2013 ESSAY COMPETITION

Transcription

1 2013 ESSAY COMPETITION INDIVIDUAL COMPETITION ELIGIBLE STUDENTS: Middle School Students and High School Students Contest Purpose Being able to express one s thoughts clearly in written form is critical to success in almost any field, including education. The purpose of the Essay Competition is to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their writing skills, as well as express their views on a current topic in education. The topic for the 2013 Essay Competition focuses on student demonstrations. Start by reading Raise Your Voice: Protest at College by Fabio Rojas from the August/September 2012 issue of Go Teach, the official FEA magazine (article included at the end of this PDF document), and then seek out some other resources on this topic to further your understanding. The author challenges the reader to think about an issue that might be worth protesting. As a future educator, is there an issue in education you think is worthy of staging a protest? What is the issue and how might a protest bring attention to it? What would you hope to accomplish by protesting the issue? In essay format, identify an education issue that you think is worthy of a protest. Explain the issue, why you think it should be protested, and what might be accomplished through the protest. This competition is cross-walked with the following Education and Training Career Cluster Knowledge and Skill Statements: ESS01, ESS02, and EDC02. Eligibility for Entry A. This competition is open to good-standing FEA members in middle school and high school. (Students must be affiliated with an FEA chapter.) B. If you are affiliated with an FEA chapter, entries are limited to one student per chapter who can enter this competition. C. The Essay Competition materials must be submitted online by the deadline date established. Submit essay in a PDF file. D. Contestants grant MS FEA the right to use and publish the submission in print, online, or in any media without compensation. Competition Guidelines A. Essays must range from 300 to 500 words. Other than the title of the essay, every word of the essay is counted. B. Essays must be written in English. C. Essay responses must be based on the Go Teach article included at the end of this PDF document.

2 D. Contestants must include references and cite all of their sources of information in a Works Cited list. Please use care to avoid plagiarism; plagiarized essays will be disqualified. Essays without a Works Cited section will also be disqualified. Judging and Scoring A. The judges decisions are final. B. Scoring is based on the Essay Competition rubric (see Judge s Rating sheet in this PDF). C. Entries will be scored in two categories: middle school and high school. D. Judges will select the top three winners (in each category) to receive awards. How to Enter A. Students must register and submit all competition materials online by the deadline date established.

3 2013 ESSAY COMPETITION Judge s Rating Sheet Contestant s Name Contestant s School Circle Category: Middle School High School (Points awarded may range between zero and the maximum number indicated.) Is the essay is on the stated topic? YES NO If yes, continue with the scoring process. If no, do not continue with the scoring process. Are there citations within the body of the text and is there a Works Cited list? YES No If yes, continue with the scoring process. If no, do not continue with the scoring process. A. GUIDELINES The essay must be between 300 to 500 words. Score 5 points if within limits; score 0 if not within limits. B. TOPIC ORGANIZATION The essay has a clear thesis. The body of the essay is on topic and has supporting details. The essay has a clear conclusion that restates the thesis and gives the reader something to remember about the text. C. ESSAY CONTENT The ideas expressed are meaningful and important. The content is clear and convincing. There are elements of reflection or creativity on the topic. D. MECHANICS/GRAMMAR Sentence structure is accurate. Punctuation is used correctly. Spelling is error free. Grammar is used correctly. 5 pts. 15 pts. 5 pts. 5 pts. TOTAL POSSIBLE POINTS: 100

