Monthly Archives: March 2012

heroes to fight violence

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Violence is a very serious and prominent issue plaguing the youth of today. It is a national crisis. In Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun Geoffrey Canada talks about his childhood growing up in the Bronx in New York and the constant presence of violent confrontations. Canada states that violence is a learned behavior but it serves as a coping mechanism. From a very young age, kids in dangerous neighborhoods all over America learn to depend on fights and guns to gain status and respect and ultimately to survive in a harsh, violent world.

To get a sense of the dire situation, one need just look at the violence surrounding the  New York public school system – where security has increased drastically since 1991 transforming the school space into a prison-like area. This security culture has since brought upon several consequences such as issues of representation, liability, and changes in behavior by the teachers and the students. What has happened is a sort of school lockdown where the freedom of movement and ability to be social has been stripped away from every student. During this time, the teachers changed. They were no longer interested in teaching the whole student, but became solely focused on the mind – the cognitive faculties. In order to not get involved in fights, teachers started depending on security guards and police to deal with the physical, aggressive side of things. This disconcern for the body and for the physical development created a big void in youth education.

Transformative projects are attempts at bringing back the magic into these kids’ lives, to fill the vacuum left by the inadequacy of the educational system.  Since nothing is actually happening in the schools, kids need other spaces for learning – which can be found in youth media projects, arts, sports, music, most anything really. Education needs to become holistic once again and treat the child as a whole being – body, mind and spirit.

Geoffrey Canada realized that one need not completely dismiss the aggressive, physical reactions that surface in fighting but rather to use those instincts in a more productive way. He began to teach martial arts to kids as a way of defense and discipline. His goal was to steer these youth away from the danger of weapons and guns and to instil in them a sense of confidence and pride. Martial arts has been used all over the world to promote social change – like this collaboration between the UK and Brazil in their initiative Fight for Peace / Luta pela Paz. It has been argued that one of the reasons why violence has grown exponentially is due to the loss of neighborhood mentors, of positive role models on the streets. Which is why coaches and mentors can become influential individuals in the lives of young boys and girls. Canada ends his book by saying that “If we are to save our children then we must become people they will look up to. Children need heroes now more than ever because the poor children of this nation live with monsters every day” (178).

Anyone can be a hero in a child’s eyes – athletes, coaches or teachers – they just have to be there and show they care.

transformative media

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We often underestimate youth. We underestimate the power of self-mobilization and self-education that they possess. Kids are very much aware of what is going on and many times they can understand and articulate these experiences better than adults. For this reason, youth media projects can be liberating and empowering because they instill some trust in this power, in this ability. When watching a media project directed by youth, we can begin to realize just how much these kids are engaged in society.

Reel Lives is a non-profit organization based in New York City that aims to educate marginalized youth through filmmaking. This youth-based production center focuses on teaching foundational technical skills to these students who then create documentaries from start to finish. These films are their stories, many times starting as personal narratives and expanding out into larger world issues. Many of these stories revolve around topics of immigration, self-identity, and interpersonal relationships. Karim’s story involves his passion for soccer and how that has shaped his integration into American society.

The concept of giving youth a voice through a lens is a powerful medium for youth development. Film has tremendous transformative power and can help children express themselves in creative, alternative ways. Give a camera to a child, give a little guidance, and see what happens…

sports education for social change

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Our task this week was to build a youth media curriculum using Noddings’ centers of care and spiraling from the self out to the world. One of the biggest challenges in such an activity is incorporating this concept of care and compassion. In other words, getting youth to tap into their personal lives and find what they care about and why – how it relates to the world they live in and the world they aren’t immediately connected with.

Paulo Freire and Myles Horton talk about education and social change in their book We Make the Road by Walking. A key point they touch on is using education and literacy to foster participation and citizenship. Freire & Horton’s main point is that critical consciousness is emancipatory. That when children or adults get to the point where they see a problem and start to create change, they are taking their education to the next level and making it their own. In these youth media projects, sometimes all that is needed to jumpstart this process is asking the question “Is there anything you would like to change?” Afterall, one of the best ways to educate is to ask questions. Keeping the question open so that each kid can answer in a way that is relevant to their lives and that gets them thinking critically about their surroundings.

By learning from others and being interested in what’s going on around us, there will always be something new to explore. Freire & Horton say that a good teacher never stops being surprised, and in the same way a good student never stops discovering new things. The same philosophy applies in sports, the coaches know a certain amount of technique and rules but they will always be learning from the players and from the sports community. If people are motivated by finding ways to be useful and serve, according to Freire & Horton, then sports truly offer a great platform for this need. A coach is a teacher and a mentor and the players are the students. This is an environment of sharing and respecting each other’s knowledge and talents – an environment of education.

Education should be a transformative and liberating process, enabling each and every student to realize their potential and to realize their worth in society. Education doesn’t end with school. It is a process that spans an entire lifetime and adult education can be just as important and emancipatory as youth education. Some things are easier when learned at a young age such as languages but there is never a cutoff period if someone is truly motivated. The same goes with sports. We put a lot of emphasis on youth sports to build character – getting kids involved in ballet, soccer, swimming, anything active. But when we’re adults, we disregard this need for communal and physical activity. It is just as beneficial to play sports as adults as it is when we’re young – because there is always something new to learn and maybe sports is the educational tool that best speaks to you. There are countless examples of organizations that use sports education for social change, check out the links to the left under “Youth Sports Organizations”!