Tag Archives: education

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.

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”!

care for physical self

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The problem with education is teaching to a test. This model will never inspire students and will rarely keep them engaged. Teachers and educators need to impart their passions and create occasions for students to care. Nel Noddings writes about this new pedagogical model in The Challenge to Care in Schools. In order to make a difference, the element of care needs to be at the center of any educational/pedagogical model, it needs to replace the static disciplines of the old system. At the end of the day, the school’s goal should be to promote the growth of students as healthy, competent and moral people – not just straight As and high SAT scores.

The challenge then is to teach kids how to see the magic in everything and the value in life, to incite an intellectual curiosity. So how do we get youth to care? We start with their personal lives, their inner-circle. We need to capitalize on what students are passionate about. We need to figure out WHAT students want to learn, and help them to find their talents. This alternative curriculum focuses on allowing students to actualize their uniqueness and their talents, to foster these capacities, rather than force them to learn subjects they have no interest in. In other words, we need to match the education to the student, not the other way around.

The idea of “care” is key in all of this. Students need to feel cared for. They need to care about themselves, their neighbors, the world they live in, and the ideas they think about. Among these centers of care, there’s an emphasis on care of the physical self. In a school context, this comes in the form of physical education which should be presented as an open discussion on issues of fitness, health, exercise options, etc. Noddings writes that “It is important for all young people to discover what refreshes and renews them. A well-integrated life includes intervals of activity that energize and make us feel whole” (89). The physical development of a child can’t be overlooked as less legitimate than intellectual development. Sports engage the power of the community for support, with parents and fans attending sporting events and friends playing together in an example of healthy competition.

Youth also need outlets to show the world what they care about. Media provides an opportunity for youth to tell their story, it provides a platform to disseminate the story of their lives and what they prioritize. In the movie Chain Camera, we see Winfred, a high school boy passionate about football but struggling to practice the sport he loves because of poor grades in math. Through this edited video, Winfred uses the camera as a stage to express his desire to be accepted and his identity as a football player. As media educators, we can then take the issues that youth care about and expand them to fit into the larger system and make them relevant to the rest of the world. Caring about sports and physical development is so much more than just a hobby, and it should be given equal weight in youth education.

the new classroom

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Teachers and educators have the challenge of transforming the classroom into a dynamic space for change and possibility. Classroom in this sense means any space where learning occurs – schools, community centers, homes, sports fields, art centers, etc. Youth education is a messy field and the text Critical Pedagogy attempts to outline the methods teachers can adopt to educate and mentor their students. This primer emphasizes the role of education and schooling in building the future: “Schools and the everyday classroom should share in the building of the social order of the future” (204).

An example of putting this teaching philosophy into practice is seen in the work Tim Rollins does with the group K.O.S. – Kids Of Survival. Rollins uses art workshops and transformative media projects to connect with youth in the Bronx and instill in them a sense of pride and responsibility in their own education. Rollins subscribes to the idea that teachers are guides, they are resources, not all-knowing gurus. He creates a curriculum based on art and creative expression but he is aware of the limitations of his educational system: “Art can’t undo years of abuse. But it can be used to tap into the hurt and make the pain better”.

Teaching youth is as much about the process as the product. Kids learn in different ways so a fixed rigid curriculum teaching to a test isn’t going to work for most people. Education should occur as a space for youth to explore their identities. A proper education equips youth with the tools to make their own way, to take responsibility for their own career and life. When using creative forms of teaching, through art or sports, the students feel a sense of accomplishment and can show off their progress to an audience. Public forums are extremely valuable to a child’s development – debates, spelling bees, art shows, athletic tournaments – they all provide an opportunity to show off the products of education.

Another key point in the Critical Pedagogy method is creating a curriculum with an emphasis on the collaborative process of learning. Students teach each other and teach the teacher, it is a constantly evolving process that benefits all involved – not simply a top-down method. As humans we are social beings, we do not go through life as isolated individuals so youth need to learn early on how to play and work with others, and cultivate those solid relationships that foster teamwork and respect for others. Even though sports don’t fit into the traditional schooling pattern, they are undoubtedly a space for education and a new type of classroom.