Recently, I staffed at a youth camp called Extreme Youth Leadership, or EYL for short at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas.
For six long days I spent most of my time performing precarious team building exercises, like for instance one where a six-foot-four man wanted me to climb on his shoulders so 30+ people could fit into a two-by-two foot square, eating college cafeteria food and relearning who I am. To say it was a long week is drastically understating it.
The purpose of EYL, like so many other camps, is to empower and strengthen our youth through relationships and good old-fashioned fun. To be more specific, EYL is about bringing youth groups together for a shared purpose of making life better in their own communities. Many were committed to reducing the number of drunk driving accidents, helping students make better decisions, or bettering themselves, as was the case with my group.
The process of action planning, however, reminded me of something I had forgotten in the busy humdrum of my pre-EYL life, as I like to call it. There is a process to this life, that should we choose to use it, will change the world. But that’s just it; it’s all about the choice, one that we all have, one that isn’t always easy. And it takes love, above all else. Love for yourself and for the rest of humanity.
I had forgotten that, too.
I also learned something else at EYL.
My organization, the Texas School Safety Center, trains a variety of people on a variety of problems including Internet safety, bullying, dating violence, drugs, gangs, cultural diversity, just to name a few.
Just glancing over our repertoire you may or may not see the common thread linking these topics to our youth: respect and self-esteem. Respect for yourself and for others, and enough self-esteem to stand up to bullies, to the drugs, to the gangs, to online predators. If we empowered our youth with these two principles, what improvements would we see in our schools, in our future?
-Rebekah
Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
A Controversial Execution in Texas...
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/05/scotus.execution/index.html
Love to hear your thoughts on this one.
Love to hear your thoughts on this one.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Is the Internet Changing Us?
I had to begin this week with this fascinating article I found over the weekend from Atlantic called “Is Google Making Us Stoopid?”
We are all well aware of the many complaints about the Internet’s changing our kids’ reading and writing habits. Educators everywhere charge the Internet, along with text messaging, with disrupting our children’s ability to read and write properly.
Much of this is due to the increased demand for speed over accuracy so that “Where are you?” becomes “WHR R U?” or “I’m confused, please explain” turns into “???”
Convenient, yes, but some educators have even found this net lingo spilling over into school essays and homework assignments.
The Atlantic article, however, adds an entirely new complaint that this quick-paced, convenient tool is changing the way we all think, read and write. The author begins with an anecdote that he can no longer sit down with a long article or book and dedicate the amount of time and brain power necessary to digest the information properly.
Indeed, I’m not sure I’ll finish writing this article in one sitting and certainly I insist on checking my e-mail(s) numerous times while I read, work, or write.
With the rise of attention deficit disorder, not only in children but also in adults, I wonder, like the author, if technology is changing our brains, making us more distracted and destroying our ability to focus on any one task.
On the other side, experts claim that social networking and other technology like chatting can actually improve children’s writing and creativity skills. We also cannot deny the power of this phenomenal tool to search for and gain knowledge previously unavailable. People have more control over the information they receive and can even contribute to the collective knowledge of our world, an empowering and liberating ability.
Needless to say, much like the printing press changed society, so will the Internet in ways unforeseen but ultimately positive. It’s the growing pains that we’ve got to muddle through, just as all societies have. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to check my e-mail.
We are all well aware of the many complaints about the Internet’s changing our kids’ reading and writing habits. Educators everywhere charge the Internet, along with text messaging, with disrupting our children’s ability to read and write properly.
Much of this is due to the increased demand for speed over accuracy so that “Where are you?” becomes “WHR R U?” or “I’m confused, please explain” turns into “???”
Convenient, yes, but some educators have even found this net lingo spilling over into school essays and homework assignments.
The Atlantic article, however, adds an entirely new complaint that this quick-paced, convenient tool is changing the way we all think, read and write. The author begins with an anecdote that he can no longer sit down with a long article or book and dedicate the amount of time and brain power necessary to digest the information properly.
Indeed, I’m not sure I’ll finish writing this article in one sitting and certainly I insist on checking my e-mail(s) numerous times while I read, work, or write.
With the rise of attention deficit disorder, not only in children but also in adults, I wonder, like the author, if technology is changing our brains, making us more distracted and destroying our ability to focus on any one task.
On the other side, experts claim that social networking and other technology like chatting can actually improve children’s writing and creativity skills. We also cannot deny the power of this phenomenal tool to search for and gain knowledge previously unavailable. People have more control over the information they receive and can even contribute to the collective knowledge of our world, an empowering and liberating ability.
Needless to say, much like the printing press changed society, so will the Internet in ways unforeseen but ultimately positive. It’s the growing pains that we’ve got to muddle through, just as all societies have. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to check my e-mail.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Format change
We found an interesting article about the social network pages of young teachers. Should teachers be held to a higher level public scrutiny? What does this say about the future generation of teachers? How will they be different from our teachers?
On another note, we're going to change the format of our blog to reflect more "blog-like" activities. We'll keep writing the articles as often as we can, but we'll also post interesting information from wherever we can find it that deals with our generation in one way or another. Please comment on these, too. Remember, dialogue (or diablogue if you're feeling witty) is our goal.
On another note, we're going to change the format of our blog to reflect more "blog-like" activities. We'll keep writing the articles as often as we can, but we'll also post interesting information from wherever we can find it that deals with our generation in one way or another. Please comment on these, too. Remember, dialogue (or diablogue if you're feeling witty) is our goal.
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