How much of an activist were YOU in 8th grade?

Okay, check out this awesomeness:

More than 160 students in six different classes at Intermediate School 318 in the South Bronx - virtually the entire eighth grade - refused to take last Wednesday's three-hour practice exam for next month's statewide social studies test.

Instead, the students handed in blank exams.

Then they submitted signed petitions with a list of grievances to school Principal Maria Lopez and the Department of Education.

"We've had a whole bunch of these diagnostic tests all year," Tatiana Nelson, 13, one of the protest leaders, said Tuesday outside the school. "They don't even count toward our grades. The school system's just treating us like test dummies for the companies that make the exams."

According to the petition, they are sick and tired of the "constant, excessive and stressful testing" that causes them to "lose valuable instructional time with our teachers."

And of course, the administration thinks that there's no way students could have organized themselves like that! No, it must've been some unruly teacher, who brainwashed them into disliking standardized tests!

A few days later, in a reprimand letter, Lopez accused Avella of initiating the boycott and taking "actions [that] caused a riot at the school."

The students say their protest was entirely peaceful. In only one class, they say, was there some loud clapping after one exam proctor reacted angrily to their boycott.

This week, Lopez notified Avella in writing that he was to attend a meeting today for "your end of the year rating and my possible recommendation for the discontinuance of your probationary service."

"They're saying Mr. Avella made us do this," said Johnny Cruz, 15, another boycott leader. "They don't think we have brains of our own, like we're robots. We students wanted to make this statement. The school is oppressing us too much with all these tests."

It looks like this teacher has the gumption to actually have his classroom be a place for open discussion and critical thinkin; I'm sorry that he may be canned as a result. But we shouldn't let that dampen the spirit of resistance that these kids showed - it's an inspiration that kids locked down in such a rigid, authoritarian atmosphere every day can organize themselves and take a stand. Bravo!

This also shows the folly of constant testing -- and constant test preparation. And when numerical test scores are linked to the welfare of the administrative elite, one can imagine that priorities tend to get out of whack. No longer is it about encouraging growth as a person, as a thinker, and as a citizen: it's about mastering a very narrow skillset and being able to parrot answers on bubblesheet. Every human has a right to rebel when she is stuck in a dehumanizing system; these courageous 8th graders are continuing in the grand tradition of resistance to oppression.