A World Where Youth Hold the Power
By: Adeola A. Oredola
A New Definition of
Youth
Most youth are taught, as I
was as a kid, that children are better seen and not heard. Even though most children are taught not to
question authority, they still have things that they are just itching to say. As a kid, most decisions are made for you
whether you like it or not. When you
feel you have no power then most children just accept it and don't try. That is why YIA is so important because it
gives kids the opportunity to finally be able to say what is on their mind
without the fear of getting into trouble.
Youth and Adults are
Growing Together
It is vital for youth and adults to be working side by
side for multiple reasons. For one, if
children are always used to being about adults that truly care about what they
have to say then that is how trust is built.
It is important to trust the adults in the community and to have good
relationships with them so there is less intimidation. Another good reason would be that the youth
in a community are really the ones who know what is going on. As an adult, you can take a lot of educated
guesses as to how to fix a community but the ones who are really seeing what is
happening are the youth. The youth are
living these problems every day. So in
order to make effective changes, it is important for youth and adults to help
each other out. This coincides with the
idea of "Working with youth, not to them." In school, youth are taught was in right and
wrong and how to think. If you disagreed
or questioned anything then you were usually wrong. In reality, we can all learn from each other. Personally, I was not required to do much
thinking for myself in high school so when I graduated it was a little bit of a
smack in the face. YIA insures that
children grow up and are ready to step out into the real world.
Practice of
Disagreement
It is very important
to be able to discuss differences in opinions without anybody getting
hurt. We live in a world where if
something does not match up with what you agree then it is automatically
wrong. Just look at social media; people
are constantly putting others down for what they say or believe. YIA is different because it allows everyone
to listen and understand why everyone believes what they do. We are always so quick to judge and because
of that many are scared to voice our opinions.
By respecting each other, making progress
will be that much easier.
"I like that I'm
a part of a place where there are so many different opinions. The trust, respect, and openness make us stronger
. -Diana Jacques
Learning and Speaking
the Truth
It is crucial for youth
to speak out because as I mentioned before, the youth of a community usually
see a lot more of what is going on than others.
I thought that Monay's story about the Free Minds, Free people
conference was amazing. In school you
don't get the chance to tell teachers how you feel or if the way you are being
taught isn't really helping you. It is
important for youth to speak the truth and let their concerns be heard because many
times the concerns will go unknown or just ignored.
Hi Missy!
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I want to say that I really like how you set up your blog and how it was organized. It is easy to follow, and the visuals you provided are a great addition to your content. I also liked how you started off your blog with explaining youth today and tied it back to Youth in Action. You did a great job at providing evidence of your own though process. You did the assignment a bit different from how I did it and I really enjoyed that because it gave me a better understanding of the reading and a better perspective.
-Brittany W.
Hi Missy!
ReplyDeleteI love that your blog and your posts are so organized and easy to follow. With the limited word count, I feel you really hit some of the more important and solid points of the YIA article. Being taught that your presence is better when you are seen and not heard creates an atmosphere that what you have to say and your opinions don't matter and teaching youth that creates a low self esteem and in the end creates a very timid adult. Youth should be empowered and YIA does a very good job of this with the points you brought up in your blog that youth and adults grow together and that it's okay to disagree. Youth today need to know that it is okay to speak up and disagree and not hold back their feelings and opinions. The youth in YIA are more confident than most and that's an amazing benefit of this organization. Overall, well done!
Channy.
I like how you focused on "trust" between youth and adults, and the importance of this. I agree, it's so important to establish this in your work!
ReplyDeletePS- I just met this Frank the raccoon-looking character on your blog, hehehe love him.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It's a puppy now, haha I keep changing it when I'm bored
DeleteFirst off, I really like the way your blog is set up...I love the heading with the dots! I can totally relate to how you said "Personally, I was not required to do much thinking for myself in high school so when I graduated it was a little bit of a smack in the face." This was 100% me in hihg school, and made my first year of college very difficult. I think that if I had had the opportunity to be part of an organization like YIA, this might have been very different.
ReplyDelete