Lights on Afterschool Celebration Event

 The event I attended was the Lights on Afterschool Celebration. It was held on Remo which is a cool online video platform. For the first thirty minutes of the event everyone mingled at different virtual tables with labels such as advocacy, camp, etc. I was confused on how to navigate it at first but once I learned it was really cool and engaging to be able to table hop virtually and speak with different people about different topics. After we mingled the host Ayana introduced several guest speakers throughout the event. There were a few organizations that I was not too familiar with but learned more about. The first organization was Equity working groups. Their goal is create more equitable programs. They critique lesson plans and make them fair. One thing one of the speakers said was "Make time for the work.. Can't find time...Make time" and I really liked that because sometimes we get busy, have a busy/full schedule and feel like we don't have time for anything else but when you want something so bad and are passionate about it you can and will make the time for it. 

The second organization that I thought was very creative and involved is the PVD young makers. The speaker Keith said "Students deserve not just a seat at the table but a seat the decision making table" and I couldn't agree more. It's so important for young people to not only be able to express their wants and needs but to be able to put that to action and be apart of the conversation and change. It's important for youth to be able to help make decisions especially when it could affect them. One of their goals is to grow a community together through making. Together they made t-shirts and pins/badges to support the BLACK LIVES MATTER movement. Through intergenerational collaboration (people of different generations sharing talents and resources and supporting each other in relationships that benefit both the individuals and community) they teach technical, artistic, design skills and so much more.  He also stated that the students teach them and they teach the students and I thought that was really important as well. Just because you're the teacher doesn't mean you know everything or share the same perspective as someone else. It's nice when you're able to share ideas and see what others think/know, you can learn a lot. 

Lastly, the organization ARISE is the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education. Their mission is to prepare, promote and empower Rhode Islands Southeast Asian students for educational and career success. Something the speaker talked about that stood out to me was her talking about POLICE FREE SCHOOLS. Arise and two other organizations actually started "PASS"  The Providence Alliance for Student Safety. They started PASS to fight for safe and healthy schools that treat youth with dignity and respect. They want all school resource officers removed from Providence schools. They want Provide schools to hire health and safety staff focused on alternative measures of conflict resolution. They also want to increase the number of support staff in school. Below is the link for more details regarding PASS and their reasoning for wanting police/security officers removed from schools. 

These organizations connect to Youth Development in many ways. For one YDEV is a very creative space where when we are in person we have activities where we create/make things and connect with each other. In YDEV we teach each other and learn from one another. The students lead with the teachers. We are a community just like the organizations listed above. Our Anchors are Care, Identity, Advocacy & Social Justice and Leading With. These organizations represent all those anchors in different ways. All of the organizations listed above offer so much and are really great. 

PVD Young Makers - https://pvdyoungmakers.com/making-and-learning/

Arise - http://www.ariseducation.org/strategic-plan

Learn more about "PASS" - https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/counselors-not-cops-policefreeschools?fbclid=IwAR1XDUuM-aRH6eyyprNB3UWvg1tCskUNzJZxMDMS-ngr3oae6LYnJgu6AMA

YOUTH WORK IS... CARE

Before doing the readings I understood care in education and Youth Development as caring for all students equally. To understand and get to know all of your students. When I say understand, I mean to genuinely try to understand your student, where they come from, their life/ background, where they struggle, their needs and how they learn best, so you can care for them and support them the best way possible. To encourage and push youth to succeed and support them along the way. To provide them with basic needs. To show them warmth, love, attention and support. To accommodate all your students needs. To look after and protect youth, etc. For this post I chose quotes from "Nice is Not Enough" by Sonia Neito and "Dear White Teachers: You Can't Love Your Black Students if You Don't Know Them" by Bettina Love. 

"A warm, friendly, helpful teacher is nice but it isn’t enough. We have plenty of warm friendly teachers who tell the kids nicely to forget their Spanish and ask mommy and daddy to speak to them in English at home; who give them easier tasks so they won’t feel badly when the work becomes difficult; who never learn about what life is like at home or what they eat or what music they like or what stories they have been told or what their history is. Instead, we smile and give them a hug and tell them to eat our food and listen to our stories and dance to our music. We teach them to read with our words and wonder why it’s so hard for them. We ask them to sit quietly and tell them what’s important and they must know to get ready for the next grade. And we never ask them who they are and where they want to go." 

This quote stood out to me because I feel like as a teacher you shouldn't focus on what is going to be easier for your students, you should focus on what it going to challenge them and if they struggle with it, you should assist them. As a teacher you're not helping your students by giving them easy work because you feel bad, you're only allowing them to stay stuck or fall behind. It's also important to understand your students history and where they come from so you can best accommodate them and support them. You shouldn't try to change the child's at home language or how they speak. How can you "care" for your students but not get to know them? or challenge them? or understand them and their needs and support them? A smile and a hug is nice but thats not all the students need. 

