Today’s Protest-How effective is it?

Today in my English we decided that we were going to “protest” my teacher. We wanted to do this because last Friday, when it was nearing 80 degrees we asked him to take us outside. He said no. That wasn’t a big deal, but later that day we were sitting in our Chemistry class, and we watched him take one of his other classes outside. We meant the protest as a fun experiment. We wanted to see what we could get out of it. We walked into the classroom, almost laughing but not saying a word. He knew what was coming. The class was visibly frustrating for him, as he had a discussion planned. He ended up being very clever. He had us talk to the person we were sitting next to, as we were only protesting talking to him, and had us write on the smart board. A few of us, myself included, simply wrote “We want to go outside” when asked to write our answer. We had to sign, dance or act out some of our answers as well. Later he tried to get us to talk to a puppet. We didn’t go for that. Our plan worked because no one broke the silence with him. Coming up with creative ways to get our answer across was key (you know how important grades are in high school).

At the end of class, he brought up a good point. By not talking or defending ourselves, were we really showing our power? He also admitted that it was very frustrating for him but he would “get his revenge”. After leaving the room, we decided it was a victory for us, because we made him upset and showed that we meant business but at the same time it does make us more vulnerable.

With so many groups turning to this type of protest, can we gauge how effective it is? I believe that there are two main factors when it comes to the success of a group protest. I think the first one is the camaraderie of the group. These people will have to face tireless hours of trying to be worn down by the opposing side. If even a few people begin to tire, it could mean disaster for the whole group. The other factor, in my opinion, is the opposing force. Being against a ruthless killer and an English teacher are two different things. But, I think that when you are fighting against a leader who is creative it is almost more dangerous then one who is shallow minded. The creative leader will try and make you fail yourself and the group where as a violent leader will only try to destroy you physically. Which is worse? That's up to you. So, what can we learn from this? Silent, peaceful protest is only effective if you are willing to work as a group and stand together.