4 Raise Your Voice Protest At College By Fabio Rojas COLLEGE STUDENTS PROTEST A LOT. They protested for civil rights in the 1960s, against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, and against sweatshops in the 1990s. But what is a protest? Why should anyone bother to attend a rally or join a march? Generally speaking, joining a protest is a way to have your voice heard. The rally or march is a public expression of a grievance. Once people get together and decide that something is inherently unfair or unjust, they take to the street and make their views known. They may do this when they feel that the political system isn t listening. A protest is a tool for social change, and it is a normal part of the political process. Sometimes protest is the main tactic that people use for change. When people don t have legal standing, like black Americans during the era of segregation, protest is a way for them to exert influence. At other times, protest is used in conjunction with other political tactics. During the 2010 election, tea party groups often gathered in support of Republican candidates. College students join protests for many reasons. Sometimes they express the concerns that other citizens have. Most national protest movements have campus affiliates. It s not uncommon to find college groups dedicated to the environment, peace, or other popular issues. Students have set up their own Occupy protests to promote the ideas of the original Occupy Wall Street movement. Other times, students are upset about what happens on campus. Protests about college tuition hikes are common. Students have also protested against military involvement on campus, like ROTC recruiting, or controversial university investments. How do protests work? At first glance, a protest appears chaotic and noisy. A crowd gathers, and people play drums and sing. Sometimes people get arrested. Yet despite appearances, most protests are choreographed and theatrical. They are staged events. The protest organizers want to attract attention. If they are lucky, a journalist may cover the event for a newspaper or a television station. Sensational protests may even attract international media attention. For example, there was a man at University of California, Berkeley who sat in a tree to protest the construction of a new athletic center. His protest was covered in The New York Times and other media. Typically, protests are built from student groups and social networks. Many of the people who participate in a protest are recruited from clubs and other campus groups. More frequently, college protestors are recruited through friendship. People who are excited about political issues ask their friends to join them. Even if a person is reluctant, they often sympathize when they are in the milieu of the movement. The more they participate, the more they identify with the movement.

5 The protests themselves are fairly routine events, unfolding like a play. People are told to gather at some place that has a symbolic or strategic importance. At Indiana University, where I teach, an Occupy student group showed up at the business school because they were fighting corporate greed. Once people show up, they hold up signs or other props that express their issue. Near the end of the rally, there are often speakers who come to unite and inspire the protestors. If they are large enough, these rallies or marches resemble a convention or social gathering. A protest may attract sympathizers who use the rally as an opportunity to recruit people for their movement. I study antiwar protest, and it is very common to see labor organizers, third-party candidates, and others trying to recruit peace protesters. Not surprisingly, large protests also attract vendors who sell posters, T-shirts, and books. Of course, not all protests are so well-scripted and orderly. College protests may be disruptive. Students may decide that the way to make their point is to somehow disrupt the school itself. Disruptive tactics include sit-ins, property damage, and, occasionally, fights with other students and police. Nowadays, self-styled anarchists wear masks and break windows. In the 1960s, some college protests became so large and disruptive that universities shut their doors as administrators tried to deal with the campus revolt. Given that some protest is disruptive, you might think that activism could be dangerous. The truth is that most protests occur without incident. Since most protests are scripted, nonviolent events, police rarely arrest anyone. Still, as with any contentious behavior, people may be hurt. In fall 2011, police used pepper spray to attack Occupy protesters at University of California, Davis, which led to an outcry and lawsuits. This, fortunately, remains a relatively rare occurrence at modern college protests. Sometimes, stirring up trouble is the most effective way to make the world a better place. Does it matter? Protests are like everything else in life. Most of the time, it doesn t matter. Just as most companies go out of business, protests often go unnoticed and unrecorded except in the student newspaper. College protesters, in particular, are in a weak position. Students graduate and seek jobs, and they may not be around for the long term. As students, they have little authority or influence over the administration or faculty. But that doesn t mean that protests are pointless. Once in a while, college protests do have an impact. Sometimes they have a massive impact. College protests often spill out into the rest of society. America would be worse off if four black students from the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina had not taken seats at Woolworth s lunch counter in 1960 and refused to leave when service was denied to them. College protesters might also carry their activism into their adult lives when they graduate. The

6 conservative student protesters of the 1960s, the Young Americans for Freedom, became the Republican Party activists of the 1980s. Should you do it? Protests aren t for everyone. A recent study by Catherine Corrigal-Brown of the University of Western Ontario shows that only about one-third of Americans have ever participated in a protest movement. Most Americans don t attend rallies or marches. Voting is a much more common way to register your opinion. But that doesn t mean that protests should be avoided. Taking part in a protest is a choice that reflects how we see ourselves and the opportunities available to us. Sometimes stirring up trouble is the most effective way to make the world a better place to. Go Start Talking You can explore the topics in this article further by discussing the following questions with your FEA advisor or fellow FEA members. 1. What is the most important issue that college students might protest about? 2. Is it worth it to protest college tuition hikes? 3. Are protests a distraction at college campuses? FABIO ROJAS is an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. He blogs at orgtheory.net.