Students to share work at open mike
By N. Lamm / The Olympian

OLYMPIA- If you want to know what young people think about, attend Thursday night’s open mike hosted by students by Reeves Middle School’s Educational Alternative Program. The open mike represents the culmination of seven students’ work in a writing exploratory class that met for four hours a week throughout fall quarter.

“The goal of the class was to create a safe, creative environment to help kids articulate their feelings on paper,” said teacher Emily Stern, who is a student at The Evergreen State College. “I wanted them to see how exciting it can be to be heard and to have their feelings validated by other people.”

On the first day of class, Stern asked students to close their eyes and pretend they were talking to their best friend. She said to tell the person the scariest or hardest thing about being a kid these days. Then she told them to tell that person what they thought could be a solution to that problem.

When the students opened their eyes and started talking, they had what Stern calls “one of the most amazing discussions I’ve ever had in my life. It’s a chance for them to talk about things they don’t usually get an opportunity to discuss in a classroom setting” she said. The student’s writings were primarily inspired by the discussions they had in class. Discussions explored personal and social issues- including prejudice and stereotyping, war, violence, power, child labor laws, gender roles, religion, and the educational system in America. When Stern saw that the students felt passionately about something, she asked them to write about it. For one assignment, students were asked to write a letter to the president telling him what they would change about our country if they could. Stern’s students appreciate her approach, saying the class has taught them to express themselves and assert their feelings.

Stern and her students hope that the open mike will be well attended and that people from the community will come prepared with something to read.

The goal of the open mike is to make the kids feel that they are part of an artistic community, and that their voices are being heard, Stern said. “So I hope to see a lot of people there to support them.”