Everyone can do something

While reading some the kids remarks in "Shame of the Nation," I could picture kids from MCCS saying them. I've talked to kids there and they've mentioned little things that "normal" schools had that they didn't. When we first went to MCCS to meet the students a girl in my group asked about just having one teacher, rather than switching classrooms. The boys in our group said how much they didn't like it. They said that it was like being back in elementary school, and that it wasn't fair. Money is always such an issue... "Yet here I am one night, a guest within their home, and dinner has been served and we are having coffee now; and this entirely likable, and generally sensible, and beautifully refined and thoughtful person looks me in the eyes and asks me whether you can really buy your way to a better education for the children of the poor" (p.152). People are way too good at categorizing. "The children of the poor" are still children! It's disgusting that even "sensible" people can think of a kid and ask such a ridiculous question. It's as if the "children of the poor" are a sub species or something that makes them different from the other children (children of the wealthy). Every child has the potential to do amazing things and the fact that some don't even get a chance to see an opportunity to do so is really saddening. When people are told everyday they are lesser, chances are the majority of them will live to that standard. And when I say "told" I don't mean someone wakes them up in the morning with an alarm chanting "lesser human being." But maybe the kid wakes up to his or her parents arguing, or didn't sleep at all during the night because he or she had to take care of a younger brother because the parents had to work a graveyard shift. There are countless ways people are told they are not worth as much as other people without a single word being said. Just driving by a school that has a playground can tell a child that for some unknown reason they don't deserve that.

Another thing that stood out to me was the kind of "Taylorism" method in the classroom. Maybe it was just me but the image of the teachers silencing method kind of scared me; "his arm shot out and up in a diagonal in front of him, his hand straight up, his fingers flat. The young co-teacher did this, too. When they saw their teachers do this, all the children in the classroom did it, too" (p.155). I feel like a place designed to teach children has no need to treat them like they are already in lock down. By teaching kids with a method that prepares them to spend all their time doing exactly what they are told, the school is ultimately creating zombies. Zombies that cannot have a creative idea because they have had their creativity and imaginations stunted since the time they entered the education system. It's like the "how many uses can you think of for a paper clip" test. The more answers you come up with, the closer to being a genius you are. Einstein would have hit around 200. At this school I bet there is one answer; to hold a piece of paper to another piece of paper. How many geniuses can come out of a school that teaches you that there is only one answer? How many questions just have one answer??

I read the article "Learning to Lead: Building on Young People's Desire to "Do Something" by Joel Wetheimer, Joseph Kahne, and Bethany Rogers. The first thing I highlighted was the statement "apathy and alienation among youth and young adults have contributed to a new cynicism about the potential for change" (p.1). The questions "is it really gonna make a difference?" or "how am I supposed to change the world?" or even "what's the point, no one listens anyways", don't stem from nothing. I personally have spent a lot of time feeling that all my work doesn't really do anything. But I guess you'll never know if you can make a difference if you don't try. The program Do Something helps promote "young people's ability to envision change and their capacity to lead" (p.2). The program teaches them new ways of looking at things. It also teaches them that they actually can make a difference. The first course students take focuses on developing the participants' attitudes, skills and knowledge, meaning motivation, strategies and looking at problems in a way that addresses root causes, symptoms, and how to balance the different solutions. Another really important part of this program looks at the fact that "a lot of people have visions for the future, but...they don't know [how to] help" (p.5). Without breaking a problem down into it's root causes or just smaller pieces, it may seem impossible. But once you do that you can begin to look at the separate solutions.

"The other side of it is that everybody can do something. A lot of times we get so caught up in what we can't do, that we lose sight of what we can do. And I think just that statement alone, that says we can all do something" (p.4).