YDEV 501- Blog post #8

 BLOG POST #8: Tell us a story about a time in your life when you needed and received care. What did this look and feel like? How did SYSTEMS play a role in your story--how were institutions caring or uncaring?

The time in my life I needed and received care was when my mother passed away. She passed away 10 years ago, and it does not look like a moment or a year; it seems like the entire grief process of the past 10 years. I was 16 years old, and my mother had been sick for 7 years before her passing. I can not name a story in which I received one collective sense of support or care. I received love and care from friends, family, school staff, teachers, professors, etc.

This felt and looked very individualized. I was supporting my dad and my home at the same time as grieving my mother, so when I received support from a teacher, it would be in the moment. These moments may have gone on for 10 years but may have been throughout one year. If I think about a moment I have felt cared for and needed care, I would mention visiting my aunt, my mother's cousin, in NY. I took a trip and needed to get into the conversation without someone who really felt the loss of mine as their own.

Initially, I couldn't believe that going to my aunt's was fulfilling a pedagogy of healing justice, but it is. I only considered visiting my aunt as a healing moment once I read this week's reading of healing justice. My aunt was a supportive human being who believed the process in which we heal has to be attained by talking to my ancestors or voicing my fears and sadness. My visit was because I hadn't visited in some time, but my aunt could see I needed time to heal and just feel like a child, to be a kid again. Feeling cared for feels like being a kid again. I have duties and responsibilities of being an adult and ensuring my home is safe and taken care of, but going about and being catered to is how I feel cared for. Someone asking to fulfill a want, a need, is an act of care to me. Healing is continuously working to feel better from all the hurt but realizing that hurt will always be there, and there is always healing around the corner.

Systems played the role of acting as is. Institutions did not participate in my care, but pieces of the institutions i.e., professors, staff, community folks, family members, etc. Institutional systems kept me going and made me pick up the duties my mom left, but my dad couldn't understand. These systems forced me to pick up immediately and move forward, continue to go to school because I have grades and a diploma to get, to go to college, to get a job. The system makes me go, go, go. I have worked 2-3 jobs to manage a home and my bills while attending school full-time because the system made me. The care I felt was taking time to visit my family and go against the system. These were the moments in the past 4 years when I felt loved and cared for.  

The system sucks. I am exhausted. 

Listening to No More Grind: How to Finally Rest with Tricia Hersey made the connection between being free and resting.

Ideology BLOG POST #5

BLOG POST #5- Ideology Double journal. Choose 3 quotes from the readings or org websites that resonate with your philosophy of youth development. Paste them into your blog post. Underneath, write up a short reflection on each: what does this quote mean to you? How does it resonate/ apply/ speak to you?

NUA: "Agency: Our organization and programs are shaped in collaboration with young people. Day-to-day, NUA students decide what they want to do and are free to come and go as they choose. Mentor-educators are available to assist students in articulating and achieving their own goals–in their own way, at their own pace."

This quote is a beautiful representation of the organization I wish I had. NUA students can be a part of something and decide for themselves at a younger age what they want to do. There is autonomy there that many children would not get to access. Mentorships can change the way students learn and feel encouraged to be apart of something. We are limited to our knowledge from schools and our communities, yet NUA is a space where students learn about the creative world out there that's not bounded by responsibilities or an outcome. It's freeing. 

ARISE:

"SOLIDARITY: We believe that Black lives matter. We believe we must all do our parts to end anti-Blackness and act in solidarity with all oppressed groups’ fights for liberation.

JUSTICE: We believe that we must address root causes of systemic issues in order to heal from them. We believe in restorative justice as a means of transforming ourselves and the community.

INTERSECTIONALITY: We believe everyone has the right to be their whole selves. We honor multifaceted identities, communities, histories, and struggles."

ARISE is one of my favorite organizations for the three reasons above. I have had the privilege of seeing the social justice youth development and civic youth development work the organization does in action. I am a fond believer in SJYD and CYD, which resonates with my value system. The solidarity to justice and intersectionality makes for a sustainable future for our young people. The belief system of ARISE is that for the sake of humanity, we need to be aware, open, and active. I wish I was in a program like this in school too.

YIA: At YIA we offer the notion of “best selves” and a deep commitment to intergenerational collaboration. We believe that youth and adults can learn from each other and work together to address issues within our communities. At YIA, adults serve in the role of mentorship and allyship, amplifying the voices of youth and collaboratively cultivating a space for genuine, sustainable youth-led work.