                       

Even as we purport to care about all students equally, we also often tolerate policies in our districts and schools that harm students of color, especially those who are poor and those for whom English is a second language: unequal resources, punitive high-stakes testing, and rigid ability-group tracking are some key examples."

How can you care for your students, specifically your students of color if you are not challenging the policies in your school and district that are affecting students of color, who are poor and students whom English is their second language? Some teachers may feel like the policies is above their job and they shouldn't try to change it or care but they should. It affects their students and if you "care" about "all" your students you should try to dismantle the system and fight for new policies that support ALL students EQUALLY. Also, to make sure that all students have the same resources and access to additional support. 

"Future teachers should be required to take classes such as African studies, African-American studies, Latinx studies, Caribbean studies, Chicana/o studies, Asian and Southeast Asian studies, and Native American studies."

I feel like all teachers especially teachers without an understanding of other cultures and languages should have to take the courses listed above. Taking those courses may be a start to understanding and learning about it but even taking those courses would not be enough if you're not genuinely trying to understand your students and their culture/history. In addition to taking the courses I think teachers should have to volunteer or intern in urban communities to understand the challenges you may face teaching in that environment and how under resourced it is. 

I loved both articles. I think they were both very informative and eyeopening. I had similar views on what care in Education and Youth Development looked like but these articles definitely expanded my views. I think these articles did a great job breaking down what care really looks like in Educational settings. Care is so much more than smiling with and hugging your students.

YOUTH WORK IS... SOCIAL JUSTICE

Rhode Island for Community & Justice is a social justice nonprofit dedicated to fighting bias, bigotry and racism and promoting understanding and respect among all races, religions and cultures through advocacy, conflict resolution and education. "It is our purpose to transform communities to be more inclusive and just by empowering people to lead institutional change. We are the voice that calls people to common ground, with respect for differences but with the understanding that people of all backgrounds have common values and needs that unite them."

Through their adult and youth programming, RICJ works with students, teachers, clergy, corporate and civic leaders to facilitate workshops, develop curriculum, convene race relations and inter-religious dialogues, and provide consulting on challenges related to bias, bigotry and racism. Our current focus on youth programs and juvenile justice reforms is due largely to the organizations belief that today's teens are tomorrow's leaders, and through them is the only way to create long-lasting positive change in our communities.

After exploring the RICJ website I've learned so much about their organization and what they do/offer. This organization offers three types of programs. The programs offered are Youth Empowerment, Justice & Policy Reform and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Trainings. What I love most about their programming and organization is how much they value youth and their voice. They have several high school students who are youth coordinators for their organization which I think is very powerful! That tells me that they take the opinions and thoughts of young people seriously. I think this program is a great model of Social Justice Youth Development because within this organization both youth and adults work together to change/better the community and systems. Something I really liked about their organization is that they have a Youth Empowerment program where their youth leaders learn facilitation skills and work to build understanding across lines of differences in their communities. Reading about that program made me think of YDEV and how I feel empowered in YDEV spaces and how within my classes i'm learning the same skills. 

YOUTH WORK IS... A PHILOSOPHY

"Positive Youth Development is a child-centered and asset-based approach to youth development (Pittman, et al., 2003), with adults acting as facilitators and coaches. Practitioners of this ideology believe that youth work programs should help children and adolescents further develop their strengths and interests (Pittman, et al., 2003). In this frame, young people are situated as individuals with emotional, physical, academic, moral, and social potential (Walker et. al, 2011)."

- This approach resonates with me because I am a firm believer in supporting youth to further develop themselves. Youth have so much potential, sometimes all they need is guidance. I feel as though sometimes adults underestimate the true capacity of young people by focusing on their deficits instead of their developmental potential. Adults acting as facilitators and coaches play a huge role in youths development. Not only do they develop their physical skills but their emotional and social skills by interacting with their peers and teammates. Engaging with their peers helps them feel connected as a community and together they explore their interests and gain knowledge of others strengths and experiences.

“The kids are playing games -- they are leading games, and they are laughing and learning.  Everyone knows each other’s names.  And I saw one coach pull a kid aside and ask how his grandmother was feeling now that she is out of the hospital. I was a competitive basketball player in high school.  Our practices didn’t look like this at all.  I remember being yelled at by my coaches, and we did a lot of challenging and repetitive drills, over and over until we ‘got it right.’  I thought sports were for people who could grit through the pain, and come out on top.  This wrestling program is so different.”

