Please find our new blog with exciting posts every week at
http://www.generationcitizen.org/the-blog
Thank you!
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We heard this from a Mentor after her first class in New York teaching at the Urban Assembly Academy for Government and Law…
“when we got to the four corners exercise, about two-thirds of the class actively participated, and from what I could tell, those that didn’t participate seemed to be engaged anyhow, like they were curious. There are definitely some students in this class that were very much engaging and made thoughtful and in some cases profound contributions. Students brought up issues relating to racism, law enforcement, teen parenthood, environmental degradation, local pollution, and public transit. A lot of them seemed very curious, and for some, it appeared to me that their participation in this setting was uncomfortable for them, but their curiosity led them to participate anyway…. I feel like a good sense of excitement and trust was established”
~Tara Stafford, Mentor in NYC
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I had the pleasure of meeting some students at the MET school today that have been volunteering their time after the completion of their regular GC class to work with their mentor Colin on a project to grow teen job preparation at high schools in Providence.
~Molly
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- Elena Maker
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Hello All!
Hello after a long winter hiatus! I hope this message finds you well, re-energized for a new year, and working towards your resolutions! As recent events in Arizona have reminded me, our work is urgent and deeply relevant. I plan to spend 2011 continuing our work towards empowering youth to use their MINDS and VOICES to consider issues, hear diverse arguments, and make positive change.
GC News:
First and foremost, Mentor applications for Spring are open and available on our website! Mentors (new or returning), please go to our homepage at www.GenerationCitizen.org. Returning mentors: please fill out an application as well; it will only take you 2 minutes!
For those of you that are looking for summer or post-graduation work opportunities, we’re going to be sending things along as they come up. Also, please let us know if you have specific inquiries: we also have contacts at many of these organizations:
Upcoming Events & Challenges:
We are now actively scheduling for Spring 2011 GC classes! If you are interested in bringing GC to your classroom or to the classroom of any teachers you recommend to us (either as a new or returning class) please get in touch with me (molly@generationcitizen.org) as soon as possible. We will be recruiting mentors early and can best work with your scheduling needs to find excellent mentors if you let us know now if you will be continuing your partnership for GC in the Spring.
We have improved our curriculum, increased our recruiting capacity to provide high quality mentors, and will hold a Professional Development day for new and returning teachers before Spring begins. Please keep your eye out for more announcements on this!
Spring GC classes will begin the week of Feb 8-12th Boston and Feb 14th -18th in Providence and will run until early May when we will hold our Spring Civics Day.
Some of you have already begun a year-long partnership. In this case, we would just like to know if you will continue to have the same scheduled time slot or if you need to change/adjust it from the Fall semester!
Class Spotlight:
A class from the MET school along with their Mentor Colin Murphy in Providence has been working hard over the winter to continue their GC project! They worked during the fall to promote more teen jobs and access to these for students at their school and in their city. The students volunteered to spend extra time outside of class to work with their Mentor to conduct a school-wide survey of student interest and needs. They also have reached out to local organizations such as the Providence After School Alliance to learn about existing options for job training for teens. Keep an eye out soon for a blog post from these students! In the meanwhile, I also definitely recommend reading our most recent incredibly thought-provoking post from a Mentor here.
Interesting Political and Youth Engagement News from the Outside World:
Teachers- I encourage you to share these with your students!
Uganda’s entrepreneurship curriculum hopes to create future leaders
Annotated version of the Constitution from the NYTimes
January is National Mentoring Month
RI. Board of Regents hears from critics of tiered diplomas
Problems of Democracy…Miranda in the Modern World
Always,
Molly
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The best lesson I ever facilitated for my class of 14-18 year-old 8th grade Students was my first lesson back from not seeing them in about a month. We’d had winter vacation, and I’d missed two lessons before that. My Students – half serious, a quarter relieved to see me, and a quarter jokingly – demanded an explanation for where I’d been, and whether or not I loved them anymore.
Their Teacher and I had determined before the lesson that discussing at length why I had been absent would be an exceptionally good use of time, especially because I am staying an extra term with my class (so time isn’t an issue) and because it’s so hard to get them actively engaged. We thought perhaps my story would be a good trigger.
