While schools attempt to make do with the funds they are appropriated, they are also left with the task of innovating ways to compensate their drastically slashed budgets. It is left to the schools to practically beg their students, whose families are also coping with stagnant wages and the skyrocketing price inflation of goods, for such basic fundamentals as toilet tissue!
Most of you have probably heard the popular phrase: “Today’s generation is tomorrow’s future.” This suggests a good place to start changing things: today’s generation.
I am personally acquainted with one of the nine candidates battling to represent our islands in the U.S. Congress, Marianas High School’s AP Government and Politics and AP Language Arts instructor, John H. Davis Jr.
John H. Davis Jr.’s AP Government class represented the CNMI in the We, The People mock congressional hearing contest this past May. The competition was held in our nation’s capital, Washington D.C., and I was fortunate to have been part of the class. Along with the rest of my classmates, I found the experience exceptionally worthwhile. However, before actually going on the trip, we encountered and had to overcome a fair share of obstacles: several people initially did not want to participate; when the majority of the class voted to compete, the class, as a whole, rarely attended the practice sessions; and even as the competitions neared, many in the class were nowhere near as competent in their specific areas of constitutional study as they needed to be successful in the regional and national competitions. Mr. Davis succeeded in the challenging task of motivating the class to work as a team. He pushed us to succeed, ensuring that we went on the trip and that we got the job done well.
In 2002, 2003, and 2004 Mr. Davis taught middle school students at the Northern Marianas College Lab School. In each of these three years, our class went on educational field trips to Cairns, Australia. In each of these years it was Mr. Davis’s students who raised a notable amount of money to go on these trips. In each of these years it was his students who hosted dinner buffets, solicited for contributions, put up a student store, and organized yard sales to raise enough money for plane tickets, hotel accommodations, and tour packages.
Four years ago, I doubted whether I would have cared much about the state of the CNMI today. Four years ago I figured, “Since I’m going to be thousands of miles away from Saipan, I won’t need to vote here. I’ll just vote in the U.S.” But Mr. Davis made me understand that if I know anything about politics, I know about politics in the CNMI. Why should I cast my vote somewhere else? It would only make sense for me to vote for the betterment of my home.
AGNES CONSTANTE
Los Angeles, California
