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While the loudmouths and troublemakers often steal the attention, one group of local teens is working hard to have a say in their world and put their generation in a positive light.
Articulate and bubbling with confidence, the 20 students from Charlotte Amalie High School, Ss. Peter and Paul, and Antilles School gathered in the CAHS library Saturday to learn and to practice how to participate in civic debate and discussion as part of a mini-conference of the nationwide Junior State of America.
A big part of the five-hour event -- a warm-up and motivating taste of the national summer conferences many have already attended at Princeton, Georgetown and Stanford universities – is to “help students find their voice,” said Marc Stridiron, the organizer of the conference.
“It is appropriate to disagree without being disagreeable,” he told the students as their day of debate and discussion began Saturday under the Junior State of America logo, which reads, “… because democracy is not a spectator sport.”
“Listening is as important as, or more important than, speaking,” Stridiron said.
The Junior State of America, or JSA, touts itself as the largest student-run, nonpartisan civics organization in the United States. StridIron said it fosters critical thinking, hones presentation skills and exposes students to new ideas.
The students seemed to get that as well as their mentor had hoped. Even though, as he said, public speaking ranks up there on the fear scale with “shark attacks and earthquakes,” they took each other on in front of their peers, presenting convincing arguments for and against a school voucher system for the U.S. Virgin Islands and the recent national health care reform bill approved by Congress and President Obama.
“By improving our schools we improve our students, which will only improve our society,” said one student arguing for increased competition that she said a voucher-based education system would bring.
Arguing for a repeal of the health care law, Marika Williams took a conservative tack.
“At its core, what Obama-care really means is a loss of freedom,” she said, going on to cite statistics on deficits and insurance rates and quote the online version of the National Review magazine.
After presenting arguments, counter-arguments and then supporting arguments for both sides after a caucus, they voted on each matter, congratulating each other for their presentations and discussing how they could improve.
“This is one of the best groups we’ve had,” Stridiron said as the debates moved along with little or no guidance or prodding.
“We will not be losing freedom,” said 15-year-old Nicole Doumeng, defending the new health care law. “We have already lost freedom and we need to get it back,” she said.
After hearing a particularly sharp slice of the debate, longtime V.I. Sen. Louis Patrick Hill commended the students for their choice to spend their Saturday afternoon learning with their peers rather that hanging out on street corners or passively watching DVDs. They were on the right path – a path of public and community service, he said.
“The fact that you are here is really a remarkable testament to your focus and the potential that you have to really develop,” Hill said during his keynote address.
He said they had chosen a good path with JSA, full of opportunities to meet and network with the future leaders of their generation.
No matter where in this technologically linked and globalized world their careers take them, he said, “You still have to have some sort of patriotism, some sort of loyalty to the place that has given you so many opportunities,” he said. “Wherever it takes you, remember the Virgin Islands.”
Knowledge is power, he said, but service is what counts.
“The real satisfaction that we get out of life,” he said, “is what we do for other people.”