CARE

I would define the word care as nurturing, someone or even yourself showing interest and fulfilling your needs. In the Nice is Not Enough: Defining Caring for Students  of Color by Sonia Nieto https://drive.google.com/file/d/14eHdQuRFpyp7NcOuXNMVhPare1ACnY9E/view speaks about the term caring in an education setting. 

    Neito states that caring, "Caring within a structure plagued by inequality takes multiple forms, and at some moments when we think we are caring for students of color we actually are harming them because we are failing to counter a social structure that treats them unequally." (P.1) I never really viewed caring in this perspective. 

    

Nieto uses different strategies with teachers to understand the definition of care. The first is "teachers to consider and debate how, despite their best intentions, they might actually participate in various institutional practices of not caring for students. To ensure that their institutions are caring for students, educators can begin to ask one another, in so many words, what it means to care for their student body." (P.2,Nieto) This exercise is for participants to really challenge themselves into defining the meaning of caring. The author then helps teachers to explore their students in the classroom, choose an individual group remove stereotypes about the needs from particular backgrounds. This gives teachers a "understanding of how group membership affects the contexts in which students live." (P.2,Neito)

     This is then followed by demonstrating care in the classroom. Teachers may think that praising a student, adding cultural components into the curriculum and lowering stands for a student is showing care. Which this isn't really caring claims the author. Nieto mentions "ethic of care" "means a combination of respect, admiration, and rigorous standards." (P.3, Nieto) 

    To define what Nieto means about care, there are different component to caring. The author shares the "ethic of care" following that speaks about researcher Rosalie Rolon-Dow describes this as critical care. the students actual personal lives and the unequal system they encounter as members of racialized groups. "Teachers must understand individual students within their concrete sociopolitical contexts and devise specific pedagogical and curricular strategies to help them navigate those contexts successfully." (P.3,Nieto) 

    The author shares a journal entry from a white teacher, Mary Ginley and the interactions with students of color. This journal entry stood out to me because "We have plenty of warm friendly teachers who tell the kids nicely to forget their Spanish and ask mommy and daddy to speak to them in English at home" (P.1, Nieto)  This quote literally took me back to my elementary days. I am a student that comes from an English Second Language household. I struggled with speaking English and my parents did not understand much English. I remember my teacher handed out instructions for a big project in English. I kindly asked her if there was a way if she can find a way to translate it in Spanish for my parents to read or make it easier for me to read for my parents. And she had the audacity to respond "this is perfect practice for you and your parents to speak English." I remember I did the project wrong and she commented that in front of the class. I was so embarrassed. She was a "nice" teacher but just like the article speaks about nice is not enough.

    

After reading this article I learned that CARING bigger than that! A student should be understood, heard and empathized with. An educator shouldn't give them the easiest task or even just ignore the student. There shouldn't be an easy way out to teach students of color.

     

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-_q9XUofqrmNlFFOVE3MWd1SWs/view

    Let me just start off with saying...holy cow 🙆 totally mind blown 💣💥with soooo much knowledge from this article. The New Terrain in Youth Development: The Promise of a Social Justice Approach by Shawn Ginwright and Julio Cammarota article is a  well written, the authors broke down the social justice approach. Honestly, this has been one of the first readings that I did not want to keep eyes off of. The authors start off speaking on the topic of  Positive Youth Development; discussing how this method is not correct fit for urban youth. This method was implemented in the early 1990s, it was meant to fix the youth, that they were the problem. Even though PYD emphasized developing young people through skill and asset build this does not help the development of urban youth. This was created based on a dominate cultural frame such as white youth. Also, this turns a blinds eye towards the social, economic and political views. The way I view Positive Youth Development

PYD=OPPRESSION

    Quoting Ginwright and Cammarota "Consequently, we are left with an over-romanticized, problem-free view of youth." (P.84) I picked this quote in particular because the phrase over romanticized is a great way  to put PYD into this category. 

    Social Justice Youth Development (SJYD) approach focuses on two elements which are critical consciousness and social action. 

👈This map outlines SJYD approach. I view SJYD as a building 🏢. Under Social Justice Youth Development is critical consciousness and social action (ability to act) this is the frame of the building 🖾 with these two elements being put together this forms praxis: reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it. This all ties into the framework of the building. The self awareness, social awareness and global awareness fall under critical consciousness, the foundation. With the foundation and the framework this supports the building in other words it causes HEALING and that is the goal of SJYD. 