YIA focus is on the generation of young people and their whole selves. The learning process is among all ages and continues to be! There are many opistives in trying to name and advocate on topics that effect people of our community in a community manor. Every voice matters, and the work can always be done together! 

Education can change the perception Blog Post #3

 BLOG POST #3- Name and describe three beliefs or “characterizations”about young people that these authors discuss. What ideas about children/ youth/ adolescents shape these stereotypes and how are these stereotypes impacted by race/ class/ gender/ sexuality? Share a memory (recent or distant) when you experienced or witnessed prejudice as a young person.

The three beliefs or characterizations about young people the author discusses are

1. Native children/adults are savages

2. education has, and continues to be, interested in nurturing some of its children

3. If we make children incompetent, vulnerable, and dependent- that allows for a blank slate "child" for the adults to mold as they please.

I read "The Childhood Innocence of Settler Children: Disrupting Colonialism and Innocence in Early Childhood Curriculum" by Tran Nguyen Templeton & Ranita Cheruvu. I decided to read the article because it discussed colonialism and its effect of children. As an Indian American woman whose motherland was colonized, I find teaching it to young people is essential in this country. The idea that children should only learn about things in minor ways, connected to holidays, allows for the minimization of curiosity in children. Only in November do we discuss native Americans because of Thanksgiving, because of the neighborhood activities that occurred, not the genocide of human beings. Making pilgrim hats and Native American clothing allows kids to get their share of information that is entirely incorrect. We are whitewashing a genocide of people to intact the behavior and the process of young people. The philosophy is that if students come to us without prior knowledge of topics, teachers can simply teach the curriculum they see fit. No child will question what is being taught to them in kindergarten unless they are raised in homes where things of their own culture are introduced to them. The idea that education has, and continues to be, interested in nurturing some of its children regulates race relations by producing a particular childhood that perpetuates white supremacy. That idea is connected to how every immigrant person, especially a child, may reflect on their presence in a classroom, that they are lucky to have been given an opportunity by a white-facing country to settle and grow here.

In the video "The Adultification of Black Girls," black girls are viewed as less innocent than their white counterparts and are treated as adult women. The example given in the video of R. Kelly grooming, controlling, and sexually abusing young black girls and boys has been accusing parents and these young black children of not being young enough. In the video, they mentioned if a white girl was a victim of R. Kelly's abuse, there would've been more outrage and acts of justice. Media and education curriculums are the main ways to teach young people and people of any age to be whole and meaningful human beings. We need to CUT OUT the white supremacist ideologies and speak the truth.

To this day, I have an uncomfortable time discussing Thanksgiving because of the massacre and the genocide of a community. I have many memories of people associating being Indian with being Native American, and that was a challenging moment to teach others. I was in elementary school trying to teach people the geography of the world. Our schools were mainly white-dominated, and it became a teaching moment everywhere I went. Even to the point that teachers would let me have the floor to teach about my culture because of the misunderstanding. I genuinely believe that our curriculum taught in schools has always been taught to make the white students in the room comfortable and happy with the issue at hand.

ideas for cap

 BLOG POST #9:  At the end of this semester, you are going to have a broad idea of what your YDEV Master’s Capstone Project will be.  The first step is to find something you care about and want to know more about.  Look back at the questions that you wrote in week two of this class and think about all we have done in the past two months.  What are you still curious about? Where do you want your influence to be in the world?  It can be personal.  It can be work related.  It can be creatively conceived but should be somehow tied to youth and the anchors of this program: Play, Care, identity, Social Justice/Advocacy, Leading With.  

Write a blog post about some of your possible ideas.  They can be loosely formed and broad, but start to write about possible topics.

An idea that has come to my mind in the past 2 weeks, was doing a dive into YDEV. Youth development has become one of my identities and I feel it connects so much of the world without being known. I want to establish the idea more with conversations, but the idea is that I research the youth development work out in the field and connect that to the program itself. Living in a small state like Rhode Island, the youth work can be seen in different diverse areas and throughout the city. I am curious about non profit organizations, I find that the I am always curious how they run, how they are employed, and how they are benefitting their society. NOW after class two weeks ago I am thinking about how many people in these non profit studies function, how they do not have degrees and are doing amazing work, how ceritfactes/degrees/ experience molds the work they do. I hear many folks over the course of 5 years describe YDEV work, but got a degree in communications or another source of education. They seem unamused by the degree but excited and passionate about the work they do. I share news about youth development to my young people, but I would like for this work to be shared and spread throughout the state/country. I would want to go into youth organizations/ community organizations and survey what people know about the work, and maybe teach people about this work.