Turlock high school teacher inspires students to engage in politics. Here’s how

High school students in Turlock are getting an early start in understanding how local, state and federal politics affect their daily lives.

Isaac Farhadian is a social studies teacher at Pitman High School, where he encourages his students to understand politics to gain the confidence to speak on issues they find important.

“I have had many conversations with my principal about giving students a platform for them to feel comfortable to speak about the issues and to be able to voice your opinions,” Farhadian said. “It’s really important to introduce students to civil dialogue because that’s something oftentimes, we don’t really see too much being in the media.”

Farhadian has done multiple projects for his students to learn about government and policy making through mock elections, inviting local politicians and officials like Congressman Tom McClintock and Donna Linder, the Stanislaus County clerk-recorder.

He also is an advisor to the Civics Leaders of America club at the high school where he teaches his students to talk about issues civilly.

Additionally, he leads the Junior State of America chapter at Pitman High School— a national nonpartisan organization for high school students that prepares them for civic participation and leadership in a democracy— for which they won the National Civic Impact Award this year. The award recognizes the best chapter in the United States.

“I always say, before you’re the future, you’re the present,” Farhadian said. “You don’t have to wait until tomorrow to make a positive difference.”

Farhadian also created a lesson to get his students to understand media literacy by having his class send 120 letters to the editor to local news organizations like The Modesto Bee and Turlock-Journal.

Mia Peterson, a senior, was one of the students who wrote letters.

“Voicing my opinion on ‘California Proposition 6 - Remove Involuntary Servitude as Punishment for Crime Amendment’ felt very noteworthy as I was able to discuss a topic that is shared across our community, and those incarcerated in California,” Peterson said. “Communicating my desired views on this Proposition allowed for not only myself, but my peers as well to feel heard in voicing our advocacy or concerns for the Propositions being voted upon.”

One of her favorite lessons was the “Breakup Letter” assignment that they wrote to one of their peers, detaching their relationship with each other as an allegory to how the United States cut ties with Great Britain.

“Within this letter, we were advised to use the same outline of the Declaration of Independence including a preamble, statements of beliefs, list of grievances, measures we had taken, and declaring our Independence,” she said. “This lesson had been one best-loved by myself as it applied our creativity, to creating our own Declaration of Independence into our own interpretation.”

Similarly, Wesley Hayes—also a senior—wrote to The Bee on Proposition 2 which would provide $10 billion to fix and renovate K-12 schools and community colleges across California.

“It was a fun process writing the letter and it was like a puzzle trying to fit my ideas about the proposition into a clear and concise article,” Hayes said. “I’ve never been offered the opportunity to write directly to the newspaper, but despite getting published or not, it was still a fun activity that allowed me to engage with my local community about topics that will directly affect us.”

Farhadian has also worked to get students registered to vote as well. In the last month, he has given other teachers voter registration sheets to give to their students.

He also had a booth outside of his classroom where students passing through the halls could register.

“I believe it is important for young adults to understand politics and get registered to vote because it is their future,” said senior Marc Sousa. “By not taking an interest in politics, you are not taking an interest in your future. This is because there are going to be laws made which will affect your daily life, from taxes to wealth.”

Alexis Hernandez Tapia, also a senior student in Farhadian’s class, encourages students and peers to do research on their views and opinions.

“In a modern age where everyone has easy access to social media, this allows the rapid spread of misinformation,” she said. “This could lead to an increase in division with the political sphere and we cannot continue like this if we want to make change and improve as a nation.”