PHS seniors reflect, seek action for a cause
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POLSON — For his senior English project on stuttering, Jason Fant handed out an information sheet on tea. Some words were highlighted in yellow, some in blue. Fant called on classmates to read the sheet and asked them to stutter when they came to a word highlighted in yellow. A blue word meant the reader had to substitute a synonym.
Fant said stress contracts his vocal chords and causes him to stutter occasionally. He was raising awareness of the condition and teaching fellow students how to approach the issue.
Teacher Mike Schwabenbauer asked every student in his three senior English classes to pick an issue, topic or group of people who have largely gone unnoticed in the mainstream.
Before they chose a cause, the students read “What is the What?” by John Eggers. Eggers chronicles the life of Valentino Achak Deng during his boyhood. Achak Deng survived the civil war in southern Sudan and fled the country with about 1,000 other boys. Achak Deng since has returned to his home village in Sudan and set up a foundation for building schools.
In instructions for the students’ final project, Schwabenbauer said, “The first step is to do some reflection … Once you reflect on what we’ve read, watched, listen to and discussed for the last six weeks, you will hone in on … something you feel drawn to … Once you’re locked in on an issue, then comes the action.”
The senior project is open ended and it can be as “boring or brilliant as they want it to be,” Schwabenbauer noted.
Projects were diverse: alternative power, Paralympics, a plastic gyre twice as big as the state of Texas on top of the ocean, clothes for the Poverello Center and the Red Cross, the Heifer Project International, Water for Africa, the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation and coral reefs as a few examples.
The students also have to do an I-Search paper, which is an inquiry driven paper where each student answers a question he or she poses about a particular subject.
Seniors did not have to raise funds for their cause, Schwabenbauer said, but several did.
Taurie Hayes, Shane Leineke, Brianna Morrison and Kathy Smith held a chili feed and silent auction for the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation and Water for Africa on March 29. The Achak Deng Foundation builds schools in the Sudan, and Water for Africa, based in Kenya, drills wells and provides water drums and medical supplies.
Hayes said, “’What is the What?’ was really eye opening. A lot of kids said they wouldn’t read the book, and then they did.”
Valentino went through lots — deaths of friends and family, a trek to Ethiopia and refugee camps — according to Leineke. He described “What is the What?” as a “pretty sad book.”
“It’s an easy life here compared to there,” Leinke said, “even just clean drinking water.”
Morrison said she learned something new from the book.
“I don’t ever pay attention to outside of our country,” she commented.
Schwabenbauer’s assignment is challenging students to take a look at the world outside Polson High School and sometimes even the United States.
