Social Action and Integrative Learning
School of Integrative Studies | College of Humanities and Social Sciences

"To borrow from Lev Tolstoy, ‘What then must society do?’ Or to paraphrase Gar Alperovitz, ‘system change is coming; what kind of system do we want and how do we get there?’ These are the questions at the center of next system studies.” 

When Virginia’s largest school district began allowing students time off to protest in 2019, the backlash was swift and partisan: Conservative critics denounced Fairfax County Public Schools for coddling its too liberal, too sensitive youths and predicted kids would abuse the policy to play hooky. A year later, though, the Virginia General Assembly is poised to pass legislation that will take Fairfax’s policy statewide, permitting more than 680,000 middle and high school students across 130-plus school systems one excused absence every year to “engage in a civic event.” Remarkably for a hyperpartisan era, the historic bill has garnered bipartisan support — and it’s all due to a collaboration between a handful of teenagers from both sides of the aisle. GMU Bonner Student Joshua Lyon, 19, was part of this historic bill.