My story started with the words, “The lesbian, gay, and straight alliance at my school.” Deep, shocked silence swept over our persistently noisy classroom as I told them how the words “fag,” “dyke,” “tranny,” “cunt,” and “no fags” were found in the LGBTQ safe-space at my college: these words were markered, masking taped, charcoaled, and even elaborately and violently jammed into the wall with pins (pointillism at its worst). As I told the story, I casually referenced my ex-girlfriend, and a subtle but noticeable buzz murmured through the classroom as I came out to my Students only after months of them getting to know and like me (a very conscious decision).
The story was followed by many, many questions and gross misconceptions. Their reaction to my story offered living proof that youth just need someone to identify with, as a watershed of previously unspoken prejudices and underSTANDings came to light. One of my Students – whom I literally had never heard speak more than 10 words in my whole time with the class – spoke at length about how he feels about interacting with lesbians and gay men. When he referenced how scared he was that gay men will hit on him, I asked him if it wasn’t the same thing as a woman whom he isn’t interested in hitting on him. He acknowledged that the analogy was sound, thereby letting go of some of his fear (because while it’s never pleasant to have to turn someone down, he is not afraid of interacting with women because of it!). He also said, ‘I’ve only met one lesbian before, and she’s alright,’ so I walked over to him, shook his hand, and congratulated him for having met another. The laughter that rang through the room wasn’t derisive, which I’ve become too used to in that context. It was a laughter of relief and underSTANDing that I was being honest with them and that it was something new they could ask me about.
The depth of their questions about transgender issues revealed horrendous misconceptions, and they listened to my explanations with nervous but rapt attention. Other Students piped in with stories of having had gay foster fathers, bisexual friends, etc. One of the boys was insistent upon drawing connections between gay men and the abuse of children, at which point many other students chimed (loudly) in with distinctions between pedophilia and being gay. To further the underSTANDing, his Teacher and I asked him if a straight woman couldn’t be a foster mother to a male child, and he said ‘well, of course, but that’s because women can’t rape anyone.’ A shout went up amongst the girls in the room and their Teacher, all protesting what he said. I quieted them, and when silence fell, I asked the Student if he really thought women can’t rape anyone. He said they couldn’t. I waited for the nervous giggling to die down and steadied myself with a few breaths before I looked at him and said, ‘well, I was raped by a woman.’
Forget pindrops, you could hear ants crawling across the floor in the hallway. The silence was broken by one of my male students, who had been visibly uncomfortable throughout the lesson. He giggled as he looked at me and asked, ‘well, did you like it?’ I stepped back as though he’d punched my face and said softly, ‘no, John*’ as his teacher and one of his female classmates started yelling at him for being insensitive and inappropriate. I asked him softly why he thought that and he was very confused by my hurt reaction. He genuinely stuttered that he thought I liked sex with women, so if a woman raped me, why wouldn’t I like it? I asked if a straight woman would like getting raped by a man and comprehension that had been lacking the whole class finally began to set into his face. He listened – quietly instead of giggling with one of his friends as he had been much of the lesson – as I explained that sexuality didn’t matter – no means no, and nothing else is acceptable. His friend who had been giggling apologized on his own accord, telling me that he hadn’t been laughing at my story, but something that John had on his phone.
The Students had other questions, which I proceeded to answer, and one of them asked about how and when one ‘knows’ they’re gay. I explained to them that sex and gender labels mean different things to different people, but that I personally have liked women since I was very young (even though I hadn’t known what that meant). John piped up for the second time and said, ‘yeah, I’ve liked women since the day I was born,’ and as I smiled and told him that we have that in common, he laughed his first genuine laugh since class began. Are all his misconceptions gone? No. But do I know from the connection we made with that exchange that it was an excellent decision for me to come out – in more than one way – to my Students? Yes.
Curiosity about these issues amongst high schoolers is so high, but without a safe context in which to pursue these questions, the only thing that solidifies is fear and prejudice. You could physically feel both of these melting away in this lesson.
And now, suddenly, the class has – in an unspoken and unanimous fashion – decided to narrow their class project from youth community empowerment to bullying in their school and community: many of them are specifically researching bullying of LGBTQ students. They want to educate their entire school about these issues. None of them wanted to bring up bullying before I brought it into the classroom: none of them wanted to be accused of being an aggressor or a victim (many of them occupy both roles).
This is precisely why Generation Citizen’s model of having Mentors from college teach the Students is so important: our own experiences can help Students reach areas of their lives that they normally would be too timid to tap into. The Empowerment that I’ve seen amongst the class since that lesson has been incredible, and I am so proud of each and every one of them. The foot of snow we just got? Not stopping me from taking the hour and a half bus rides and walking 2 miles to see them tomorrow morning.
