In Reading the chapters for this week, I was particularly interested with the piece by Mike Males, and how it depicts the media as being a primary assailant to the character of teenagers. He depicts a society in which the media is quick to blame and pass judgment on teenagers, even using its means of spreading information as a scare tactic against teens. I feel that in many ways that this is an accurate portrayal, because as Males says, our society is quick to pass judgment on teens, even labeling them as predisposed to mass amounts of violence. People are quick to pass judgment and hand out consequences, because they feel that teenagers have “lost their way” and thus need reformation, while no blame is placed elsewhere.
I feel that this is part of the reason that teenagers are distant at times, because they do not know who to trust due to scare tactics such as with sexual education and STD’s, and school shootings. This has made them more difficult than ever to fully reach as an educator. Youth bashing is something, which seems to have become more and more accepted within “adult” society, as many are more than willing to jump on an anti teenage bandwagon. These practices are part of why this age group has become at times difficult to reach within the classroom as teenagers may not feel a part of society due to restrictions placed on them, and accordingly we as educators must work to break down walls and foster dialogue and communication to reach them better.
I do agree with a lot of what you have said here, although I am curious about something:
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think the connections are between the way the media portrays teens and the way that an educator teaches a classroom? Also, what could an educator do in the classroom to help "correct" some of these problems with the media?
This is just a discussion point I am curious about hearing different perspectives on, so if anybody else reads this too please respond!
I like how you pointed out Tim that youth bashing is part of an "adult" society. No one really takes the time to think that the people making the movies, writing the articles and journals are all adults. What do the kids have to say? I think you are right one the money when you say that "educators must work to break down walls..." to end these stereotypes. I think if educators and children started making the stories as accurate as possible, the way things really go down in the schools, we could be an end to the stories like "Dangerous Minds" or "Boston Public"...but then again, we wouldn't be making the $ guess you gotta do what the money wants you to do
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