<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/this-high-school-gave-spending-power-to-students/>
"It was the first day of the 2021 fall semester and Ajah Johnson could not
believe what her teachers were telling her. By the end of the course, the
instructors said, she and her peers would get to choose how to spend $10,000 to
upgrade their school however they decided was best.
“I thought it was a lie,” Johnson said, figuring the classroom exercise
involved make-believe money. “There’s no way they’re giving us $10,000.”
But to her delight, the cash was real.
Over the following months, she and her peers at Central Falls High School in
Rhode Island received lessons in budgeting, survey techniques and local
government, then eventually designed proposals for how to allocate the money.
It was the first time Johnson, who grew up in Virginia and had moved to Rhode
Island the previous year, ever remembers getting a say in how her school was
run.
“I feel like I got to make an impact,” she said. “We felt like we were valued.”
The then-high school junior didn’t know it, but her efforts were feeding into a
wider movement revolutionizing democratic engagement far beyond her campus."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
