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Adam Fletcher
The Politics of Youth
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"As a concept, youth represents an inescapable intersection of the personal, social, political, and pedagogical." - Henry Giroux in Fugitive Cultures
As parents, youth workers or educators adults have a responsibility to see the inherently political nature of "youth" as a concept. It can seem like a complicated thing: How can a time of life be political? But once we unfurl the banner of youth, we see that its more than a time of life; instead, its a title, a rank and an identity that goes far beyond age, including attitudes, cultures, media, and economic realities that are called "youth". I think this is what Giroux was getting at in Fugitive Cultures, which I'd recommend to anyone interested in learning about the positions young people occupy in our society.
By labeling people under a certain age as "youth" we assign them particular roles to play. Adults tend to call young people youth instead of "young people" or as many youth prefer, "young adults," in the same way parents called their children "kids" instead of children. This type of assignment ripples in the treatment of young people: under the banner of "youth" people under a certain age, which varies according to situation, people are systematically, culturally and attitudinally discriminated against. They are subjected to routine stereotyping, mass alienation and indifference, and highly-subjective treatment that is patriarchial and adultist, to say the least. Youth are targeted by well-meaning adults for interventions; youth are targeted by sensationalist media outlets for profiteering; youth are targeted by politicians, educators, parents, business owners and so on...
So the politics of youth are complex, intricate and intense. I believe its the responsibility of ethical practitioners of Youth Voice and meaningful student involvement to actively identify these politics for themselves, and to work with the young poeple they work with to do the same. While this process can seem whelming, it doesn't exclude you from engaging the young people your class, program, organization or community in learning about it. That's right: bring young people themselves into critical conversations about the politics of youth, and watch their political identify unfold right in front of you. This is one of the most essential skills we can impart with young people. By helping them identify as political beings operating within a political world they can identify their own need for literacy, their own drive for engagement, and their own commitment to democracy. In this way formal and informal education can have a mutually-relevant and cohesive approach to student success. We should aspire to no other such goals.
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14 Standards for Youth Voice
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"Standardization" is a scary word. Community-based youth workers often see it as the bain of the personalized and human effect they have with young people. However, standards can allow programs to aspire to more than the norm, more than intuition. Standards for Youth Voice may allow programs and organizations to: - Increase the effectiveness of their Youth Voice programs;
- Allow evaluation, assessment and research data from Youth Voice programs to be used across different settings;
- Expand choices for program planners
- Enable organizations with similar programs to align according to stated interests and desired outcomes;
- Encourage information-sharing among similarly-focused programs and organizations that otherwise compete for similar funding or young peoples' participation;
- Provides a benchmark for program and activity design;
- Allows organizational leaders to identify which skills and what knowledge currently exist and which are in need within an organization in order to meet standards.
There have been few standards proposed for Youth Voice. Past efforts have often glossed over specific issues that affect young people and their communities everyday by being too vague, or too specific. Maybe that is the fault of taking a standarized approach. Working with young people and adults across the country over the last 10 years I have had repeated conversations about what these standards can look like. Following are 14 Standards for Youth Voice I am proposing.
- Youth Voice should be defined as the active, distinct, and concentrated ways young people represent themselves throughout society.
- Engaging Youth Voice requires being aware, acknowledging, and infusing diversity throughout every activity.
- First and foremost, Youth Voice is a tool to build democracy; learning, empowerment, engagement, and other outcomes are consequences of that focus.
- Not engaging Youth Voice is active discrimination against youth and is not always a wrong, bad, or incorrect thing to do.
- Community problems should be addressed by communities, and not foisted on the shoulders of young people working alone.
- It is essential to engage Youth Voice in issues broader than those that only affect young people.
- Youth Voice already addresses a broad range of issues throughout our communities, and it is vital to acknowledge those current contributions.
- Young people have the same rights as adults to make their hopes, fears, dreams, and realities known to society.
- Youth Voice is the one bond that unites all young people throughout our society and around the world.
- The transience of youth is a foundation to be built upon, not a whim to be dismissed.
- Communities have different needs that can and should be addressed by and through Youth Voice.
- Young people and adults must build their personal capacity to engage and sustain Youth Voice.
- Every public institution in society is morally responsible for developing their structural capacity to engage and sustain Youth Voice.
