YIA Documentary: Reflection

I really enjoyed how Adeola the executive director of Youth in Action not only explained and gave evidence on why she thought Youth in Action was a great place to be, but she also included other YIA youth and allowed them to be able to contribute and share their experiences. Who better then the YIA youth or alum to explain their experience and how YIA helped them grow from being close minded and believing that they are too young to have any bright ideas, to being leaders of certain groups. And because I have been there every week I am a witness to this amazing program. From the moment I walk into YIA and join and participate in their deep discussions my views, my thoughts, and beliefs become challenged. It is truly amazing, especially because there are times that if my classmates are having a discussion I tend to shy away, but when I bug-in into their conversations they really make you feel comfortable with what you have to say.

I also like how they give each other space to grow, Erroll the director of the YIA programs explained that every time a youth or even the director of YIA created something the adults and the youth gave deltas and pluses. “We decided to use a YIA team tradition called the “Plus Delta Hot Seat.” It’s basically an opportunity for everyone to give and receive feedback on contributions to the team and areas for growth. A piece of newsprint with a person’s name on it is set up with a column for pluses (strengths and contributions to celebrate) and a column for deltas (areas for growth). The person is asked to leave for a few minutes so the team can begin to discuss their pluses and deltas. Then they’re invited back to join the discussion. Now I know it sounds brutal here on paper, but believe me, the whole process comes from a place of love and respect.” The fact that they are not afraid to stretch themselves and challenge themselves for the better gives me so much respect for Youth in Action.

One of the YIA youth that impacted me the most was the story of Marlie Board Co-chair. “When ideas flow at YIA, relationships form and minds are opened. In fact, regular debates help us build from dis­agreement, which is an important part of what we do. I remember one day Izzy, Chris, Olu, and I had a debate about faith. It was pretty emotional – with Izzy who is agnostic, Chris not believing in a higher power, Olu a Muslim, and myself a Christian. Ordi­narily with such different backgrounds, it could’ve been an impossible discus­sion to get through. But this is one of the many conversations I cherish at YIA because it changed me. My core values and belief in Christianity are the same, but I have a different perspective because now I fully understand all of their views too. ” The reason her experience caught my attention is because of the way she discussed how even though she had a certain belief it should not intervene with having a good friendship with other YIA youth. That she should still be able to give them the respect they deserve just as she would like to be respected for what she believes in. Most adults unfortunately do not believe that youth have the maturity to handle the situation the way Marlie did. I always knew that youth can become great leaders such as Marlie. Sometimes being a leader doesn’t always mean that you are in charge it also means that you step back and look around and see if people are scared of you or respect you. It means that you have a firm understanding that maybe you are so focused on what you think that you may be losing out on many opportunities to learn about people’s culture and what makes them who they are such as youth in Youth in Action.

                                                                             

 

Find this on YouTube and thought this was pretty cool, simple but straight to the point on how we can help youth feel more empowered where ever they are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biTdR3OA46A

Aruguement: Corinne McKamey

Corinne McKamey argues in her case study about the differences between being a researcher and a teacher. She realizes that by being the type of teacher that is willing to fight for her students’ rights, she “loses” power from being a researcher.  She also focuses on the different understandings of what it means to be someone who cares and someone who does not, and understanding the meaning from immigrants.  

For example “She cautions a teacher’s gaze may function to regulate student’s behavior, for example, holding students quietly seated in classroom rows, and may also function to limit dialogue between teacher and students.” Which in certain classrooms there are certain teachers that feel good about that, they believe it is not their duty to not cross boundaries. Whereas there are other teachers that, “For example, a teacher might care for a student by asking about her emotional wellbeing…”  Another scenario is when Mrs. McKamey helped ‘save’ a student from wasting time outside an auditorium, “…one of the first days of school, I met Nam, a Vietnamese immigrant student. Nam had been sitting in the auditorium for two days waiting to be transferred to a high school closer to his home…” Since no one in the school had no idea what to do with Nam, Mrs. McKamey decided to use her power as a teacher to help Nam get to where he needed to go and he did. The interesting part about this is even though it was a good deed Mrs. McKamey felt guilty and ashamed, which is when she felt that her, “…decision to help Nam resulted in gains for me in a teacher role and losses for me as a researcher (Luttrell 2000). In helping Nam, I gained sense of power and control through making decisions and actions within a familiar institutional logic.” I never thought about it that way, I never truly realized that researchers had a certain image that if it was challenged could end up costing a huge damage. I honestly would see it as people that were very interested in finding out information and they would ask a ton of questions and do a huge case study on the topic. 

After reading this case study it opened my eyes to realizing just because one person might think asking a student about their day or helping them get help like Nam might seem heroic; but you cannot just see it in your own perspective. In order to work with youth you really have to make sure that just because you think one thing is acceptable, you have to sometimes step back before offending youth to the point that they never want to come back to the program. At times it might be hard because as we discussed in class it is normal for someone who has a degree to be given more respect and attention because of its power of being in a higher education level then someone else. But just because you do, does not necessarily mean that you have the right to have a close minded way of thinking and allow the youth to take charge.      

Hamster

Hamster

I was looking through different gadgets and found this. And wanted to share it with all of you. Isn't this so cute? :-)