Talk:Student activism

The phrase "activist movements tend to disenfranchise the very oppressions they sought to challenge and/or transform" makes no sense. It be more correct to say: "activist movements tend to perpetuate the very oppressions they sought to challenge and/or transform." The argument discussed in this section seems to suggest that the automatic typification of student activists as "students" (or "agents of activism") rather than free-thinking individuals is in itself a form of oppression: once students have lost their status as free-thinkers through this categorization, they can be oppressed by organizers in order to accomplish a goal. In essence, this argument condemns the entire concept of labeling activists that are attending school as "student activists," and is just an extension of the general argument against social labels.

Perhaps the intended phrase was "activist movements tend to disenfranchise the very students that participate in them," meaning that students are stripped of their identites as free-thinking individuals (and the rights associated with those identities) once they are labeled as "student activists." I'm going to edit the sentence accordingly.

The phrase "devoiding activism of learning" needs to be revised, seeing as "devoid" is not a verb.

Note: I suppose that Freire's argument would be valid if a group of student activists were manipulated into performing some act (or supporting some idea) that they would probably object to as free-thinking individuals; this situation would imply that the students have become submissive to the wills of a leader/coordinator, which would be in direct contradiction of the principles that they claimed to support (opposition of oppression/manipulation). In other words: "if you are manipulated into opposing some form of manipulation, then something is terribly wrong." Of course, the argument assumes that the majority of students are easily manipulated, which is not at all true. Many student activists have very sound, carefully developed reasons for supporting causes, which points to an absence of manipulation. Just a thought...

76.235.13.115 (talk) 20:59, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

The position of a person as a "student" is inherently tied to their affiliation with a "school"; therefore it is logical to refer to change-oriented activities led by students as "student activism". This stands as a contrast to "youth activism", which simply embodies any action led by a particular group of people within a certain age range, generally under the age of 30. Historical evidence suggests that the title "student activism" was bestowed upon the works of students in schools, rather than simply youth in communities; this article should follow that guideline, rather than the popular misuse currently in fashion. - Freechild 23:29, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Could you please elaborate on what changes you want to make to the article? From what you write, I'm not sure how far you want to go in limiting its scope. If your definition, "change-oriented activities led by students", could include activities engaging significant numbers of non-students, as long as students have played a leading role in the activities in question at some point during the chain of events, I think I agree with you. But I'm not sure if there are examples in the article that do not fit that definition.

If you mean that the article should be limited to covering activism clearly dominated by students from start to finish, it would probably miss important and interesting patterns that deserve to be discussed: the fact that student demonstrations often are the igniting spark of wider protest. In many cases student-dominated groups have started chains of events that ultimately have seen much wider participation - in the form of protest organisations formed by students and thereafter commonly referred to as "student organisations" even at a point when this no longer have been strictly correct (e.g. Otpor and Pora), and general activities where students have been joined by other groups, sometimes even outnumbering the students (e.g. the events of May 1968 and the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989). These processes, and the role of students in them, ought to be addressed in the article, in my opinion. Alarm 01:52, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

This list is pretty silly. It's really hard to come up with an accurate list of instrumental figures, as there are hundreds of minor leaders who would qualify just as much as the people on the list. There are no significantly famous student activists in the US (that I know of). It's also US-centric. I'm on the list too.

I deleted it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Akreider (talk • contribs) 23:36, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

"The situation escalated into a nation-wide insurrection during which a variety of groups, including communists, anarchists, and right-wing libertarian activists, used the tension to advocate their own causes."

References for right-wing libertarian activists? -altemark

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.150.232.249 (talk) 21:10, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

While I cannot profess to know all student activism among students studying outside of their own countries, I can say that there were many Iranian students during the 70s and 80s that were very active in raising funds, translating, recruiting members, and sending material support to their counterparts in Iran. These students belonged to a wide range of political groups, but most tended to be of a Marxist/Leftist bent. I think that this should be noted, but it is hard to substantiate because there is no literature on the topic. Would making such a claim would be considered original research? -banamak —Preceding unsigned comment added by Banamak (talk • contribs) 12:46, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

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