In leadership exercise, students vote to support Walker on union law

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Wausau Daily Herald

Written by - Chad Dally


Local high school students involved in a mock debate Friday were just as divided as the rest of Wisconsin over a proposal to strip public employee unions of most collective bargaining rights.

More than 30 sophomores and juniors in the Wausau Area High School Leadership Program discussed collective bargaining and other issues during a workshop at the Wausau School District's Longfellow Administration Center.

Students from Wausau East and West, Mosinee, Newman Catholic, Northland Lutheran and D.C. Everest high schools engaged in a mock board meeting led by Wausau Mayor Jim Tipple and Brad Karger, Marathon County administrator. They also spoke with Mark O'Connell, director of the Wisconsin Counties Association, about generational differences in leadership styles and communication.

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20110409/WDH0101/104090581/0/NLETTER0903/In-leadership-exercise-students-vote-support-Walker-union-law?odyssey=nav|head

[Scuba]

1. The fact they had a "hands on" lesson in civics is commendable....

...That they are as divided as the rest of the state is understandable.

[Ellipsis]

2. It's provoking.

I respect the exercise, and by the look on their faces... in the article, not George's photo-shopped image on the hitler youth, they really are digging it, lots of smiles.

There should be more of it. Less video games more history.

One of my favorite classes was civics. We got ours in 7th grade, I "wanna" say.

[Scuba]

3. My wife grew up in California, and tells...

...of High School classes in "critical thinking" where they disected the motives of newspapers and news magazines (remember those?).

We certainly didn't have anything like that where I grew up (western Wisconsin). Too bad. Even worse if we don't have such classes today.

Can anyone speak to that?

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4. Depends on the curriculum. Thats kind'a a district decision, ain't it?

Now, I remember those classes.

The hidden valleys, what great place to grow up.

[slackmaster]

6. We got way deep into it in communications and media production classes at UCSD in the '70s

Sometimes I wish I could go back and do it all over, with the experience I've gained since then under my belt.

[Overseas]

5. Did they include the basic math in the discussion?

If the New Governor takes $60 million from teachers and firefighters to pay off the state's debt and then gives $60 million to his good friends, how much of the state's debt will remain?

If President Bush cut taxes on the Top 2% promising that would create thousands of jobs, and then 700,000 jobs were lost, was that policy successful?

[Ellipsis]

8. It makes you think, why this article, now... today?

The merits of who writes a syllabus come to the forefront.

Economics and civics, how novel.

[sufrommich]

7. I'm guessing they're following their parents political leanings.

I grew up in a very blue collar town in the Detroit suburbs,raised by died in the wool democrats. When I was in 6th grade, there was a school wide mock presidential election,Nixon won in a landslide.