Youth – E Wayne Ross

Critical Education has just published its latest issue:

“Youth-Led Organizations, the Arts, and the 411 Initiative for Change in Canada: Critical Pedagogy for the 21st Century”
Brad J. Porfilio, Michael Watz

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to document a group of Canadian youth activists’ and artists’ perceptions and experiences with developing and sustaining an arts-based educational initiative that “undertakes public education and the promotion of civic participation of young people on social issues that frame their development within their communities.” Through the youth activists’ and artists’ narratives, we highlight the youths’ motivation to establish this organization, the methods they use to engage their audience in social commentary and activism, how they confront and overcome barriers in schools when implementing their pedagogical initiatives, and the challenges they face in keeping their project intellectually vibrant and culturally relevant to youth. Moreover, we argue that critical pedagogues must take seriously the cultural work proffered by youth-led social justice initiatives if critical pedagogy is to remain relevant in promoting equity and social justice in schools and in society.

Report Says Principal Put Dallas Students in Fight Cage – NYTimes.com.

According to The New York Times, a high school principal and his security staff “shut feuding students in a steel cage to settle disputes with bare-knuckle fistfights.”

An internal report by the Dallas (TX) Independent Schools Districts says Donald Moten sanctioned “cage fights” between students in a steel equipment area in the boy’s locker room.

Moten resigned in 2008 while he was under investigation for a grade-changing scandal that resulted in South Oak Cliff HS relinquishing its 2005 and 2006 state boys basketball championships. The district found that Moten pressured teachers to change the failing grades of basetball team members so they would be eligible to play.

I guess nobody should be surprised by Moten’s performance as a principal, in his previous job as a Dallas police officer he lied about being kipnapped and robbed at gunpoint to get out of work.