Recently, Carnegie Corporation reported that it is giving $10 million to New Visions for Public Schools to create “New Century II: High Schools for College and Career Success” – a 4-year initiative to strengthen college readiness programs. The emphasis is on “high achievement” regardless of the individuality and interests of the young person, and the initiative supports a top-down required set of academic standards for all students.
What especially caught my eye is that the main mechanism for this flawed program furthers disrespect for and alienation of young people – the so-called Scaffolded Apprenticeship Model (SAM), which “creates teams comprised of a principal, teachers and school counselors who are trained to analyze data and develop tailored strategies to improve instruction, especially for low-achieving students.” As expected, there is no inclusion of young people in the process created to help young people.
This authoritarian approach and lack of youth participation in policies and activities that affect them is becoming in my eyes more and more not only disrespectful, offensive, patronizing, and of course ineffective (at leading to public empowerment and good decisions), but also downright criminal. Frankly there should be laws on the books to that effect, just as there are laws protecting the rights of black people and women to participate and vote in decisions that affect them.
There are of course examples of young people not being involved in decision-making in all sectors of society, not to mention the fact that young people generally between 14 and 18 can work and have to pay taxes but cannot vote about that and other issues (taxation without representation – one of the prime motivations for the founding of this country!)
This disrespect and disempowerment of young people in the United States is especially incredible to me when I compare what I have been reading about in a report on the extensive student and youth democracy and participation in several European countries:
The EURIDEM Project is a book-length report of a study by Lynn Davies and Gordon Kirkpatrick assessing pupil and youth democracy in Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, and Germany, and comparing it to the UK (since the report was sponsored by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England). It documents that in these countries there are laws requiring pupil councils at the school and regional level, students legally required to be part of local school boards, government issued reports on the importance of student democracy, and generally the spirit of respect for the voice of young people and the need to include them in decision-making.
For a summary of the report, read this article entitled “Pupil Democracy in England” by co-researcher and author Davies.
Yet at the same time we in the U.S. have virtually no recognition for the value of student voice in school decision-making, school boards, and of course on the larger policy level as well. There are thankfully a good number of democratic schools and educators here and there throughout the country creating democratic practices within schools and classrooms.
However, we need to start working on all fronts to promote youth democracy and participation in schools and in all areas of society.
Here are a few organizations leading this work in this country:
Common Action: http://www.commonaction.org
Free Child: http://www.freechild.org
Sound Out: http://www.soundout.org
National Youth Rights Association: http://www.youthrights.org/