Blog Post #4

On Monday, it was my first day of internship and I was so excited about it. I have worked with youth of different ages but I usually work with youth between the ages of 18 months to seven years old.

On my first day of internship, I felt a little discouraged. I was working in the Primary Room of the school. I was off to a great start, then the kids started to arrive for the school day. They were so independent it scared me. I thought to myself "they don't even need me here, these children are so independent". I thought that maybe this internship was not the right fit for me because I was not any help to the teachers since the students were able to do things on their own.

I left that day and I felt horrible about myself because even though the teachers and the students were beyond awesome, I still felt as if I did nothing to be any type of help. The next day, I returned to internship, this time I was in the Toddler Room. I felt right at home here. The children were also independent for their ages, but they still needed help and relied on the adults in the room. Again, I thought to myself "okay, maybe this will not be too bad, at least I really like the toddler room". Since Tuesdays will be my long days at internship, I am split between the two classrooms so that afternoon I went back to the Primary Room and again, I felt like I was no help to the kids and they were fine on their own.

Lunch and rest time came. As the kids gathered their lunchboxes and chose a seat in the classroom, the teacher had asked me to go around and see who needed help. I was thrown back because I did not think that the kids would need help - I was wrong. So many of the kids came to me asking for help opening their containers, yogurts, fruit snacks, chips. I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders because I was finally able to help the kids.

After I completed my hours for the day, on my drive back I started to reflect on my feelings. I realized that this was only my first week of internship and this is something that is new to me. I am used to working in public schools and it is completely different from a Montessori school. I realized that this was a learning experience. I had to learn that children do not always need help. They have to learn to be independent and do things on their own and this was how Montessori taught those very important lessons. I changed my attitude and declared that this internship was going to be a learning experience for myself and this is why I was doing it and this is what I wanted to get out of it.

I decided to start my blog off with this short reflection because it reminded me of when I was about 3 or 4 and everything was done for me. Adults have this tendency that they want children to be independent but then we lose the patience we get mad at THEM and end up doing the task for them and then when they do not know how to do something we also get mad because they rely so much on us. It is hard to understand that children, no matter how young, have a mind of their own and have to make their choices. When I was about this age, my mother did everything for me, she would try to do her best to let me learn things on my own but if she ran out of patience or was in a rush, she would take over the task. I was not able to completely make my own choice because I did not know how. Until I was about 8, my mother would still pick out my outfits, she would make my choices without even realizing she was doing it. I am so grateful that she was caring but when it came time for me to make my own choices, I was always so indecisive and unsure of what it was that I really wanted. I wish that my mother let me make my own choices when I was younger. I see this today in my little sister, she is 5 years old and since she was about 1 and a half, she was always very independent. I knew this was very difficult for my mom because she used to doing everything for her other 3 children. My little sister never let anyone take that choice away from her. She made her own choices and my mom and stepdad would only intervene if her choice was not safe or appropriate. My little sister was getting dressed on her own by the time she was 2, she knew how to put on her shoes before that. Now she can make her own snacks and knows how to make certain cold foods. She is so independent and it is amazing to watch her thrive!

As adults, we have to learn to have patience with children because they also are learning to have patience with themselves. Instead of rushing them or becoming frustrated when they are taking too long, we have to encourage them to keep going, step back and put our hands in our pockets and only help when they ask. They have to learn to be in control of their choices. I think if adults were more respecting about children's choices, children would be more independent and have less self-conflict.

Blog Post #3

For this blog post, we had to read 3 different types of materials and then reflect on the different stereotypes that we found in them, what beliefs about children/youth shape these stereotypes and how these stereotypes are impacted by race, gender, class etc. In the 3 types of reading, I found a theme in each one of them. The authors all made some great points as to why young people are stereotyped so much, and who young people really are.


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In Lesley Bogad's piece, she made a great point "Youth as a category is perhaps one of the most taken-for-granted Western social constructions" and she is absolutely right. Society thinks that because young people (whether they are children, teens or young adults), simply do not understand how life works. We undermind their honest opinions, their freedom of speech, the way they express themselves and much more.

In this piece I noticed that Lesley had set the theme of a very common stereotype, ALL teens are mysterious and are always hiding something. Do we ever stop to think that maybe, as adults, we just punish teens when they do something "wrong" or believe in something that we don't?

I believe that youth (especially teens) shape this stereotype because they are afraid to come to grown-ups, with their troubles and worries. Some parents tend to shun their child and don't listen to them, leading youth to hide their feelings and do things behind their parents back, because of the lack of trust.

I think that class and race plays a small role in this stereotype. Youth from low or high-income communities are all affected by parents who do not listen or care about their opinions and feelings. In both communities, you can have parents who work too much and do not have time to sit with their children and listen to them. Some parents might be too tired and do not feel like dealing with "teenage drama" and many other factors can affect this.

