Topic of debate is: How much power should a public high school student government have?

What should their deligated duties be?
Should they voice their opinion in the Parent/Teacher conferances?

They should have influence, but they should have no power over anyone but themselves. Their delegated duties should be minimal beyond the individual responsibility for turning up, maintaining civil behaviour, etc. They should certainly be allowed to voice opinions in PTA meetings (indeed, I think in teacher assessments, any system that does not take account of pupil/student opinion is fundamentally flawed - nobody knows better who are good or bad teachers than the kids do), but no special weight should be given to their opnion more than anyone else's.

Plus, and this is just a bug-bear, but I despair of the modern trend to call anyone in any kind of education a "student".

High schoolers are not their of their free will - it is compulsory, isn't it? And in the balance of study (perhaps directed by a teacher or lecturer, but mostly carried out by the student themselves) and teaching (carried out by a teacher leading a class of pupils through a subject or topic), no-one much below the last year or so of high school does very much "studying" at all. So why don't we call them "pupils" like we used to?

The only power they need to have should be among themselves. Even though there are many benefits that come from being a part of a student government, we have to remember they are mainly in school to learn. Let the school boards and local goverments handle the power. High school students need only to learn and enjoy their experience because after high school, kiss all that free time good bye!!

However, high school students do need to voice their opinions about certain issues and rightfully so. I think thats what a student goverment provides but in terms of power, but it should be limited only to voicing their opinions.

In a parent/teacher conference, I think this is one of the ways a student goverment can be effective.There is an opportunity for them to express how they feel about some issues relating to public schools and there is no better audience than parents and teachers.

I beleive student governments should have more power than they currently do. I agree that their youth and inexperience should be taken into consideration, but many high school students that are serious enough to run for office have enough responsibility to handle a bit of power. Now I am only speaking based upon my own high school experience, which may easily be different than many of you. However, my student government was one of the most useless groups at our school. They were not even given the power to organize an event as simple as "Battle of the Bands." It was far easier for a club or sports team to organize after school events than the body elected to represent students.

As far as setting school policy I do not think they should exercise power (other than the aforementioned impact of opinion during conferences/PTA meetings/school board meetings).

I am a highschool student at the moment and in my opinion there really shouldnt be a student government. At my school there are alot of people that run for president and all the other positions but dont really give a dang about what they do for the students or the school. Also most of the kids just run for the positions so if they win they can gloat on the fact they have the title of Highschool president.

What exactly do they do?

They should have some deciding power on things that effect the school. Students never get to voice their opinions or get to decide what should be done in their high schools, but the bureacrats do. That should change. If it effects the school and students, then a School Student Government should be the representitive of students of the whole school

Some students have done a lot of good on their student councils. While it might sound minor, kids have gotten rid of soda machines in favor of more healthy drink options. I think a student council could negotiate with their respective administration about instituting an open-campus or becoming nore involved in civic/volunteer groups such as firstamendmentschools.org and blood drives. Some have protested teacher cuts through budget shortfalls(particularly in art and music)

Ok how many high schoolers do you see that acctually drink healthy drinks or get even get involved in their spare time to do of campus volunteer work. I think teachers get payed to much.

Either that or there doing it to look good for colleges. Thats pretty much what school government has degenerated to.



They should organize social events for their class. Whether that involves the PTO determines the answer to your second question.

Student government is a total waste of time. At my school they basically organize pep rallies or put up signs that tell you to wear a Hawiian shirt to show school spirit a certain day. Those are perhaps the most pointless activities anyone could ever do. That's the way the school likes to keep things. The student government spends all its time preforming pointless tasks so there's no way that they might do something important. This is really too bad. Student government's role should be giving the students a voice against the burecrats who run the school. One of the major problems with schools is a lack of immidate community accounability, a strong student government might change that.

Being in high school student government might look nice on an application to college. Some college admissions criteria include a point system which includes anything by way of leadership that a student might show while still in high school.
I would like to see my daughter become involved in leadership and service activities for this reason.

As far as real power goes, I would like to see if any poster has documentation that shows students were able to keep a teacher from getting laid off due to job cutbacks or kept a class from being eliminated, or something of similar importance.

For the most part, "Student Government" is a social organization. Any real power is held by the Administration which answers to the School Board.

If a student leader actually commits him/herself to trying to actually make a difference, like appearing at a School Board meeting to give input concerning issues that affect the students, then I'd say it is a useful experience. If that person doesn't get out-and-out discouraged, s/he might gain some insight and determine to run for office after reaching votiing age.

Just to provide some constructive points. You and some like-minded friends could start a school republicans or democrats club, heck, even call it a modern problems club and your set. You could try and work with the administration and focus on something like beautifying your school campus and perhaps getting a recycling program started. I don't deny that many who get into stuco do so mostly because of popularity, not necessarily due to ability or ability to think politically. If the administration won't help, there's always the wonderful ACLU free of charge.

Thats pretty much my problem with it. Students should go into student government because they want to, not because it looks good for college. Otherwise, the whole government is a trivial way to show "leadership" skills, and students, like myself, should be largely skeptical of any such government.

All too often, it has become a popularity contest, something that is good on a resume. Though being on the student council doesn't show what you did at that positon. would contend that many kids don't make student council effectively because they've never been taught to. How many have had their parents take them to a courtroom to watch proceedings? How many parents have taken their kid to city hall and had them watch the proceedings? How about taking junior to a campaign party and make campaign signs and blow up balloons? Civics is an ethos and unfortunately, most people don't communicate with their kids, or communicate with kids their obligation as citizens, or choose to live that obligation.

Student government should be little more than an additional teaching method for those interested in learning such things. They need to learn how to represent their constituency such that their collective voice is heard, but being heard is not a guarantee of results. That is the way it is in real government. We may get to speak up and express our opinion, but others will make the final decisions.






AND quoting uhavenoidea
"Ok how many high schoolers do you see that acctually drink healthy drinks or get even get involved in their spare time to do of campus volunteer work. I think teachers get payed to much."

Certainly some teachers are paid too much, most likely the ones who taught you spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. Wait, I shouldn't be blaming the teacher for what is probably your failure to do your part in the teaching/learning process.
Teaching is a hard job, and we should be grateful to those who attempt it.

Well, Bill has a good point- if the kids are the ones on the student goverment that actually applies themselves in school- perhaps these are the kids the school board needs to listen to if they have reasonable requests- instead of "wear your Hawaiin shirt day".

Teachers are horribly underpaid for thier education level and level of work they have to do- it is the parents that have it too easy in our education system!