Ahh. the Energy of Youth
Here's a standing offer for any student who runs a petition drive in their school and gets more than 75% of their student body to sign their support for an American right to quality public education: if you make it to DC, Ethan and I will take you out to dinner!
We were lucky enough to meet Emily Rose, who you might remember from her guest blogs about the petition drive she ran in Painesville, Ohio last March. As high school seniors, Emily and her friend were in town during their spring break to see the city and visit colleges, and they made the time to meet with Ethan and I for dinner.
What did we learn from our evening with Emily and Lindsay? Well, first of all, high school students have so much energy. I don't know when it happened, but we got a little bit old sometime between our own senior prom and the start of our lives as adults. But their energy was encouraging, especially after a less-than-stellar outing by the two of us at our recent talk with CloseUp students earlier in the week, when we couldn't seem to inspire that many of the students to action. That's the way social change goes, though, I suppose - it giveth and it taketh away.
So the offer stands: to all of you students out there who are excited about the cause of a national youth movement for better schools, start a club of Our Education students to run a petition drive. And then make it down to DC, give us a call, and we'll grab Five Guys together!