[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 4, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1111]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




STATEMENT BY KAILEAH CHRISTIE, GAILER SCHOOL, MIDDLEBURY, VT REGARDING 
                  DEMOCRACY AND STUDENT PARTICIPATION

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                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 4, 1997

  Mr. SANDERS Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of my colleagues I would 
like to have printed in the Record this statement by a high school 
student from Gailer School in Vermont, who was speaking at my recent 
town meeting on issues facing young people:

       Ms. Christie. Good afternoon, Mr. Sanders. There are many 
     high school students in Vermont between the ages of 14 and 17 
     who are not receiving the leadership skills they require to 
     become like insightful world citizens in our society. It is 
     required that governments and communities do as much as they 
     possibly can to enhance these skills so that when we do 
     become adults we can be productive.
       Our school is the Gailer School in Middlebury and we are a 
     small private school. We have been a member of a group called 
     the Coalition of essential Schools since 1994 and we are the 
     only school in Vermont that is a member. This coalition 
     encourages student leadership. In December I started writing 
     grants on trying to send a group of students from Gailer out 
     to the coalition because they value the student leadership 
     and we have been working with others or we are attempting 
     contacts to work with other schools, but we have not found 
     other schools in Vermont.
       Vermont has--I have not noticed in other schools major 
     leadership opportunities available for students. The most 
     leadership I have seen, I was in public school in 7th grade 
     and there was a school government, but majority of the talk 
     was about having more dances or like pizza on Fridays.
       And I realize that the Student Congressional Town Meeting 
     is a very good start, it is giving students a chance to come 
     and voice their opinions and make sure they are heard and we 
     need to include more, and I thank you for having this.
       An option that I have thought of is there would be one 
     student from each county who could stay in steady contact 
     with you, and that student would talk to other students in 
     their county about issues that are in-house, that affect 
     students, like year-round schooling or drug legalization, any 
     of those issues, and they would report back to you what 
     students think of those issues so that way you would have a 
     better idea of how to represent the issues that deal with 
     students more than parents or more than adults, or so that 
     you can know how to deal with issues that really only affect 
     whomever they affect, as long as they affect students. And I 
     would be willing to develop this idea further and put it into 
     a formal proposal if it is something in which you are 
     interested.
       I realize that for many people 14 is a young age, but I am 
     almost 15 and I will soon be an adult, I will be the age of 
     18. And when those adults are older and retired they are 
     depending on me to be a productive citizen and how can I be a 
     productive citizen if you try and restrain my abilities to 
     succeed as much as I can no matter what my age is.
       Our school has a decision-making body called the school 
     forum. In our school forum there are six students, one from 
     each grade, grades 7 through 9, and all of the teachers and 
     faculty. In the forum students have an equal say as the 
     teachers and in a sense we are running the school and it has 
     worked out very well. Whenever there is basically curriculum 
     change, a suggestion as to how we should deal with the 
     disciplinary process to how we should make decisions in the 
     forum, those students in that room at that time have the same 
     say or power as the teachers and they are valued just as 
     much.
       I think if you encourage and help students develop those 
     leadership skills then they can run the school with adults, 
     not by themselves.

     

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