- Liz Amahoro (Name of mentor has been changed to protect identity)
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We are now three days into our Chilean GC workshop and things have progressed quickly and very postively. Yesterday we decided upon our issue- the inequality of the school systems in Chile. This is of course a hugely expansive and complex problem, but after careful and almost tedious discussion the students boiled their idealistic thoughts into a singular action plan. They will produce a pamphlet of information for their peers that gives important imformation about access to scholarships, necessary credits one must take, and their equivalent to the infamous SAT. Their issue reflects their personal stake in their future and in their communities. As our program coordinator Monica so insightfully put it, ¨people must care about an issue on a very personal and relevant level before they can take effective action¨. Accordingly, our students have decided upon something they see as vital to their own sucess, as well as the sucess of Chilean students country-wide.
Monica also gave us a better context for Chilean education and Chilean civic participation. She explained that when the recent Pinochet dictatorship ended in Chile, citizen engagement actually decreased. People grew more reliant on the government to take care of the basic infrastructure of the country, while also growing more apt to blame the government for any problems they experience. This is in fact why the community organization we are working with, TAC (workshops for community action) came into being- because TAC wanted promote community localized ownership. Accordingly, it took our students a couple of hours yesterday morning to unpack their large goal of demanding more equality in the schools. They did not immediately realize that they themselves could affect change and take the issue upon themselves. When that barrier was finally broken, however, our highly competent students immediately began formulating a comprehensive plan for their informational guide.
Today, we travled from our homebase in TAC to the Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, where Monica is based. Here we had the great fortune to use five computers to do research on access to higher education through the routes explained above. The students worked incredibly effectively in small groups to produce a wealth of knowledge. We then had the privilege to tour the university and give the kids a chance to see for themselves what scholarships etc can earn for them. The entire day´s events were very inspiring. On of our group´s student leaders, Matias, arrived for the first time not at ten thirty, but actually before nine am, so to be ready to leave for our fieldtrip. And as time progresses, not only do our students become more bonded and cohesive, but so too do we extranjeros (foreigners) become much closer to our students.
The Chilean students´ experience provides an interesting contrast to my past students in Providence. For in the PPSD, it seems that students feel similarly distant from their government, but also much more self-reliant and able to conjure concrete steps towards action. However, they paradoxically have proved less self-directed when given time to work on their project. While this observation only stems from the two classes I have taught, I do believe that the Chilean students are helping me to realize not only the universal ability of young people to made a difference, but also particular strengthes and weaknesses of both groups. With this in mind, I have very high hopes for tomorrow´s goal of compiling our research into the actual final product!
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The GC Team
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While GC is on break in the US, one of our fabulous Brown College Coordinators, Elena Maker, and her friend Evan Coleman, decided to embark on a journey to Chile, where they’re volunteering with a youth organization and attempting to implement a GC-type curriculum. It’s exciting to see the international parallels. See their first thoughts below:
We arrived at the small blue steps of TAC at 9am via one of the local “Micro” buses and as we hop-stepped down the steps we entered into another world of small, wild children chasing one another, of sweaty volunteers digging and weeding and screaming girls clapping hands. Everything we passed, walked on, looked at, seemed to be part of a student-run project from years past and colorful charts, maps and paintings decorated the pale walls. We strode into the center of the work space and sat in petite chairs and were slowly introduced to the other volunteers we would be working with for the next week. Though our conversations were brief, the enthusiasm of these three volunteers and their fondness and kindness towards the students was very inspiring and in that vein we began our workshop.
Unfortunately we arrived two days into the workshop, but luckily our two very adept partners from the Universidad Catolica del Valparaiso managed the first two lesson plans wonderfully! Our first activity with our new students included all the counselors and students. Each of us wrote down five Yes or No questions on post-its that ranged from “Do you like school?” to “Have you every composed a song?” and after sticking the yes responders with our post-its, we read off the accumulated facts that others had stuck us with. The students took to the game very well and our first planned activity succeeded! After this we moved on to the two issues that the group had decided on the previous day: the problems caused by Genetically modified foods and problem with the Fishing industry as a whole taking away the revenue of local fishermen.
