Get the Picture
By gilliebean (24, California) 
You get the privilege of using crappy, outdated, constantly disappearing books and computers every day at school, so you know what’s wrong. The question is: does your government? Make the people in power get the picture…literally.
Option 1:
1. Take a picture (or many) of something you want to change about your school’s books or computers—history texts written before you were born, 30 people fighting to use one computer, keyboards held together with duct tape, whatever.
2. Send it to these power players in the Education Budget Subcommittee with a short note explaining the problem in the picture and what needs to be done about it.
3. Use:
a. A Polaroid camera. It’s old school, but it’s making a comeback. Take a picture and get the instant gratification of see it develop before your eyes. Write a description right on the picture with a marker.
b. A digital camera. Upload the images to a home or school computer, and print out a copy on regular computer paper (or photo paper if you have it). If you’re feeling fancy, get prints at a drugstore (each one is about $0.15 to $0.20).
c. A disposable camera—film or digital. If you don’t have a camera, one-time use cameras are about $10 to $15 (plus the cost of prints).
d. A cell phone camera. Snap a picture with your cell, then access it online through Photobucket http://photobucket.com/. Create a free account, and follow these easy instructions to send the photo as a text message to your account. Print it out, and you’re good to go.
Option 2:
1. Upload a digital picture (or a scan of a print) to the Right to Learn website using the same photography methods listed above.
2. Write a message to education legislators. Start it off, “Get the Picture…” and go crazy from there.
3. YN will compile all the “Get the Picture” photos and comments and send them to the powers that be.
Whichever option you choose, get your friends to do the same. A mailbox full of shocking photos and angry letters is hard to ignore.
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