    I agree with the authors, this ideology is not a great fit for the urban youth community. African American and Latinos have a deeper background, not many come from a "white picked fence" household. Physical and Social toxins are mentioned in the article, in order to understand the youth behavior one must study the cause of the behavior. 

Context from the article: "Young people’s choices are bound up by complex relationships between peers, family, school, and work, as well as with the political and economic resources available to them (Wyn and White, 1997). James Garbarino (1995: 61) argued that the presence of violence and poverty in urban communities generates “social toxins..., a term used to represent the degree to which the social world has become poisonous to a person’s well-being.” Drawing from environmentalists who have identified environmental toxins such as lead paint, found in older homes and building, pesticides in our soil, or poor air quality from local refineries, Garbarino identifies social equivalents to physical toxins." (P.85-86)

-The authors state that these toxins lead to "apathy, fatalism, and self-destructive behaviors." (P.86)-

The YouTube video How Can We Win speech by Kimberly Jones is the perfect representation of toxins. 

👇

    I remember when BLM movement began and there were people including people of color (wealthy) speaking "how can the looters destroy our town, they are making us look bad" I would argue there is a reason for it they are taking this opportunity to get back what they need for survival. I loved the monopoly reference, that is the perfect indication of how the system is run. 

 I Know What I Believe: Using Theory to Prepare Youth Workers

Corinne McKamey

Lesley Bogad

Rachael Lee Ficke Clemons

Victoria Restler

   

    This reading is speaks about the Youth Development program in Rhode Island College. This outlines the meaning of Youth Development, the values and beliefs about the field, and locate their own identities and ideologies of youth work practice.

    I believe that the youth is part of the community and I view them as citizens. They should and have their own voices and be heard to make a change. Each youth are still developing and growing but they still have an impact in todays society. I use to think that the youth is the next generation, throughout this course my believes has slightly shifted. The youth is part of the society, they are part of the community and they are citizens. The three quotes that stood out to me that fit my philosophy were:

    

 1. "SJYD organizations provide spaces for young people and adults to not only exercise power within existing structures, but to work to disrupt and transform oppressive systems." (P.6, McKamey, Bogad, Clemons, Restler) - When I took the Youth Development Ideology Inventory my result was Social Justice Youth Development. Belief: Teens are legitimate actors and collaborators who have important ideas and ways of contributing to the world. Orientation: Youth workers focus on how youth engage with and impact their communities and cultures. The youth can definitely make a difference in this world. A classmate of mine shared her experience in Youth in Action and Providence Student Union, she participated in the student walk out in 2018 advocating in gun control. Greta Thunberg is another example, she skipped school and sat down outside the Swedish parliament to express her thoughts about climate control and now all over the world the youth have been using their voices. The meaning of this quote to me is that the youth and adults work together to express what they believe in not just in existing problems but making a change in the within their community and or world. This applies to my philosophy on youth is part of the community, they have the right to have free speech, make a difference especially in a community that they live in.

      

 2. "Youth development is complex, multifaceted and challenging work. The “what” of youth work -- skills and competencies — are critical to the professional training of youth workers. And the “why” — the values, culture, and theories of change that shape youth worker identities and ideologies — are equally vital." (P.16,McKamey, Bogad, Clemons, Restler)- When people ask what are you studying in school? I proudly answer Youth Development. I always get back the blank face and what is that response. So I go into more detail about YDEV. Then I get the response oh so like your taking care of kids, like babysitting. And then I school them on the five anchors of YDEV which are Purposeful Play, Care, Identity, Advocacy and Social Justice, and  Leading With. I would interpret this quote that youth development has many layers and phases and it is challenging. As a youth worker one must have the skills to successfully perform in the youth space to create a positive and safe environment. This quote fits into my philosophy because I would describe youth development work this way.

      

 3. "Practitioners of this ideology believe that youth work programs should help children and adolescents further develop their strengths and interests (Pittman, et al., 2003)." (P.5)-

This quote came from the section of Positive Youth Development, This quote to me means that folks work with the youth believe that programs should help young folks develop and strengthen their skills for the future. I think of the program After Zone http://www.mypasa.org/afterzone-middle-school/, this after school program is filled many activities that attract young people and these activities open the pathway for them develop new skills and or improve on their skills. This quote resonates to my philosophy by envisioning a youth space with positive outcomes. Youth should be in a space where they believe they can grow and learn.