to test kids more; we need to provide quality instructors and quality environments for all kids in schools. We need to recognize that we are working with an ever-changing population in the only public sector that still has a glimmer of a chance of leveling the playing field for marginalized kids (what an amazing and daunting expectation that is.) We need to raise our spending per pupil in California to at least the national average, and pay teachers a professional and competitive wage to draw and retain the best and brightest. The wealthy men who want to fix education seem to think we can do without what they take for granted: money and respect. I don't see anyone holding politicians "accountable" for campaign promises.

Jessica Krug teaches English at Santa Monica High School.

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