A case for student citizenship: Harley Litzlelman at TEDxUCDavis
A professional Latin dancer and lobbyist, Harley Lman, argues that democracy cannot rely on the passage of time to educate youth, asserting that schools actively stunt civic growth by emphasizing obedience and standardization over active engagement. He proposes replacing the current system with "student citizenship," where students are treated as valued constituents who drive reform through agency. The core message challenges both the privatization trend in education, exemplified by charter schools, and the neglect of student perspectives once individuals enter professional life. ## Speakers & Context - **Harley Lman:** 18 years old, professional Latin dancer and lobbyist. - **Context:** Lobbying/advocacy setting; speaker is addressing an audience concerned with education reform. - **Personal Detail:** The speaker notes having "really bad allergies" and warns the audience about potential sneezing or passing out. ## Theses & Positions - The current reliance on the passage of time to prepare youth for democracy is inadequate. - Schools actively stunt civic growth by positioning obedience, tyranny, and fear as the primary interactions with public institutions. - True value acquisition (e.g., Liberty, Justice, Equality) comes from defending those values, not from formal instruction or textbooks. - Civic responsibility must characterize every component of American Education, which the speaker terms **student citizenship**. - The solution to educational failure is empowering students with the agency to solve problems in their education. ## Concepts & Definitions - **Student Citizenship:** The active engagement of students as valued constituents in educational planning. - **Civil Rights Deprivation of Youth:** The supposed inability of youth to vote or participate fully, which the speaker counters by pointing out that advanced civic knowledge exists among students. - **Student-Centered Solutions:** Proposed solutions to educational problems that are not intended to transfer the public good of Education to private benefit, avoid zero-tolerance policies, and do not marginalize the Arts or stigmatize failure. ## Mechanisms & Processes - **Mechanism of Stunting:** Schools structure life by dictating "where to sit," "what to wear," and when students can access basic needs (like the bathroom), modeling an environment of control rather than liberty. - **Desired Civic Process:** Requires treating students as valued constituents and teachers as valued experts, necessitating a democratic reform movement where the spirit resembles the goal. - **Historical Analogy:** The failure of previous reform efforts due to a lack of democratic spirit. ## Named Entities - **Harley Lman:** Speaker and lobbyist. - **UC Davis:** Associated students whose opinion and perspective inform the speaker's advocacy. - **Sacramento:** Location where the speaker lobbies for associated students. ## Numbers & Data - Speaker's Age: **18** years old. - Population Milestone: Crossing the **7 billion** mark in human population. - Demographic Shift: The largest demographic on Earth is currently people in their **early 20s to 30s**. ## Examples & Cases - **Student Agency Example:** A challenge to the assumption that students *must* be controlled by dictating their schedule, clothing, and rights to bathroom use. - **Lobbyist Skill:** The speaker's current occupation as a lobbyist preparing him for future roles in political process and educational planning. - **Charter School movement:** Cited as a trend that represents a greater danger than one single problematic school, because it is a transfer of the public good to private benefit. ## Tools, Tech & Products - None mentioned. ## References Cited - **PACE (Progressive Achievement Curriculum Evaluation):** Mentioned in reference to the expected gradient democracy based on student capability. ## Trade-offs & Alternatives - **Market Incentives vs. Social/Public Incentives:** The risk associated with allowing education to regulate according to market incentives (e.g., privatization via charter schools). - **Standardization vs. Discovery:** The conflict between accountability to high-stakes testing metrics and the essential need for classrooms to foster "Discovery to inspiration and self-Direction." ## Counterarguments & Caveats - **Argument to address:** The perceived lack of press for student issues once students leave the educational environment and enter the workforce (working 9 to 5). - **Counter-argument noted:** Some people might believe they will "take care of you when you're old." - **Limitation:** The speaker acknowledges the difficulty of visualizing the educational system if his proposals are fully enacted. ## Methodology - Advocacy based on personal experience and professional networking within political and educational planning spaces. - Argumentative framework arguing that true civic growth requires an environment that actively models and protects liberties. ## Conclusions & Recommendations - All who hold positions of influence (parents, teachers, administrators, policymakers, community leaders) must be persuaded to join the effort to democratize education. - To resist future oppression, advocates must remember what it is like to *not* be heard or to have concerns ignored. - If democracy is to thrive, it must infuse every element of American Education: "from our curriculum to our instruction to our discipline and to our planning and reform." - The audience is urged to act on the energy and importance of the student identity before moving into adult life. ## Implications & Consequences - Failure to implement reform means future generations will be "just as oppressed as we were." - If student rights and agency are honored, it will lead to a complete preparation of students for democracy, ensuring the continuity of liberty and justice. ## Verbatim Moments - *"My influence... is woefully diminished by something much more innocent and forgiving."* - *"The deprivation of civil rights according to age follows the basic logic that the youth have not yet aced enough Civic knowledge or developed the capacity to make an informed Civic decision."* - *"We expect our youth to ripen into citizens like fruit on a tree."* - *"The first and longest contact that any of us have with a public institution is one of obedience tyranny and fear."* - *"The spirit of Reform must resemble the goal of Reform."* - *"student citizenship the active engagement M of students as valued constituents in educational planning."* - *"does this sound like an environment conducive to a democratic upbringing?"* - *"if they are not engaged in a learning environment that actively Embraces these rights then they will have no reason to defend them."* - *"there are billions and billions of dollars in education that private companies want to piece of"* - *"don't forget what it was like to not be heard"* - *"I guarantee that these are virtues our children will seek to uphold"*