I don't know what happened. I'd like to think it's because of something profound that I said, although I'm sure it's just wishful thinking....
My stepdaughter has decided to run for Junior Class President of her high school. They sent her home with a sheet of paper, in which she had to outline which qualities she had that would make her a good class president. She loosely understood the role she'd be playing for the student body, but as we were discussing it, something clicked, and I saw a light go on in her head. Instead of saying how she'd like to help the school and give everyone a voice, or something really generic, she connected with the idea of actually participating and getting other students excited about getting their good, but underexposed school more attention and some school spirit.
She's spent the past 4 hours doing homework and working on her campaign. I can't say that I recognize this kid from even earlier this week. She's like a junior class president alien.
We've come up with real reasons why she'd be a great addition to the Student Body Council. Basically, on Monday the school posts on a bulletin board, a page written by each "candidate" campaigning for each position. On Friday, they vote.
Well, we're launching a full scale attack. This weekend we are putting together her "script" for a campaign announcement to be put on youtube and advertised to other students via bulletins on her myspace page. She'd get a student to "interview" her, and have other students give testimonials why she'd make a great junior class president. At the end of the video, she'd get to say "My name is Dolores, and I approve this message."
We will make buttons over the weekend which say something like "VOTE for DOLORES, it's vote FOR US", around the outside, with her picture in the center and a small caption, "JUNIOR CLASS PRESIDENT".
She had to list some ideas to make the school better and we included a blog on the school website, which lets a writer from each class (Sophmores, Juniors, Seniors) write about a topic and open up a comment forum. The school website contains calendar information, school contacts, and homework, but having this interactive feature, would help connect kids to the school and its activities.
Her school is small, so they don't have much in the way of dances and events other than the prom, to promote school spirit and get kids involved and participating, so she would set up a committee to fundraise for these events.
She's been looking at colleges...whew. I don't know when all this happened. Seemingly overnight, but she's all business and excited about this campaign and getting people to vote for her.
I can't wait to hit the craft store this weekend for campaign supplies. Now THIS is cool. :)
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2 hours ago
4 comments:
What a nice change! I'm happy for you both. See, being a PARENT and setting RULES and GUIDELINES does actually pay off. Part of parenting is being the bad guy periodically in order to teach valuable lessons and set a good example. It's good that you've been there to be that strong role model for her. She clearly needed one.
Nice job.
Oh my god. What if she's... um ... maturing? Is that possible?
I hadn't thought it possible. I only dared hope. Lately, it hasn't felt so much like I was repeatedly banging my head into a wall. My husband gets very nervous when I start giving her instructions or "pushing" her to do a little bit extra, but he's been both surprised and impressed with what's been going on around here. Let's just hope she wins. (I want to be on the event committee :) )
Interestingly, I heard her mention to her mother on the phone tonight that she was running for class president and it got NO response. The subject was changed and her mother was asking if she was coming down for Thanksgiving. (no way, no how.)
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