- Through observations and purposeful play activities I realized that there are multiple ways to construct learning spaces for youth. Before taking Ydev classes and engaging in purposeful play activities I viewed youth spaces very differently. Even from visiting some youth spaces on my own I would always witness the adults being in control, the children having no say and feeling isolated. More programs need to engage in students in a way where they laughing and learning. All programs should care for their students and check in on them to see if they're doing okay. You need more adults in youth spaces that really value and respect the children's thoughts and opinions and take them into consideration when planning activities. It's nice as a young person to be able to go to a youth space or program and be able have fun while learning. It's nice to be able to talk to the adults within the program about what's going on outside of the program and know that someone cares about you and your well-being. Also, I get sometimes coaches may get frustrated with their players but there are other ways to get through to them then yelling at them. I see coaches yelling at their players way too often and all it does it make it worse. I think encouraging words would actually motivate the players to do better and they may hold on to the words or motivation.

"Learning happens when youth are motivated to engage in experiences that allow them to create their own knowledge and understanding of the world in which they live."

- I feel like as a young person its hard to become motivated and engage in learning when you're not allowed to form your own thoughts and opinions. I feel it's most effective to encourage youth to contribute their thoughts and opinions. When I am in any learning space and am allowed to create my own understanding and interpretation of something I feel valued. When students are able to incorporate real-life connections into lessons they will be more engaged in learning because they are able to use their voice and form connections. Youth are active participants in building their own understanding. They do this by experimenting and observing. Youth are naturally going to find reasons and generate explanations for why things occur. You want to enable students to understand, participate in, and make informed decisions about their world. If young people are given the tools and training to understand and activate within democratic structures, they can contribute in powerful ways.

Youth Work Is... Thinking About Identity

Throughout my college experience at RIC I have learned about race and my own racial identity in my Fned, Swrk, Gend and Ydev classes. I have also learned about it while being a member of the Black Student Union on campus. I remember some experiences for me being really uncomfortable because I identify as both Black and White. I feel like there were things I didn't feel comfortable saying because I would be judged or looked at weird especially when talking about being black and what that means to me. I feel that way because of my light skin. I felt and sometimes still feel that who I am to speak on certain issues/topics when I personally haven't experienced them but then I realize my voice/opinion matters and I speak up. It took me awhile to learn that regardless of my skin color my voice still matters.  Also, because of my light skin at times I feel like I can't or shouldn't identify as a black woman because I don't look like what I'm "expected" to look like. In some of my social work classes that were filled with predominately white students and max 2 BIPOC I always wondered why my white classmates rarely spoke up when we discussed racism/oppression/slavery, etc. "I really wish the White students would talk more. When I read these articles, it makes me so mad and I really want to know what the White kids think. Don't they care?" I can relate to this quote because I wondered the same thing in class. I know racism can be a challenging and uncomfortable topic to discuss but I feel it's very important for people of all ethnic backgrounds to discuss. The white students in my swrk classes rarely ever spoke up if not called on. I always wondered if it was because they were uncomfortable, if they didn't know what to say, if they had prejudices, if they didn't believe in racism,  if they just didn't care about the topic or maybe they felt how I used to feel and they felt like they shouldn't or couldn't speak on it. 

Being part of a Black Student Union and being light skin has been very difficult for me. I have struggled with my identity because of it. I questioned my blackness and my whiteness. "I find myself thinking: "I didn't mean to be White, I really didn't mean it." I am starting to feel angry towards my race for ever using this advantage towards personal gains." I can relate to this because during meetings/events I sometimes used to hate myself. I hated myself for being white. I hated that I couldn't change that I was white. I hated that I couldn't change the color of my skin. I hated that people viewed me differently because of my skin color. I hated that I felt I didn't belong because of the color of my skin. There were so many times throughout the last two years that I felt like not returning to the organization because I felt I didn't belong and although it took me over a year to finally accept myself, I am so happy that I stayed and became a member of the eboard of the organization. I am so happy because I came to terms with who I am, what I look like and accepted myself. 

"I feel that because of this class, I have become much more aware of racism that exists around. Because of my awareness of racism, I am now bothered by acts and behaviors that might not have bothered me in the past. Before when racial comments were said around me I would somehow ignore it and pretend that nothing was said. By ignoring comments such as these, I was protecting myself." I have always been bothered by acts and behaviors but I didn't always acknowledge the ignorance. Because I struggled with own identity it was hard for me to speak up but I also realized I was protecting myself. At times when I would be part of a discussion and racial comments were made towards white people I wouldn't always call people out on it because I didn't want people to think that I was "protecting" white people. I feel like if I were to go against what people said about white people or defend them I would get looked at differently or judged. Since then I realized that I shouldn't care how people view me. Now, if someone makes a racial comment about anyone regardless of their ethnicity I speak up.

