Following are some short reviews I just finished up. Each book or article is about young people, and I enjoyed each piece that follows. Let me know what YOU think...

Review of "Beyond ephebiphobia: problem adults or problem youths? (fear of adolescents)" by Kirk A. Astroth.

Astroth provides a clear, easy-to-grasp analysis of ephebiphobia, offering readers an accessible way of understanding the criminalization of youth, the abandonment of the public good, and why we don't see young people as the future anymore. Rather, we see them as a dead end. Astroth paints a grim picture of why that happens, and challenges us to envision anew the roles of young people in society. A follow-up read might be Childhood (Key Ideas) by Jenks.

The Giroux Reader (Cultural Politics and the Promise of Democracy) by Henry A. Giroux.

Giroux is renowned for his analysis of society, particularly focusing on youth, commercialism, and hypocrisy. This collection of Giroux's writing illustrates the breadth and depth of his analysis in all those areas, and more. I learned about neoliberalism and the corporate grip on American youth; the societal abandonment of youth and the social divestment in the future, and; the wholesale disenfranchisement of the American public in the face of capitalistic greed and personal opportunism. Giroux is like the town crier challenging us to get out of bed to go fight the fire on "that" side of town. If we don't it'll burn our house down - oh, wait - it already is.

Beyond Resistance! Youth Activism and Community Change: New Democratic Possibilities for Practice and Policy for America's Youth by Shawn Ginwright

For youth workers with a preconceived notion about the roles of young people in society, this collection may be challenging. For teachers who think they know the power of students, Ginwright may be shocking. For young people who think they understanding "the movement", this book may be eye-opening. Ginwright collects dozens of the best examples of youth-led and youth-driven activism and refines them to their finest points, charging the reader to do more than complain about apathy or revel in cynicism. He leaves us no choice other than getting up to do something. Thanks Shawn - we need that. This book is an incredible read for anyone interested in the movement at any level. Before this book the reader might want to see Global Uprising : Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century : Stories from a New Generation of Activists; after it you might want to reference Future 500: Youth Organizing and Activism in the United States.


Childhood (Key Ideas) by Chris Jenks

In "Childhood" Jenks stabs at the heart of sociology's obsession with mythology, this time in the form of childhood. By providing a concise, if inaccessible, analysis of why and how sociologists, psychologists, and educators conceive of children, Jenks encourages a critical examination of the assumptions behind many institutions. This book provides necessary support for conversations about youth rights, civic engagement, and the roles of young people throughout society. It is a powerful tool for the determined popular reader, and an introductory lever for the academic. Suggested follow-up reading? Evolving Capacities of the Child by Gerrison Lansdown.

Send me your suggestions for books I should read and/or review... Always looking for more fodder? Check out The Freechild Project Reading List at http://www.freechild.org/ReadingList/ for books and articles surrounding DOZENS of youth topics!

The Freechild Project has faced charges of wanting to create "little adults": young people who have with knowledge and/or abilities thought to be the divine provenance of adults. In one online rant an writer rails against the Freechild website, saying that

Freechild.org - more accurately imprisonchild.org - encourages practices that are meant to integrate children into adult society, all of which will be/are a failure and will make the condition of children in America worse...

The author goes on:

"Freechild... is talking about... 'all children to realize they are part of something larger than themselves... They're wrong. Children will NEVER be part of the American (adult) system."

Anyone familiar with my workshops knows that I don't take criticism lightly, as I often invite it during conversations, and frequently go over what I've heard/seen/felt with the Freechild Advisory Board and CommonAction's board of directors. There is a tension that has become apparent to me over the last several months, and that may be the greatest barrier that we all known about, but rarely address. Let me identify the "Freechild side" of that tension by calling out three seemingly dangerous propositions that underlie the assumptions behind The Freechild Project.

First, let me aknowledge that Freechild does one thing well: We acknolwedge the vast variety of action that large numbers of the youth population of the world are actively engaged in. That is Dangerous Proposition One.

Freechild does another thing ambitiously, if not well: We openly identify the barriers that young people face throughout society, in the form of discrimination against youth. That is Dangerous Proposition Two.

Freechild seeks to prove a third thing: The transformation of the roles of young people throughout society is inevitable; that inevitable change should be for the collective good of all humanity. That is Dangerous Proposition Three.

That third proposition is where the greatest tension starts, particularly in that earlier criticism. That author's perspective that Freechild is effectively "selling out" his vision of what childhood should be is probably true. In a recent workshop I was told that "kids need a chance to be kids," and that's not the first time I've heard that sentiment. I don't disagree. What I do disagree with is the notion that all children must behave one way, and that any child-directed behavior that extends beyond that one way is deviant and should be suppressed.

Marketers often talk about "age compression", or KGOY - Kids Getting Older Younger. While KGOY is rightly vilified when it comes to crass consumerism and commercialism, I think it is questionable when we talk about the overall roles of young people throughout society. Young people cannot continue to be the passive consumers that their parents were. Corporations, who past generations relied on to make decisions for them, have plainly proven that they do not act in the public interest. Therefore, young people must learn to be critical consumers. They must be taught to react accordingly when the public good is under attack.

This critical consumption is bound to spread beyond the economic marketplace. Schools, the "marketplace of ideas", have been the site of critical consumption since they were created. Where that criticism once took the form of dropping out or failing classes, today young people are learning to react in a more public way by organizing campaigns and engaging in public discource about improving schools. All the other stations in our communities are in the sites of young critical consumers, as well: Government agencies, Police departments, Youth programs, Foundations and many, many other locations are feeling the challenge of critical engagement by young people.

While many observers mourn the loss of "childhood innocence" and the phenomenom of KGOY, young people aren't waiting around to read their critiques. Instead they are moving ahead in bold, conscious and powerful ways. It then becomes the responsibility of adults to understand that the wisdom and energy of young people can - and should - work for our collective benefit.
Let's learn, and more forward beyond the confines of "the way its always been" - primarily because its never gonna be that way again. And that's a good thing.

Got an email from a friend who trains young people a lot. She told me she was planning on doing a fishbowl with her students, and I shared my thoughts:

I don't do fishbowls anymore, and to be honest, they generally disgust me. The general assumption behind them is that there is particular value to having one group in oberservation mode while another works in front of them. That sets up a false dicotomy between the "actor" and the "audience", with all kinds of strange expectations and un-natural occurances happening. This is only intensified when the participants are youth and adults, whose relationship already generally takes the form of young people acting while adults passively observe. This pattern repeats during the debrief, when adults share their observations of how the youth actors acted. That is just like schools, where intervention and reaction is the norm, as opposed to prevention and empowerment.

Yeah. Generally I think people use training activities with young people pretty loosely, without thinking about the implications and assumptions behind them. Thought for the day: Check yourself before you wreck your... workshop.