Taking class action

High-school students who think the most important vote they’ll cast will be for homecoming queen have a lot to learn.

And Philadelphia Student Voices, a nonprofit public education group, is ready to teach them, just in time for the presidential election.

About 200 seniors from Furness High School, Third and Mifflin streets, attended a Student Voices voter-registration assembly Friday morning. With the presidential election expected to be close, the older-teen vote will be a crucial voting bloc for both President George Bush and challenger John Kerry.

Furness students listened to some of their classmates, as well as social studies teacher Grace Grillo, talk about the importance of voting. Later, the teens were instructed on how to use a voting machine.

"It is very important that people your age vote for the president of your choice because such things as the war in Iraq and the [potential of a] draft will be affecting all of you," said Grillo.

Some of the students seemed to agree.

"Informational assemblies like the one being held today gives us a very positive feel for voting," said senior Marcus King. "Young people need to get involved more in the election process."

"Everyone who could vote should vote, rather than complain about who they have in office," added senior Eugene Watts.

Philadelphia Student Voices, a chapter of the National Student Voices Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, has grown in recent years. In 1999, under the direction of Dr. Phyllis Kaniss, the political-responsibility program was expanded to 33 of Philadelphia’s public high schools.

This year, the school district added Student Voices to its required curriculum — expanding the program to all 51 city high schools.

"At least 20 percent of city public high schools already were using Student Voices as part of their social studies curriculum," said school district spokesperson Barbara Farley. "Because Student Voices is a well-developed curriculum, and because its goal is for students to become civicly engaged, we have included Student Voices in our curriculum for all our high schools, beginning this year."

For more information, go to www.student-voices.org and click on "Philadelphia."