Gadfly Bites 7/25/25—I’m only hearing adult voices

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1. Back when my kids were in school, we insisted on giving them a workbook each summer (over regular and strenuous objections), and making them complete a page a day that contained some combo of math, reading, writing, and science work geared to keep their brains sharp and to introduce them to concepts and content from the grade level to which they would be rising. My wife and I would grade them each day and, if needed, require some parts of it to be redone. Now that they are both out of college and productively employed (see, we told you!), those days are long gone. Although, I do annually suggest they might want to pick up a “summerbook for rising 19th graders” or whatever it is; just for fun and nostalgia. (They never do.) Why am I thinking about this right now? Because today’s clips are both about what some Ohio schoolkids are up to this summer. And it sure doesn’t sound like math homework to me. First up is a group of 250 kiddos from across Ohio who were mobilized by the group called Freedom Schools to come to the Statehouse last week and participate in what is termed a “youth-led effort to demand stronger, more equitable public education.” I am skeptical of this descriptor for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that no students are quoted in this coverage at all, despite the stated intent of the adults in charge to make sure “their voices can be heard”. When exactly does that start, chief? And can we all hear them, or just you? An additional goal is so that “other youth can be inspired to make sure that their voices are heard on this topic as well as other topics that are to come.” Can’t wait to see what, if anything, these precocious partisans are allowed to actually say for themselves (WCSM-FM, Celina, 7/23/25) Second is the Northeast Ohio Worker Center, whose summer program teaches Cleveland high school students how collective bargaining works. About 30 kids roleplayed the negotiation of a new contract between nurses and a fictional hospital, as described in this piece. We don’t know what the kids were taught before they were assigned to sides for the bargaining game—union or management—but I think we can get a good sense of it from a couple of them in their own words. One girl says she was reluctant to represent management because “I didn’t know I would like being in the position of power – a little bit,” although doing so gave her “a different perspective.” From what, pray tell? Another assignee to management said she didn’t want to be “the bad guy, who was trying to keep all the money.” A third student was glad to be assigned for the union side because “I think of myself as a helpful person.” Wowza. No wonder the union side “won”. Could it ever come out any other way in this fever dream scenario? I never felt bad about making my kids do that single page of math or English per day during all those summers long ago. Largely because the alternative was too ghastly to contemplate. (Signal Cleveland, 7/24/25)

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