- Youth Voice is an action that requires young people to speak by doing, and adults to speak by listening.
Standards can allow us to create more than a movement for Youth Voice; instead, they give us a foundation for establishing an entire field of practice. What do you think?
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Free Book: Engaging the Whole Child
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After all this work I've done in the inter-related, yet disparate topics related to the roles of young people throughout society, I believe I have come to deeply understand the nature of needing to engage the whole young person. I've written about it, trained on it, and helped many other people understand this concept in a variety of ways. However, only in the last year of working with the Washington State Department of Health have I begun to see exactly how that whole young person is more than the brain, the interests, the actions or the ideas of children and youth. Its also their physical, mental, social and emotional health.
That is why I'm excited to introduce this awesome new publication from the organization. Engaging the Whole Child is the first in a series of Whole Child ebooks available from ASCD. According to a recent phone meeting I had with ASCD, its a limited-time only offering that is only good from April 15 to May 6. Do students really want to learn? Can schools and classrooms become joyful? Are there natural links between standard curriculum and what motivates students to learn? Explore these and other questions in this e-book collection of articles from Educational Leadership by renowned authors such as Carol Ann Tomlinson, Richard Sagor, Nel Noddings, Thomas R. Guskey, and Allison Zmuda. This is a huge file, and registering to recieve it is a little cumbersome - but its worth it. You'll find a section on empowering students, including an article by Sylvia Martinez and Dennis Harper at Generation YES. Download it here free, let me know what you think, and share this link with your friends. Remember to do it now, because the link is only good until May 6.
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The Roots of Meaningful Student Involvement
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"Meaningful student involvement" is my theory that when young people participate in equitable student/adult partnerships that are substantive and engaging for learners, the education system will more effectively meet its myriad goals. I first explored this concept in 2003 in my Meaningful Student Involvement Idea Guide for the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 2005 I wrote the Meaningful Student Involvement Guide to Students as Partners in School Change at the request of the HumanLinks Foundation. In it I explained that, "Meaningful student involvement is the process of engaging students as partners in every facet of school change for the purpose of strengthening their commitment to education, community and democracy."
At the beginning of my work in 2000 it was difficult to identify a cohesive body of work around the roles of students in schools. Research on student engagement had been growing over the previous 20 years, and is still highlighted by the findings of Fred Newmann. He found that student engagement occurs when, "students make a psychological investment in learning. They try hard to learn what school offers. They take pride not simply in earning the formal indicators of success (grades), but in understanding the material and incorporating or internalizing it in their lives." His 1992 book, Student Engagement and Achievement in American Secondary Schools examines several schools' responses to the nature of student involvement and participation in classroom curriculum everyday. Later Newmann developed a set of standards based off this study he called "Authentic Instruction." Check out the criteria he proposed: - Students construct meaning and produce knowledge,
- Students use disciplined inquiry to construct meaning, and
- Students aim their work toward production of discourse, products, and performances that have value or meaning beyond success in school.
I immediately found Newmann's findings provided an essential contextualization for the question of why meaningful student involvement matters in school change efforts. At the same time I was studying critical pedagogy extensively while finishing my bachelor's degree at The Evergreen State College, heavily influenced by the work of Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, bell hooks and Peter McLaren, among others. I was also footed in the pioneering work of organizations like Youth On Board and people like Wendy Lesko, as well as the experiences of the 1000s of students I'd worked with in schools and community settings across the country.
All this in mind, I began to apply Newmann's criteria to the question of how students themselves views the different roles they occupy in schools, as well as how adults view those roles, their possibilities and their limitations.
Examining other literature I began to identify emergent patterns in their findings about what students said about schools. My desk became covered with sticky notes as I gathered accounts of student involvement in schools across United States and around the world. These stories came from What Kids Can Do, the Youth Activism Project, and my own gathering activities where I culled items from newspapers, interviewed students and teachers across the country, and went to schools where I was told great things were happening. I was also working at the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction as their first Student Engagement Specialist, a position created for me to workshop with K-12 teachers and students focused on student voice and promote student involvement throughout school decision-making. Along the way I was head-checked on every wrong assumption I made, and grew exponentially from the exposure I had to administrators, teachers, and students reacting to the early implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act.