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In the article by Shirley Steinberg, she starts off the piece with a conversation he had with a parent when she went back to teach high school drama classes. The parent had asked Ms.Steinberg why she liked teaching these teenagers and why she takes them out after school for dinner. The parent said that no likes teenagers because they're so bad and evil.

While reading this piece, I realized that Steinberg had a focus on the one stereotype that many people believe, teenagers are mean, bad, cynical, evil and simply cannot be trusted.

I was once a teenager, and I think it's obvious to say we all were, are or will become teenagers at some point. Speaking from experience, I do think that most teens go through a rebel stage, but I don't think that necessarily makes them bad or evil.

I believe that race and class, do play a bigger role in this because teens of color and from low-income community are seen as bad and dangerous than teens who are white and come from high-income communities. Black teen males are portrayed as more dangerous and uneducated because of their race and the community they grew up in.

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In the last piece by Collier Meyerson, the author touches base on a very common stereotype amongs African American girls. Meyerson states that because of slavery, black girls have a "more active sex life" which portrays them as older than what they really are.

Meyerson describes how there are 3 common stereotypes:

• Jezebel: Naturally hypersexual 
• Sapphire: Angry, masculine 
• Mammy: Motherlike, asexual, nurturing 

Meyerson is stating that African Americans are seen as older than what they are and what I listed above, are the reasons why. African American girls are seen as more sexual than girls of other races ad its because during slavery, they would be sold at young ages and they would usually start having children as early as age 12 or 13, due to being raped by their owners. African American women are also seen as angry, because of their temper, masculine because some are more muscular than women of other races. They are also portrayed as motherly, because of their culture and nurturing. 

Of course, race plays an enormous role in this stereotype. Meyerson explains how girls of color get in more trouble for breaking dress codes than white girls. Also, girls of color are given harsher punishments in school than white girls. 

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After reading through all 3 readings, I thought about a time I was put into a stereotype as a teen. When I was about 12 or 13, I did not want to listen to my mom and I was in my rebel stage of life and my mom would just think that I was bad and up to no good. What she wasn't realizing was that she was working 6 days a week to be able to put me through private school, she would come home tired and we really did not have a lot of time to talk and discuss how I was feeling.

I hated the middle school I was going too but I knew how hard my mother was working to be able to pay for it so that I could get a better education. I believe that class played a role in this because I was going to a private (since the public middle schools in my district weren't the best) my mom had to pay for me to go there. She was a single mom and she worked as much as she could to pay the tuition. I'm sure that if maybe we had more money, my mom would be able to pay for it without any problems so she wouldn't have to work so much and spend more time with me and my sister. 

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Blog Post #2

After reading through the article Youth Development Guide here is what I knew, learned and want to learn more of:

Know:

• Resilience Research  
• School, home and community environments influence and affect a youth's development 

Learned:

• The Deficit Approach: programs designed to "fix" specific problems like drug abuse among youth and teen pregnancy. 
• After School Programs growth 

Want to know more of:

• Youth development movement 
• The shift in policy that got rid of focused programming and was more focused on youth development approaches 

Blog Post #1: DownCity Design

After looking through the syllabus carefully, I came upon a certain art piece that really caught my attention.

In this picture, you can see a group of young adults who seem to be working together to build something. I checked out the link on the syllabus and it turns out that these youth are actually working together to build a new playground for an urban elementary school in the south side of Providence. 

The picture is not really an "artwork" that was painted by someone else but it does send a strong message to its audience. It shows how a community project has brought together a group of young adults to work together and give back to their community. The picture shows dedication, values, teamwork, and most importantly hard work. 

This picture caught my attention because Fall 2017 and Spring 2018, I was able to complete 45+ hours of volunteer/practicum work at Charles Fortes Elementary school, which happens to be right next to Leviton Elementry School where this playground was built. It warmed my heart to know that these youth were able to provide such an amazing structure for these children who might not have access to free play when they are out of school hours. 

Since this picture caught my attention, I did some research on the organization and here is what I found:

• DownCity Design was founded in 2009 by Adrienne Gagnon and Manuel Cordero. 
• Their mission was to improve Providence spaces by engaging youth to design and build solutions for their communities. 
• Since their finding, DownCity Design has improved the lives of over 1,200 youth by engaging them in the community and the spaces they work in. 

DownCity Design has over 50 projects in which they have created playgrounds, bike racks, benches, shelves, greenhouses and much more artwork all throughout the city of Providence. 

Below are some pictures of other projects that they have been a part of, and a link to their website: 

DownCity Design Website

Leviton Elementary Play Pavilion

Providence Public Library Teen Space

Ellery Park Play Village