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Kayley Noonan WRT 205 Draft 1 – Community initiative essay Plymouth Rocks! With signs clenched in their hands and passion stirring within them, they marched down to the town hall. Not as a disorganized group of students, not as disheveled individuals, but as one, a unit of teammates, friends: a family. The town had impeded on their territory and it was finally their turn to speak up. In 2003, the Massachusetts government made a decision to cut budgets across the state, affecting every school district statewide. The town Plymouth, MA was faced with an ultimatum upon receiving news of these budget cuts. Were they to cut extracurricular activities and limit school to just academic classes, or were they to raise taxes? In the crux of the contemplation, opinions from local folk began leaking into the public media. This was a topic the residents were becoming increasingly angry about and interested in. Facing the threat of losing their beloved music program, the members of the band joined to speak out against the possibility of budget cuts. Shortly after, sports teams and members of other extracurricular activities followed the members of the band to the town hall. After much debate and deliberation, the students of the Plymouth public school system were able to sway the vote of town officials to increase taxes in place of cutting their budgets. Extracurricular activities such as sports and music enable students to participate more actively in not only their education, but in their vocalization about rights of students. As a construct that has to manage and direct thousands of students, it is difficult for the school system to stimulate individuals to the extent they need to become active members of society. The students of Plymouth made a choice to speak out in favor of their rights but this act of defiance was not readily accepted throughout the town. Are students expected to vocalize their opinions when they feel their rights are being violated? Or are students just expected to passively progress through the school system without creating any disturbance? Paulo Freire, an scholar, argues that educators are narrators in the education to students. They have a monopoly over the information the students can learn. Students are simply receptors of this information and they are expected as participants in the school system to accept information without question. This seems to be particularly prominent in the public school system, where the students are not paying an excessive amount of money to attend. The amount of lethargy and complacency among school professionals in public school systems seems to grow increasingly as the students are accepted as passive partakers in the education process. With this hierarchy of authority in place and growing content among both students and educators alike, students are not being adequately stimulated to participate as activists in their own life. Without the stimulation of analysis, problem posing, and inquiry, students are not given the adequate tools to participate in a “reality in process” (Freire 152). This reality in process is considered to be an active, changing world in which all members are actively contributing to the betterment of the whole. In stark contrast to a “reality in process” is a “static reality” (Freire 152). A static reality is more reflective of a typical public school student. It is a reality that virtually stands still; there is no contribution of ideas because no one is offering advice, there is no progress, no movement. The reality is literally at a standstill, because no single member of the community has been properly trained to become an active participant. When limited solely to academic classes a student would experience life in this static reality and become a questionable participator in the larger community. A student such as this one may turn to abusive behaviors, or divert his/her attention to dangerous activities in order to fill the void of stimulation the school system has left on him/her. Extracurricular activities such as marching/concert band, art, sports, drama, and any other organization that is formed outside of an academic setting steps in to fill the void that the school system has failed to fill. These activities are often defined as “anti-drugs” for students who participate in them because they are stimulating, time consuming and act as a working support system for whomever joins them. They are the activities that students spend their extra time participating in, and they teach the students vital life skills that would have otherwise not been learned in just an academic setting. While on a sports team or participating in a band, members learn how to interact properly and work together toward a common goal. Despite significant differences in background, race, religion, and other demographic qualities, students are able to look past them and function as a unit. Challenges such as winning a game or a competition force students to work together and reach out to other members of the team. Students grow close over the course of a sports season or while participating in a musical; this introduces the quality of friendship and the important role it plays in the larger scope of life. One of the most important skills a student can learn through an extracurricular activity is the skill of compromising. The ability to confront differences with an appropriate tone and non-offensive demeanor is a skill that would not have otherwise been learned in an academic setting. It was this skill that led the students of Plymouth, Massachusetts to the town hall where they confronted town officials about their decision to cut the budget. Without the activity of band, sports, or drama, these students would not have had the skills or desire to fight back against the school system. In his article, Michael Grodon claims that music has an effect on several characteristics of an individual: Contingent reinforcement within school settings has been applied to shape a variety of behaviors, both musical and nonmusical. A number of studies have clearly established music as a back-up reinforcer for behaviors that directly influence academic performance of students in a classroom. These behaviors include attentiveness, self-esteem, and verbalization (Gordon 88) Without these three behaviors Gordon mentions: attentiveness, self-esteem, and verbalization, the students of Plymouth would not have been able to voice their opinions to town officials. It was the result of a stimulating musical environment that led the members of the band to be the first students to step up to the plate. Shortly following their lead was the sports teams, art students, and drama club. Their intentions were not to assert themselves in a way that showed them in a negative light, their intent was to educate the residents of Plymouth as to why these activities were so important to them. For the purposes of this essay, education is taken to mean: any attempt by one person or persons to share information about their experiences, opinions, or thoughts to another person or persons. By voicing their opinions, the students were making an attempt to educate their public (anyone watching or attending the town meetings) as to why extracurricular activities were so important to their well being. There were many methods through which the students were able to take initiative and educate others. One of the primary modes of education was through speech. The town hall opened up the topic for debate and several students, coaches, parents, and teachers made their way to the podium in the town hall to speak about their feelings. Some spoke out about how taxes could not be raised and how their investment in the school system was no longer necessary. Others made practical arguments that without a good school system property values would decrease and the community would suffer as a whole.