I see you, I hear you, you are valid.

Tiny Humans Deserve to be Scene, Heard and listened to. 

Some of the best moments I have ever had with youth are moments where they taught me something valuable. 

Yes you read that right, the youth TAUGHT ME something valuable. 

The reason I refer to youth so often as tiny humans is because yes I love Greys Anatomy, BUT I feel in youth work we tend to forget that they are just that, tiny humans, with voices, ideas, and experiences that deserve to be heard. Youth are not less interesting then adults just because they are not as old. Youth are important humans with diverse experiences that deserve to be valued. 

Marcus is the poster child for the "classic trouble maker child" campaign. Often his behavior and outbursts are planned and he know what he is doing he is doing for attention.  However what Carla Shalaby reminds us is that all attention seeking behavior leads us back to my original point, is the child being scene, are you actually hearing what they are saying, and are you activity listening to what they are telling you.

One example of an adult that was able to respect Marcus as a tiny human and there for meet his needs was the school Librarian. Marcus had made it very clear to her that he hated books and hated reading, instead of moving on and ignoring his behavior the librarian engages with him and asks what she can do to help him love the library and love books. He tells her that he doesn't have a lot of books at home, the Librarian hears him and sends him home with a stack of books.

Marcus was very often scene in full by his classmates especially his friend Maria. We see this when Marcus is having a rough day and he ends up ripping up a personal family photo of Marias family. As soon as he does this Maria cries and becomes very upset. Marcus does not like hurting other people, he loves his friends and family and does not want his actions to be the reason someone is upset so he does his absolute best to tape the picture back together and give it back to Maria. His classmates often see him as a complex human that he is

Marcus like all tiny humans want to make the adult figures in there life proud. When Carla attended a therapy session with Marcus and his mother, he was so afraid that he would disappoint her and Carla would tell her all the bad things he does at school, however Shelby does just the opposite. She tells his mother and therapist all of the good moments she was able to observe in school, all the times she caught him being an amazing friend and student. He was able in that moment to feel like he made his mom proud.

"I'm young, scrappy and hungry And I'm not throwin' away my shot"

" I realize three fundamental truths at the exact same time......"

Number One: My teachers do not enjoy working with me. This is a crappy job that no one really wants to do, being a high school teachers is a chore and high school teachers are saviors for wanting to do such a horrible job. 

Number Two: My only job is to sit still, be quite, and do as I am told. I am not an active participant in my learning. I will be a submissive audience to my teachers ideals, views and teaching styles. My opinions and needs do not matter in a classroom.  I will learn the way they want me to learn. 

Number Three: The expectation that society has for me is that between the ages of  13-24 I will cause trouble, make bad choices, act out, try drugs, alcohol, maybe get arrested. I should sneak around lie to my parents, drive to fast and hang out with " the wrong crowd"  

We do not expect youth to be leaders of a changing society where they are important members of our future. We expect youth to shut up, pay attention, follow the rules. How many time were you told " well when I was your age?", "well me and my friends" , " My parents never let me". 

Well when you were my age musical idols like Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison were dying of drug overdoses.

When you were my age crack cocaine got introduced for the first time in Los Angeles.

When you were my age Black Monday occurred.

When you were my age the Yellowstone fires devastated Yellowstone Nation park. 

When you were my age the first major school shooting happened in the US. 

Every single generation of youth experiences challenges associated with society at the time of there maturity but why after all this time do we still hold youth to impossible standards and place such strong stereotypes and limits on them. We place youth in a situation where they are consistently told that they are unimportant and not valuable members of our society, but how is that possible when they are our future society? We as adults can not time travel make a perfect future for our youth, the youth have to build that future for them selves so why do we stifle there voices and ideas on how to build that future for them selves? 

When I was a teenager I learned what a lock down was, I learned how to hide in fear in the corner of my classroom feeling helpless, scared and alone.

When I was a teenager I learned how easy it was for someone to anonymously bully me from behind a keyboard.  

When I was a teenager I saw my friend commit suicide with a gun that was in there home .

Do not discredit my experiences based on the number of times the Earth has rotated around the sun since I have been alive. I am a valuable voice worth being heard and if you want to support that voice on my journey to success then please get that teaching degree, please become a youth worker, please become a parent. Children deserve to be scene, heard, and appreciated as the tiny HUMANS they are. 

 

Conditioned Failing

This packet is super informative on the history of youth development however quite honestly it just frustrated me on how little to no progress has been made in this area even though we have all of the research to back up that the deficient approach does not work. I know all to well how that system works. I am a clear representative of how that system fails. It does not work. This is honestly why I am a youth development major and why I am such a huge advocate for after school education programs, especially for rural communities as well. Rural communities often lack after school programs and transportation. I would like to learn more about how this movement has been implemented in New England specifically. I feel like in Rhode Island we are always 20 years behind the rest of the world in everything especially education.  I happen to be watching Glee while writing this and one of the high school students discovers that he is dyslexic, he went through all that time being told he just needed to apply him self, he just needed to focus more, turns out he had an actually un-diagnosed  learning disability. These kind of stories happen all of the time. Kids who fall through the cracks because the education system leaves behind kids who dont succeed. I love the idea of YDEV that's why i'm here with you right now, but we have so much work to do.