Student Voices: Santa Monica High School Student Essays from "Education & Power"
Students at Santa Monica High school are currently studying the Students' Bill of Rights in an after school college-level course entitled, "Education and Power." The goals of the course are for students to study and analyze the Students' Bill of Rights and to engage in critical research in relation to those rights. This semester students took a field trip to Los Angeles High School for a day where they shadowed L.A. High students. A week later, L.A. High students visited Santa Monica High School and shadowed the students in "Education and Power" for a day. At the end of the second day, students met to dialogue about the differences they found at the two schools and to hypothesize about the reasons for those differences. Later, the students wrote papers evaluating each school and discussing to what degree each school provides the kind of education outlined in the Student's Bill of Rights. The experience of visiting another local high school was truly transformative for both groups of students as it allowed students to understand more fully the way that race and socio-economic status affect a student's educational opportunities. The papers the students wrote are listed below. If you would like more information about this assignment or about the course "Education and Power," e-mail George Acosta at ggacosta@hotmail.com.
The student articles below are available as Adobe PDF files only.
