July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Students see government up close (5/17/05)
Editorial
If you’ve ever attended a meeting of any unit of local government, you may have seen them.
There, amid the small crowd of interested citizens, are high school students, completing a course requirement for government at Jay County High School.
Every student is required to attend a meeting.
Some obviously are hoping to skate by with as little time at the meeting as possible, but others plug into the process. Chances are, they’re pleasantly surprised by what they encounter.
With few exceptions, local government operates in the sunshine, its meetings open, its agendas accessible, its decisions made with a paper trail that’s open to the public as well.
In other words, local government in the U.S. operates in a fashion dramatically different from large parts of the rest of the world.
High school government students might be inclined to take that all for granted, but our guess is the smartest ones know how special — how American — the whole process is.
The luckiest students aren’t those whose meeting time is short.
They’re the ones who are fortunate enough to attend meetings where matters of substance are discussed and debated, the ones who are welcomed by local officials and treated as adults, and the ones whose opinions are solicited before decisions are made.
Several years ago, when the Jay County Public Library Board was meeting with architects to figure out what the new library should look like, library trustees went out of their way to find out what the students thought.
The architects on hand seemed a little surprised; but before the meeting was over, one design had been ruled out simply on the basis of the students’ opinions.
It may only be a classroom exercise. And much of the grunt work of local government can be tedious.
But doing the homework makes for good scholarship, and maintaining an open process makes for good government. — J.R.
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There, amid the small crowd of interested citizens, are high school students, completing a course requirement for government at Jay County High School.
Every student is required to attend a meeting.
Some obviously are hoping to skate by with as little time at the meeting as possible, but others plug into the process. Chances are, they’re pleasantly surprised by what they encounter.
With few exceptions, local government operates in the sunshine, its meetings open, its agendas accessible, its decisions made with a paper trail that’s open to the public as well.
In other words, local government in the U.S. operates in a fashion dramatically different from large parts of the rest of the world.
High school government students might be inclined to take that all for granted, but our guess is the smartest ones know how special — how American — the whole process is.
The luckiest students aren’t those whose meeting time is short.
They’re the ones who are fortunate enough to attend meetings where matters of substance are discussed and debated, the ones who are welcomed by local officials and treated as adults, and the ones whose opinions are solicited before decisions are made.
Several years ago, when the Jay County Public Library Board was meeting with architects to figure out what the new library should look like, library trustees went out of their way to find out what the students thought.
The architects on hand seemed a little surprised; but before the meeting was over, one design had been ruled out simply on the basis of the students’ opinions.
It may only be a classroom exercise. And much of the grunt work of local government can be tedious.
But doing the homework makes for good scholarship, and maintaining an open process makes for good government. — J.R.
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