Showing category "Youth" (Show all posts)

Evaluating Youth Success - You Know It When You See It

Posted by Sarah McCann on Friday, July 13, 2012, In : Youth 
Tonight I attended the OSI Baltimore event How One Program is Keeping Kids in the Community and Out of the Justice System. The event was held at Taharka Brothers Ice Cream Factory. LaMar Davis, Director of The Choice Program was speaking with several of his students. It was a nice event. Food was provided by the Dogwood Restaurant, there was ice cream, of course and a good crowd. 

The beginning of the evening allowed folks to mingle and interact and there were lots of great people to talk to. ...
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Contemplating Dodge Ball

Posted by Sarah McCann on Monday, June 27, 2011, In : Youth 
Last week was the first week of summer camp at Baltimore Clayworks. It was great. It was one of those moments that seemed to have the right people and things in all the right places. And somehow most of the week for me revolved around dodge ball. This seems an unlikely activity for one of my best weeks in recent memory, but somehow I feel like dodge ball was a key element to everything. I remember dodge ball from gym class in elementary school and not in a good light. I remember kids being br...
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Honor our Children

Posted by Sarah McCann on Wednesday, July 21, 2010, In : Youth 
I saw a man reprimanding a young girl today, she must have been about 9 or 10. He said "I am the authority and you had better respect me." and proceeded to lecture her on how she had to respect adults, not give attitude, and about how lucky she was to be attending his program for free because otherwise she would have nothing to do this summer. He then told her that she could not come back to class. She sat on a chair outside the door for the next 4 hours. What had this girl done? She had refu...
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Children and Choices

Posted by Sarah McCann on Tuesday, July 13, 2010, In : Youth 
Children need choices. They need a structure to these choices, yes, but above all, they need to be able to make decisions about their role and activity in the world. Not having choices results in children feeling powerless and thus acting out, being defiant in order to prove (probably only to themselves) that they do have the ability to control their lives.

As adults, we may not always understand or see the reasoning behind children's choices and I have seen this lead to many adults making fun...
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Children's Choices

Posted by Sarah McCann on Friday, April 2, 2010, In : Youth 
Children need choices. They need to be able to decide the things that impact their lives. From picking out their clothes in the morning, to where to go to school, to what they learn at that school, they need to be a part of the things that affect them. Of course they need guidance and adults who will encourage, model and advise on healthy, rational decisions. Of course they will make mistakes, we all make mistakes, it is how we learn. The problem of not allowing children to make decisions com...
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Should We Censor Our Youth?

Posted by Sarah McCann on Saturday, March 27, 2010, In : Youth 
I have already written about YouthSpeaks Seattle and how impressed I was by the young performers. I was also impressed by the variety, depth, and intensity of their topics and with the fact that they spoke seriously and reflectively about subjects as varying as crushes, family, rape, sex, sickness, death, race, and culture. The organizers of the show seemed to trust the young people to perform what they felt, to write their experiences and truths, to express their emotions. The poems were raw...
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The Power of Words, the Voice of Youth

Posted by Sarah McCann on Sunday, March 21, 2010, In : Youth 
This is my response to "Youthspeaks Seattle" the youth poetry grand slam finals held at the Moore Theater in Seattle on Friday, March 19th. I randomly happened past the Moore in my exploration of Seattle while there visiting and the marquis drew me in. I work with youth, I love poetry, and the Youth Dreamers and I just committed to co-hosting Wide Angle Youth Media's Poetry event on Tuesday, April 20th at Metro Gallery in Baltimore. So I went. I knew it would be good, but I was blown away by ...
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This blog will address issues of communication, art, and life from my point of view. It is a means for me to keep writing, thinking critically, and finding meaning in my life and work.