These are the roots of meaningful student involvement. At some point in the near future I'll explore some of the future growth I'm plotting, including some of the essential partners who are coming forward and some of the ideal situations I'd like to be positioned in the future.
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| April 26, 2009 | 11:04 AM |
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Youth Development, Youth Service and Youth Rights
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Somewhere out there in the Ether there is an tussle among youth workers. In this battle of wills and ego, its youth development versus youth service versus youth rights. I was historically engaged in this discussion; however, over the last few years I've come to seen this non-dialogue as passé and even trite. It now seems almost silly to me to contrast the three; now I have a different vision.
Let's compare definitions: - Youth development is "...the ongoing growth process in which all youth are engaged in attempting to (1) meet their basic personal and social needs to be safe, feel cared for, be valued, be useful, and be spiritually grounded, and (2) to build skills and competencies that allow them to function and contribute in their daily lives."*
- "Youth service refers to non-military, intensive engagement of young people in organized activity that contributes to the local, national, or world community. Youth service is widely recognized and valued by society, with minimal or no compensation to the server. Youth service also provides opportunities for youth development, youth voice and reflection."*
- "Youth rights usually refers to a philosophical stance that focuses on the civil rights of the young. This is counter to the more traditional perspective held by child rights' advocates that emphasizes youth entitlements, a viewpoint that usually rests on a paternalistic foundation... [Y]outh rights organizers seek equal rights with adults by having young people play central roles in crafting their own strategies and campaigns to change their status."*
All that said, I've come to see the three of these as part of the same continuum of action. Without youth development, youth rights become the same pedantic conversation that only benefits those young people who already a lot of rights and access and authority and involvement. Without youth service, youth development represents a vertical and didactic relationship between youth and adults that is neither mutually beneficial nor arguably wholly beneficial for young people themselves. Closing that loop, youth service provides a "responsibility mechanism" for advocating more effectively for youth rights. It provides a logical "a+b=c" argument for folks who maintain that with rights comes responsibility, and given today's generation's proclivity for service, the conversation should be easy.
The interplay and entrainment of those issues among one another is not a complex analysis; more so, its rather simplistic in the grand scheme of things. However, it does allude to the more intricate nature of my own philosophy today, and why I've moved away from the competitive stance assumed among many advocates. Somewhere within these issues and actions, and the myriad others I've identified over the last nine years of my study in this field, there is a deep connectivity that transcends and enlaces all different perspectives into one spectacular phenomenon. I have been working for years to crystalize this vision into a thesis, and it is coming.
These ideas and inspirations are pouring forth lately, and I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on any of these ideas. Thanks.
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| April 25, 2009 | 11:04 AM |
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Enabling Optimism Towards Youth
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Michelle Obama is my hero of the week. For the last twenty years, including much of my teens and all my adult life, the general attitude of society towards young people has been one of fear and loathing: I grew up in the age of zero tolerance, anti-cruising laws, youth-being-tried-as-adults, and the generally crass demonization and stigmatization of young people. Based in ambivalence, malaise and intrasigence towards youth, adultism firmly footed itself throughout our national psyche, and all young people and all adults suffered for it.
In one fell swoop Michelle Obama has begun to unravel the comfort of adultists: as the First Lady, her bold declaration of the power of young people rallies forth a tremendous optimism and hope for children and youth today. Within the week the tide has begun turning: the New York Times is lauding youth for shunning consumerism; youth in Pittsburgh are curing cancer, and; Steve Culbertson of Youth Service America got bold and did his job. This new youth boosterism is even going global: in South Africa young people are being hailed as a powerful voting bloc that will change the country, and indigineous youth are saving the planet.
Depending on how that article written. If Michelle Obama used deliberative wording that veered away from typecasting youth as the future - instead of the present - would be useful. Instead of framing the relationship between young people and adults in a top/down relationship Michelle could change the perspective towards one of equity between youth and adults. ( Learn more about that concept from this pdf.) But for making meaningful gestures, the First Lady definitely wins my respect for the week.
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Challenging Internalized Adultism
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The tendency of being dismissive or disregarding of adultism by both young people and adults reflects one of the core, unspoken strategies inherent in the dominant relationships between children, youth and adults in our society. Taking in that discrimination so deeply that it silences a child or youth is one effect; encouraging a young person to lambast themselves or their peers or younger people is another. This internalization disables young people from being able to form a positive identity based in their age, and further promotes the inability of young people to become effective agents for social change throughout our society.
