His ten step solution is really good, and I think gets us on the right track. Essentially, he wants to create better opportunities for college students and other young people to do work for Democrats. His plan includes ways to increasing resources, connect community service to political work, focus on youth legislation, and create national online social networking system to show real respect for youths.
Personally, I think there are things to add to the list, but I want to hear other feedback as well. It’s a good petition to sign so Democrats can make real, longterm growth.
Please share widely!
It’s also very hard to get started, especially with not many peers already there. I went to Lexington library tonight for a DP campaign meeting and took a friend, and we were the only Waltham and some of the few under 25s, and everyone else seems both living on a different time schedule and having a much deeper connection to their neighborhoods than we do. That’s part of what makes it difficult.
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College is a good place, which reminds I was on the club directroy on MyBrandeis (I was just elected web coordinator of the Graduate Student Association last month, thought I should take a look at the group’s site) and noticed today that you listed as the contact person on “Deis for Deval” so I was wondering if the group had any plans for campaigning set for when the undergrads all start coming back in August?
I’m working on setting up two canvassing dates, organizing car-rides for those in Waltham who can’t make it to the polls on election day and a host of other tasks before the Sept. 19th primary and afterwords. (Should Deval lose, ‘Deis for Deval will lose the greatness that is alliteration.)
afertig, one of our Deval supporters here in my town goes to Brandeis and I was wondering if could let me know how he can get in touch with the “‘Deis for Deval” group.
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e-mail addy is in my profile.
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Thanks!
I was also at the meeting. I am an ardent Deval supporter, but being 14, it is difficult to get to the office. I was lucky enough to find a lexingtonian college student to get me there, but an organized carpooling system would be nice. This could be helped by more focus on often high-energy high schoolers, all of whom live in the same area.
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Danny Moraff
High school, for me, was the best for learning the T. If you’re not too far from Brandeis and there’s some big event going down at the office, I can probably get you a ride sometime.
I’ll ride 3 to 5 miles to meetings all the time, complete with orange reflective outerwear and a helmet. Is that a possibility where you live?
As the advisor for the political club at the high school where I teach, I can tell you that there are a fair number of students who show more than a passing interest in politics. The town just passed a significant override on Tuesday to support both the school budget and public safety–something absolutely no one would have given a chance to pass knowing the town’s history–and its success was due, in very large measure, to the activism of high school students. The kids organizing this thing are members of the political club, and they did their homework on grassroots activism. And they did everything right: contacted the media on several occasions (Boston news stations came out to our high school several times to interview students and staff), organized visibility both within and without the school, enlisted parental/voter support by canvassing, designed teeshirts and sold them to support their efforts, and organized a walkout, complete with police escort and Channel 4 media coverage from Boston.
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The kids responsible for this effort have had their first taste of civil disobedience and their first lesson in participatory democracy. Their values are Democratic, and I have every expectation, knowing personally their concerns, their interests, and their intellect, that they will go on to college and continue engaging in their society and their local community.
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I can honestly say that the faculty and staff of our high school were never more proud of our kids. Public education and teachers get slammed rather consistently, but a lot of the time, with good leadership and caring teaching staff, kids learn more about life and living through their interactions with their teachers personally than they could ever learn from a textbook.
what high school was that, and in what town? The CPA will help out BHS, and the skills your town’s school learned might be valuable for Brookline.
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Part of getting young people involved is getting them to lead and teach other young people!
Auburn, and there’s only one high school, Auburn High.
If political clubs in high schools are dependent on having teacher-advisors, it would seem to me that they would be rarest where they are needed most. Most teachers avoid taking strong (or any) political positions for a variety of reasons.
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Does a club advisor have to be a teacher?
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There are two high schools I know about the South Shore that have very active Young Democrats clubs – Hingham and Norwell.
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Are there any others? Do they all have teacher/advisors?
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Personally, I think learning to be active in local government should be a required course at every high school in the country. The unintended benefit of having a political club in high school is that it can easily become intergenerational. Parents become involved with their children’s interests even more often than the opposite happens. Although, the Hingham High club was started by a girl who helped pass out Dean fliers at the Marshfield Fair with her mom back in 2003.
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I agree with Kos that the Republicans are much better than Democrats at nurturing their young. The local Democratic Town Committees could do a lot more to recruit and work with high school kids. Youth outreach has to become a priority for progressives and Democrats. For that to happen, we have to learn to look past the next election cycle and into the future.
I think BMG people need to wear buttons with their BMG names on them when at meetings. I had no clue I was surrounded by so many folks from here last night, I would have loved to meet you guys. I was hanging out with sco (I needed to sit next to him so his credibility would make me look a little better). I was happy to see so many people at the meeting last, especially because they came from areas far and wide.
It’s true. Everyone loves to bask in my reflected glory.
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Seriously, though, sorry to miss the rest of you at that meeting.