Si Voco: Rethinking Education

Our relaunch doesn't really feel like a relaunch to me. It's more of a redirection on thought and activism where best it fits and how best it can make a difference. What I've been doing the past few months represents a road trip, not just physically because I did head out on a lengthy road trip over the summer but in my hopes for getting our STEAM message across to the community.

I met a State lobbyist earlier this year when I went to Sacramento, and we'd been in talks to push an ambitious STEAM agenda at the state level. The issue arose in the details, how things just couldn't seem to get done fast enough or frequently enough,and to me that was almost frivolous. I was shocked (being naive with politics) that the process of education reform at any meaningful governmental level was so slow. Things we decide to do to remedy pressing issues for me, now, as a high school senior, won't even be talked about let alone enacted until my youngest sister, who's ten years younger than I am, is in my place. That's why I think grassroots reform is our best bet at solving the education issue. What I so idealistically set out to do didn't really work out as much as I had hoped, but it's given me hope that we can do something about it without relying on government funds or assistance, to be honest.

Let's start reforming education by raising discussion in our communities, in our schools, with anyone regardless of whether or not they can actively change our system. Buck the system, in fact. We've got no-budget curricula springing up in our plan, because I believe in intellect as the greatest way to cheat the system. If we want reform, let's not play the waiting game. Si voco means "If I speak" in Latin, and it is the unreputed answer to the question of how we can best enact change. I'm not a politician, but this seems pretty evident to me, at least. That's where we're coming from as a relaunched organization, and that's ultimately where we're going as a state and as a country.