Much needs to be written about identifying internalized adultism and drawing out its causes and effects on their lives of both young people and adults. I have found very little literature that does this in a sophisticated enough way to warrant response. In the meantime, I would suggest the following questions can be essential for challenging internalized adultism. They are good for any age, and only need to be adjusted for each individual's usage. - What has been or is good about being a young person?
- What makes me proud of being young?
- What are children and youth people really like?
- What has been difficult about being young?
- What do I want other young people to know about me?
- Specifically, how have I been hurt by other young people?
- When do I remember standing up against the mistreatment of one young person by another?
- When do I remember being strongly supported by another young person?
- When do I remember that another child or youth (unrelated) really stood up for me?
- When do I remember acting on some feeling of internalized adultism?
- When do I remember resisting and refusing to act on this basis?
In order to effectively challenge adultism we each have to examine its effects throughout our own lives. This is one attempt to encourage each of us to do that.
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Education is All About Relationships
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When I was in junior and senior high school I had little motivation for achieving anything resembling "academic success," either internally or externally. I routinely failed to turn in homework, didn't complete a lot of in-class assignments on time, and found copying and faking it to suffice for their purposes. I was also disruptive in class, although not all the time: when not engaged in shenanigans I was doodling or debating. Oh yes, I was that student: the one who challenged the American history teacher with Native American perspectives on history, and the one who made the debate teacher take him on mono-et-mono (and was happily trounced). That was me.
The only way I made it through school was relationships. Luckily I had an academic counselor who saw the need for me to get through, a teacher who ensured I was engaged in at least one class, and for their lack of interest in me getting A grades, I had parents who were committed to me not getting in trouble. My personal educational experience added to my commitment to working with young people for the last 20 years.
My experience working in dozens of different types of formal and informal learning environments has led me to come to believe that education is all about relationships. Now, I don't want to underestimate the myriad complexities and depth of the learning process, and I understand that the value of the academic experience shouldn't be distilled or boiled down in the name of easy consumption. However, the teachers who impacted me were those who I had a relationship with, positive or otherwise. Of all the people whose names I have forgotten or the classes I took that I couldn't repeat what they were about, I am among the masses who feel that the experience of relationship is at the core of all learning.
My frameworks for meaningful student involvement have been situated in that premise, and for more than nine years I've been working with schools across the country to help them understand that the way every student relates to their peers and the adults in the educational settings in which they learn determines the entire course of their educative experiences. And I am not speaking with exception: even the autodidact's tendency to shun person-to-person interactions reflects their experiences of relationship. The academic achiever has relationships with their peers, their families or their communities that encourage their performance. The student athlete thrives on relationship, either with their teammates, their coaches, or their crowds. And even the quiet students the withdrawn students have relationships that define their educative experiences - positive or otherwise. The center of every single student's experience in schools is their relationship to learning as embodied by their relationships to their peers and the adults in their lives. This should be the emphasis of all school reform today. Meaningful student involvement positions the relationship of young people to adults as the central learning experience of all people throughout schools, including students themselves and adults throughout the education system. That should be the purpose and power of schools today, and nothing less.
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Adults Fighting Adultism Part One
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Whether we choose to see it or not, young people are routinely discriminated against throughout our society. Examples of this range from the hyper-personal to the vastly social: either its the parent barking at their kid, "You are to be seen and not heard!" or its the town law banning Saturday night cruising because of its intrusiveness on the lives of adults. This discrimination is called adultism.
Let me say that we're all adultist, and adultism affects everyone - no matter how old we are. The lingering effects go on... Confused? Feeling like you don’t understand how to execute or evade some of these maneuvers? Feel free to ask for help in the comments.
The Bootstrap Myth "There is no such thing as adultism… this is a free country, and kids can do whatever they want. If they work hard and prove themselves they can be leaders and really help our communities."
The Backtrack "Hey, wait a second, that’s not what I meant… I mean… you took my words out of context, don’t make it try to sound like I’m adultist!"
The Remove the Right To Be Angry "You’re too sensitive… if they weren’t so aggressive, vocal, hostile, angry, or upset, adults would listen to youth and they wouldn’t get in trouble!"