Then to hear more from the students we had each individual create a speech about what they would do if they were president, what changes they would make. Though some (including ours) were on the brief side, a few of the students had clearly thought about this before and spent upwards of 10 minutes perfecting their nominee address. What was perhaps most interesting (or maybe should have been expected given our surroundings) was that almost every student mentioned the need to change their education system. That not only was economic inequality a huge issue for entrance into coveted schools but that once the students arrived at the schools they felt their hard work and money wasted as teachers brushed over their needs in huge classes and then blamed the students for not focusing enough. The most important issue seemed to be: how do we fix the poor school stystems here and what can we do about the quantity and quality (both very low) of teachers. This would later become our central focus for the class.
Next we spoke of the types of governments that exist, of Democracies, Monarchies and Dictatorships. We discussed the problems that came with each of these and came to the unanimous decision that yes, a Democracy is the best way to decide for our class. After a quick water and plum break we returned to the drawing board to narrow our focus on the issues, and already we could see something awaken within these students, that they were not trying to fool us into believing their sincerity, but that they were actually motivated to learn more about this issue, and explore it, (YES!).
It is remarkable how similar today´s progression of events mirrored the way in which GC unravels in Providence. The students of TAC expressed very similar concerns to many Providence students about the quality of public education in Chile. As we began delving into different issues regarding the ¨disigualidad¨, or inequality in their schools, similar themes of poor opportunities, uninspiring teachers, and difficult college exams all surfaced. Students Michelle and Matias both gave detailed personal accounts of how their schools and disempowered them and how their teachers had neglected to teach them properly. When we began to brainstorm ways in which we could confront this massive problem, one student suggested that we create a video that exemplifies both the poor teaching they witness in their schools, and then gives ways that teachers could improve. The quick rate at which this idea was formed serves as yet another testament to how students can and will sieze an opportunity to address an issue in an effective and creative way.
Also interesting is the similar way in which students here struggle to take that initial leap into issue dialogue. It seems like the switch from passive student to active participant tests the students´ concept of school and power dynamics. This is ultimately a very necessary and sucessful transition, however today´s events illuminate the overal difficulty of the issue of dialogue. Perhaps this experience in Chile will help to deepen our understanding of how students can seize when this often unique opportunity to determine their own schedules, their own plans, and their own actions.
Though there is always more to tell, I will end here for today on a bittersweet note: though understanding the thick accents and speed of the people that spoke around us proved impossible at times we had seen real progress, the class was working.
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I taught a high school senior civics class this year whose students were always interrupting one another so that they could be heard by the class as if their opinions were superior. To stop this from wasting our time I brought in a grey foam brain that read It’s Kind of a Funny Story. I kept trying to think about how I could keep them respectful and teach them that they were too old to interrupt one another mid-sentence, but of course passing the brain around like the little boys of The Lord of the Flies with their conch did not work. They thought that the brain was a stupid idea after they tried it. I decided that their outbrusts called for a story of explanation so I told the truth about why I had the brain and how it was a metaphor.
The brain being passed around for respect was like knowledge being passed around. Whoever held the brain was entitled to speak and whoever did not have the brain would listen. The brain gave the holder a power to do something that no one else in the room could do: speak his/her honest opinion.
This metaphor made me think of Foucault who examined what he called “regimes of practice” which he describes as “places where what is said and what is done, rules imposed and reasons given, the planned and the taken for granted meet and interconnect” (Essential Works vol.3 p. 225.) For my students I “prescribed [an] ideology” by allowing the brain to be passed around the room in the sense of an authority and an order to “insure domestic tranquility.”
But I also had to learn that in order to enforce my idea of the brain, I had to have a discipline behind it. Because my students are only a few months younger than I am, at first I didn’t think that discipline was even needed. I kept thinking, “Who am I to even levy a punishment?” I thought, “Who am I to allow myself to be controller of my students with rules and obligations?” And I thought that discipline would not help my students share their opinions in times of disparity, nor would it bring a comfort of safety and confidentiality to the classroom. But reform was needed: my students needed to trust themselves. I did not want to hijack my students’ rights to share their opinions especially because of the first amendment. I didn’t want them trapped. Instead, I wanted them to think critically and to understand that with respect, we can gain knowledge.
Eventually I realized that disciplining my students for talking on top of someone or making rude remarks would not overstep my authority. Instead it would push a power into them as indiviuals in the classroom.
~Maggie, a Mentor teaching in New York City at the Foundations Academy
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