Catherine Vogt, daughter of a conservative father and a liberal mother, attends Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School school in Oak Parks – a suburb described as a predominantly liberal area. Recently the fourteen year old has been at the centre of some media attention due to an experiment she conducted within school hours.

Catherine observed during the run up to the US presidential election that most of her fellow pupils were supporting Obama for president. Catherine also observed that Obama’s campaign was built on words like tolerance, inclusiveness, peace and unity and she enlisted the help of her history teacher to conduct an experiment to test whether the rhetoric being spoken matched the behaviour of those championing it.

Just before the election, Catherine appeared in school one day wearing a t-shirt bearing a hand-painted slogan in red – “McCain Girl”.

“I was just really curious how they’d react to something that different, because a lot of people at my school wore Obama shirts and they are big Obama supporters,” Catherine told us. “I just really wanted to see what their reaction would be.”

The reaction was somewhat challenging and included comments that she should “go die”, or that she should be killed, or that she was “stupid”. It was even suggested that by wearing the shirt she supported a plot to murder Obama. Catherine recorded all the reactions in a notebook, including commentary from teachers that were unsupportive of her t-shirt choice.

The next day Catherine wore a different t-shirt. This time the hand-painted slogan was blue and read “Obama Girl” and the reaction was totally different. Catherine was no longer stupid, no longer sentenced by her peers to be burned wearing her shirt and no longer the subject of bullying. The Obama supporting liberal school children and teachers were now almost all able to accept her political views – although she was still subjected to charges of flip-flopping and playing both sides. She was informed she was now wearing the “right” shirt.

When the experiment was revealed to the school community it prompted discussion about the disparity between Obama’s campaign based on inclusiveness, and the reality of the behaviour of his supporters within the school. Catherine’s subsequent report on her experiences earned her a credit from her history teacher.

John Kass of the Chicago Tribune, reporting on the story, commented “That’s when you know America is truly supportive of diversity of opinion, when children must whisper for fear of being ostracized, heckled and crucifixed.”

I applaud Catherine Vogt for having the courage to stand out and be different and for challenging the status quo. I am inspired that a 14 year old girl decided to test whether the talk was really being walked and I’m posting her story as an example of wildishness in the face of opposition and abuse.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 1:33 pm and is filed under Wild Women. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.