The Utopian Eye-Gouger "I'm a youth ally myself… why can’t we all just ignore race, it’s not like it’s even real… it’s not like I tangibly benefit from being white every day or anything! Can’t we all just get along?"
Turning the Tables "You’re just discriminating against adults, you know. You’re discriminating against me right now, you hypocrite!"
The Good Adults (not like those obvious adultists!) "Whoa, that guy over there is SUCH an adultist, unlike me… I know exactly the right things to say and I’m never adultist. By which I mean overtly offensive about it. Hold on, I think I’m going to go spit on that adult. I hate him."
The Bending Over Backwards (makes you look flexible, but accomplishes little else) "You kids are so right! I agree with everything you say. Because you’re right, of course… not just because I’m guilty and adultist and wrong!"
The Personal Justification "But a youth cut in front of me in line at the grocery store last night, said something stupid, mugged me, or took my hubcaps! So as far as I’m concerned, they proved all of my prejudices!”
The Loophole of Escape "I can’t possibly be an adultist… I’m part of the oppressed due to the fact that I’m a woman!" (or gay, poor, young, trans, etc.)
The Culture Appropriator "Damn, dude! I listen to emo and rock out at the shows, and you know I’m down with the homies. Did you see the last edition of that graphic novel?"
The Lean On You When I’m Not Strong "Teach me, help me. I’m just an adult, so I need your wisdom as a youth to show me how not to be adultist. Wait, is what I said earlier adultist? How about this shirt I’m wearing? Can you come with me to this meeting, so they know I’m not adultist?"
The Pause for Applause "Unlike all those other adults out there, I’m an anti-adultist." "I do anti-adultist work and I try to educate other adults about adultism." "Wait, did you hear me?"
The Smoke and Mirrors "I totally agree. Adultism is one system of oppression among many interlocking ones that specifically awards more privilege and power to all adults whether they like it or not and serves to keep the existing power structure in place. Oh… what? You want me to volunteer in a community organization, contribute money, do security for your protest march? Uh… yeah maybe next time, I've got to wash my hair tonight. And walk my dog, see the latest episode of Lost, manage my stock portfolio…"
The Penitent Paralysis (will not truly absolve you) "Oh my god… that is so awful. I’m so sorry. Sorry. I can’t imagine what it must be like… I’m sorry. That’s so awful. I feel so bad for you. Sorry."
Whipping Out Your Best Friends Adult: "Hey, I’m not a adultist, OK? Some of my best friends are youth. See?" Youth: "Yeah, I’ve known her since I was a kid, and she’s never said anything adultist to me!"
…and one bonus one for all youth out there.
It Doesn’t Matter What Comes Out of My Mouth, Just Look at My Skin "What? I can’t possibly be adultist - I AM a youth. How can I be adultist against myself, huh? No, I haven’t heard of internalized adultism, and I still think youth involvement is reverse discrimination!”
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| April 19, 2009 | 12:04 PM |
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Adults and Youth as Equals?
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Earlier today on the anti-adultism Facebook group I was asked, "is your goal to have children and young adults (which I believe you define as 13 to 19) treated exactly as we would treat adults?" My answer is absolutely not. I believe that all young people - all children and youth - are unique and powerful as young people, and because of all the different representations they carry, including their race, gender, socio-economic class, educational levels and everything. They have value because of their age and their voices and involvement of all kinds. Acknowledging the ideas, perspectives, knowledge and experiences of young people is *not* equality - its equity. Equity calls for acknowledging the uniqueness and difference between people, and then creating the spaces, relationships and cultures needed to foster positive, meaningful relationships that embrace that uniqueness and difference and allows them to be utilized for the individual and collective good of those who participate. Fighting adultism requires nothing less than each of us taking personal responsibility for the bias and discrimination we feel against young people and towards adults. Let me restate that: I believe that we favor adults at the expense of listening/engaging/empowering young people. I believe we have to create new relationships - partnerships and allyships - that re-envision the roles young people occupy throughout society. So long story short, my own goal is not to have children and youth treated exactly as we would treat adults. Instead, its to engage young people and adults in working together to create new roles for young people throughout society. That's what I'm all about - I would love to hear what anyone else thinks!
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