That's the goal of this year's PFO Spring General Meeting, which will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in Room 1320, Digital Computer Lab

By Emma Anselin
Gargoyle assistant editor
Posted Friday, April 14, 2006, The OG, news

Uni High counselor Sam Smith has two minutes for an interview. As he shuffles around his cramped office and stuffs papers into a backpack, the question is posed: “What exactly is a Speak Out?”

He pauses. In all the rush of things to do and people to see, this question apparently deserves more than a sketchy answer. Smith skims over a description of the event and launches into a relatively detailed account of its importance and meaning for the entire Uni community.

The Speak Out, which will be held Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m in Room 1320 of the Digital Computer Lab, is this year's forum for the PFO Spring General Meeting. The event will offer Uni parents, students, and faculty the opportunity to “speak out” on any topic, and to embrace the multitude of viewpoints found in a school with such a small but diverse population.

Smith explains that the Speak Out aims to “keep the democratic ideal alive” by discussing the challenges involved in building community in a pluralistic school for gifted students. But such a topic is so broad that the forum can really encompass any and every theme. Smith describes the Speak Out as “an open mike [that] gives people the opportunity to … come out and say it.”

The Speak Out will begin with comments from the event's moderator, Kent Ono, professor of Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois and director of the Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society.

Brief presentations by five panelists will follow his remarks.

• Parent Karen Hyman will discuss gender in the curriculum.
• Chemistry teacher David Bergandine will present a conservative Christian perspective.
• Senior Max Goldberg will offer a conservative political perspective.
• Parent Qiang Jin will cover diversity from a Chinese viewpoint.
• Parent Margarita Ham will focus on raising American children in a foreign culture.

Ono will then moderate the rest of the forum, which will open up for comments from the rest of the audience.

The PFO board first developed the idea for a Speak Out in an effort to increase attendance of Spring General Meetings.

“Those who attended the PFO Spring General Meetings really loved and benefited from the event,” PFO board member Chu-Yung Chen told the Gargoyle in an e-mail message. “However, we noticed the numbers of participants have decreased through the years. … We believe that PFO general meetings belong to everyone in the Uni community, and we hope that the speak-out format [will] encourage more people to come and participate in the event.”

Chen spearheaded the Speak Out along with Smith and fellow board member Jory Johnson. She feels the significance of the Speak Out goes far beyond just a seat-filler.

“We believe it is through this kind of event that we can … listen, consider, discuss, and learn from our Uni community,” she said.

Perhaps the true meaning of the Speak Out is best expressed by Spanish teacher Jenna Finch, who has taken the word “considerate” to a whole new level in her renowned “Count Down” e-mails reminding Uni students and faculty of the forum.

“Our panel rely on you to make this Speak Out meaningful,” Finch said in one of her messages. “For our SPEAK OUT! is NOT a protest, but rather a conversation: a taking of information and opinions; a giving of considered and considerate responses.”