To Flip a Switch

For the last action project for my class, Argument, we studied how a nation can contradict itself. The last unit was called Antithesis: the 1850s. Throughout this unit, we learned about the ways that the United States contradicted itself during the 1850’s. We looked at the U.S Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and how these rights have been applied to different people. Not only did we look at the contradictions in the constitution, but we also talked about how the government has wrongfully denied rights to people of color. We examined the stories of Toni Stone, Anthony Holmes, and Phillis Wheatley. This helped me to understand many ways that rules and laws can have a powerful effect on people. For this final action project for the class, the purpose was to discover a contradiction in my school's student contract and create an alternate amendment.

"The Law" by smlp.co.uk is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

To begin, here is the part of the social contract that I believe is contradictory:

“Any conduct by the student, whether anticipated specifically here or not, may warrant an institutional response, including efforts at transformative healing and/or disciplinary action, including dismissal.”

Old syllogisms:

P1: Students may perform actions that align or conflict with the school’s mission

P2: Any action that doesn’t agree or align with the school’s mission will need a repercussion

P3: The school chooses the topics that do and don’t clash with the school’s mission

C: This institution will give repercussions to students that don’t follow the school’s laws


This rule is unjust because it doesn’t make it clear what types of conduct could be ruled in one way or another. This can be seen as unfair to the student because of how a response could be interpreted. Though it could be tedious to create a set of specific rules, It would be helpful to have something as a clear guide rather than a bunch of loose statements.

This rule is problematic because it does not explain how to decide if the student is doing something wrong and it doesn’t make clear why the behavior might be wrong.

This new amendment will create a set of clear guidelines so students know what may or might not be allowed and how they can respect this rule. With the old rule, it makes it easy for students to be punished for actions because they may not understand that they are disrespecting the code. If we do not revise the rule, it can lead to students being criticized for reasons that aren’t clear and they may be forced to adapt to undifferentiated terms.

New syllogisms:

P1 - Students are not allowed to do a set group of things

P2 - The rules set are clear and easy to follow

P3 - When any rule is broken it will lead to a consequence

C - Therefore, the institution will have consequences that students will be able to understand

“Clarity”, RBL, 2023

The image I’ve drawn above is an analogy of my amendment. The question represents ideas that often are too vague to understand. The social contract has a lot of points like this that lead students to be confused about these things. Once applying my amendment, it can allow the students to have a sense of clarity after understanding it. this gives the connotation of a flip being switched from once feeling lost in the handbook, to being able to follow it.  

The constitutional amendment that relates to my amendment the most is the 9th amendment. For the uninformed, the 9th amendment states:

“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people” - (9th amendment, U.S constitution,)

My amendment correlates to this amendment because it shows that any rule that is not a part of the social contract belongs to the students. My amendment also makes it clear what rights the students have and what rights they don’t have.

My amendment shows citizenship because it can show students what they are and aren’t allowed to do. In other words it helps understand their rights. This amendment will help students be better citizens at GCE because they will have a better understanding of what they can and can’t do. This amendment gives students rights to the social contract. If we want this school to be a fair to all students, we need to have things in place that help each student to succeed.

Quote from student:

“Our society is based on cause and effect. Without that being defined, it can lead to different forms of punishments being applied to different students” - JE, Senior


Cosigners:

BS - Teacher
SH - Teacher


In the end, this action project required a lot of researching the school’s social contract for me to find a point that was problematic. Once I found that point, it made it easy for me to give an explanation of why it didn’t make sense. One thing I enjoyed about this project was looking at the details of our school policies. I learned about what we have a right to change. Something that made this project hard for me was understanding how to correlate an image as an analogy and having that analogy make sense. If I were to do this project again, I’d want to tackle a different part of the contract to see how my response would be different.

Sources:

• Staff, W. B. I. R. (2023, March 14). Bill in TN Legislature would strengthen 'divisive concept' laws in schools. wbir.com. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://www.wbir.com/article/news/education/new-bill-would-strengthen-rules-over-what-can-be-taught-in-classrooms/51-ddd267e4-3d98-4de0-bb2e-3284740b4cb7
• GCE Family Handbook, 2022
• Bill of Rights, United States Constitution, 1791