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Youth Activism in Policy  By Kelly McCormick As a student concerned about my local and global community, activism has been a part of my life since I was in junior high school. Throughout my path of activism, the most important moments to me have been the moments where I have been changed through my interactions with other people and what I have learned from them and taught them. These moments have occurred in many places, but most of all when I am working hard to make changes that other youth, adults and myself are passionate about. One of the most effective ways to make these changes occur in any system is to get to the root of the problem, which in most cases is the initial policy regarding the issue. Working alongside hundreds of youths, scores of adults, I have seen these policy changes birthed from small seedlings of ideas, nursed into reality, and finally taken out into the world to spread their benefits. Two years ago, as a sophomore, I began my involvement in policy work on the state level with the California Association of Student Councils (CASC). This organization brings selected youth from across California to Sacramento to decide what public school policies could be changed to benefit students. I attended a week-long conference where students from across the state discussed issues in education that needed improvement and wrote official proposals to the State Board of Education about how they could change state policy to benefit youth. We decided on a few major issues that we needed to change in the public school system: phasing out the use of standardized testing in schools to gauge student progress, student involvement in evaluation of teachers, anti-bias and anti-discrimination training, and smaller class sizes. We made recommendations to the State Board of Education based on our feelings that standardized testing should no longer be used to gauge student progress as it leads to teachers teaching to the tests, that student groups should have equal partnership with administration in evaluating teacher performance, that more programs to stop discrimination should be mandated, and that public school class sizes need to be greatly reduced. To develop our proposals, we had full access to the state libraries in the capitol to research previous bills regarding our issues. In collaboration with the State Board of Education, we were thrilled to know that we were changing the way students would experience education. Never before had we experienced a more powerful feeling of respect from adults than having an audience with the State Board of Education and having them seriously consider our proposals. Most recently, I have been very active in promoting peace movements in my community and changing public school policy towards military recruitment on campus. I have quickly learned that political activism is much different than community activism -- people would much rather see a youth walking dogs from the Humane Society than walking with signs that air their political values. But youth excel in displaying their courage. Before every peace rally and march, campus protest and speech before the school board, I think of Adlai Stevenson's words: "The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions." However, marches are not often publicized by the mainstream media and therefore, aren't always the most efficient way to solve a problem. So last fall I got together with a group of youth and adults on my school campus who had been active in the antiwar movement. We had already staged campus protests against the war, yet military recruiters came weekly to our campus to contact students. Change to the degree we needed was not happening. We needed to take our campaign to the next level -- school policy needed to be changed. We researched the No Child Left Behind Act and discovered how it makes provisions for extended military access to student information and access to students on campus. We wrote up a resolution to the school board that calls for the school district to actively pursue a plan of action that protects student information and limits military access to students on campus. This resolution is still in the stages of being approved by the school board, but has tremendous support from the community and students. Working on policy issues is one of the most effective and sure ways to change a problem. The sweat and effort of polishing an idea and the partnership that develops along the way are an experience that everyone should have, especially today's youth, who are the future of tomorrow.
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