Student Rights

  • Involuntary Volunteering

    Here are two essays I wrote for my English class last semester. The first is about “Involuntary Volunteering,” the practice in some high schools (and middle and elementary schools as well, which is actually worse) requiring students to complete a certain amount community service in order to graduate. (Community service graduation requirements, or for the Orwellians out there, comserve gradreqs. Doubleplusungood.) Since this was to be an evaluation essay, all I could really say was that they stunk, but the implication is, they shouldn’t be allowed either.
    The second is about age-based curfew laws, a proposal that they should be abolished. I even unleashed the full power of Mike Males (who is, as you may know, a sociologist) and his coauthored study on the effectiveness in age-based curfews. Also doubleplusungood.

  • School uniforms and collectivism

    To me, school uniforms are so vehemently opposed by young people in the United States because they violate our individual-centured culture. In other countries, such as east Asian, Native-American, or African cultures, uniforms do not arouse the same level of ire because their cultures are collective in nature. Uniforms, because of their inherent nature, seem…

  • UND Chapter Forming

    NYRA Vice-President Johnathan McClure has started a local NYRA chapter at the University of North Dakota. College campuses are a great place for Youth Rights activity, where a high concentration competent, politically active young people are still affected by ageist policy. The chapter, already officially recognized by the University, is thinking of possibly taking action…