Marcus: On Being Good & (Dis)ability

 Visible and Invisible rules/codes of conduct that govern Marcus's school and classroom

A visible rule in Marcus's classroom is that the students have to raise their hand before they speak. Marcus struggled with this rule and would sometimes yell out and interrupt Emily why she is speaking. Knowing Marcus means well and is just sharing his thoughts, Emily would still allow him share out. Another visible rule within the classroom was a "take a break" table. Students would go to the table when they were having a difficult time in the morning. I think having a space within a classroom for students to break is a great idea. There is also a "buddy room" that was another space for students to go and take space. I thought having a break space outside the classroom was a good idea just in case they want to be alone. Also, I thought it was great that offered another space for a break before going to the principals office. Marcus at times was a lot to deal with and I think Emily did a nice job being patient with him. An invisible rule I think could be that the rules were kind of broken for Marcus because he had more of a difficult time. 

Similarities/ Differences to youth spaces that I know

The rules and codes of conduct in Marcus's classroom are similar to youth spaces I know in a few ways. A daycare I used to work at had a space within the classroom where students would go to take a break if they were misbehaving or needed space. Another similar rule was students had to raise their hand before speaking out. There was two students in the classroom that really struggled with raising their hand and would always call out. The teacher responded the opposite of how Emily did. The teacher would give them a warning and then tell them to go take a break which I didn't agree with. A difference in Marcus's classroom and the daycare is that there wasn't a room outside the class for students to go to. In other youth spaces I've seen some have break rooms and some don't. Depending on the youth space students raise their hand to speak or just share out when no one is speaking. In some youth spaces I see some staff who are really supportive and resourceful like the ones in Marcus's classroom and in other youth spaces I see staff who do the bare minimum. 

How might these rules connect to Ferri's discussion of norms, normalcy and dis/ability?

The rules in Ferri's discussion connect to Marcus's rules because in the Ferri's article it states that the school is designed to take what makes someone different away from them and I think Marcus's school does a really great job with providing support and great resources to make him feel more like he belongs in the classroom. The teacher allows him to kind of do his own thing while still doing what he has to in class. 

Stereotyping Our Youth

End Adultification Bias 

In the video "End Adultification Bias" there were many stereotypes about black girls and women. One stereotype that adults gave them was that they are too loud, aggressive, angry and their actions were seen as threatening and disrespectful. Another stereotype is that black girls needs less nurturing, support and less protection. This video revealed a lot of important facts such as Black girls are 2.7 times more likely to be referred to the juvenile justice system. Black girls are 20% more likely to get charged with crimes. Black girls face higher standards.  Adults hold black girls more accountable for their actions while white girls are given sympathy. 

 One girl said "Feel like as a black girl we can't make mistakes". Why should anyone have to feel like they can't make a mistake due to their skin color? Black girls are "always supposed to know better. " Why do black girls have to know better and white girls can make mistakes and it's okay? If a black girl and white girl made the same mistakes they should have the same consequences and treated equally. One does not deserve harsher treatment because of the color of their skin. One girls shared that people already assumed she was "cussing people out, drinking and having sex" just because she's black. Young black girls are stereotyped before they even know it. Adults see them as less innocent and more adult like starting at the age of 5. 

                                                                     

The stereotypical black child is raised in poverty and is more likely to be exposed to crime, drugs, violence with limited adult supervision. This leads adults to think that because of their upbringing that they are going to be on a certain path/making bad choices vs the stereotypical white child who is raised in a middle/high class area and is more likely to not to witness crimes, drugs and violence. Because of that adults seem to think they're innocent and can't do no wrong. 

 

Child Development Core Story, Part 2: Serve and Return

Serve and Return describes the fundamental adult-child interactions which helps babies reach their full potential. The interaction between adult and child doesn't always have to be verbal, it could be feeding or bathing. Studies have shown that a child surrounded by responsible and caring adults will start elementary school with better social skills, be able to focus better, better emotion regulation than a child that lacks positive adult attention. Talking with your child or even playing peekaboo will help they learn new words and form a language. Without healthy brain architecture kids are at risk of falling behind and never catching up. 

A woman in the video stated she encourages parents to build scaffolding for their children. The support doesn't have to be just family, it could be the entire neighborhood and community. I think it's important to understand that every parents situation is different. Some parents may not be financially stable and may need to work multiple jobs to pay the bills and take care of their children. Some parents may be single parents and they have to work a lot to provide for their child and because of that they spend less time with their children. Because parents spend less time with their children they are often stereotyped as a "bad parent" because they're not interacting with their child the way they should be. I think its important for children to have adult-child interaction because its benefits them in all aspects but that interaction can come from family, friends of the family, teachers, etc. 

A memory where I experienced prejudice as a young person/Adult- There has been several times where I have been with some of my black friends and I would say something or act a certain way and they would say "thats your white side or thats how you can tell your half white".