Posts in Category Youth Leadership

A conference that will matter after it is over

Justo Méndez Arámburu has had a very clear message about IDEC 2012 over the last two months.  

“The most important day of IDEC 2012 is April 1st.”  

That date is remarkable because it is the day after the conference is over.

In total, the conference will bring together over 750 young people, educators, community leaders, organizers, academics, and advocates from around the world and across Puerto Rico.  But, the most profound accomplishment of conference organizers has happened even before the conference begins.  Unlike so many other conferences, IDEC 2012 has been organized to have maximum impact in the lives of young people and communities in Puerto Rico after the international...

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Posted on Mar 22, 2012 - 06:58 AM by Scott Nine

Raising a Generation that Has a 4.0 in Problem Solving: An Inspiring Talk

What are the issues we're all trying to solve right now? World hunger, wars against other nations, a failing economy, just to name a few. It can be so depressing and infuriating to be a kid of just almost sixteen and know that my generation has so many sorrows and woes to deal with that have been laid down by generations long gone.

My generation will not need to be good test takers or be able to read 300 words a minute or be able to get stellar scores on the ACTs or SATs or LSATs. My generation will need to be innovators, thinkers, and above all: "Solutionaries." I recently saw a video from a TEDx talk that was uploaded onto youtube. The speaker's name was Zoe Weil, and she talked about...

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Posted on Jan 21, 2011 - 10:32 AM by Claire Russell

Pulling That Injustice Trigger

Now, I'm not one for protests, especially not protests that end after a one hour march around some political building with people going back to their homes feeling they've done their best. However, I was moved to read about the protests of thousands of students in New Jersey this week (read all about it in the NYTimes here).

What moved me about this student-led protest is that at such a young age, these students recognize how to magnify their power through unity against a single injustice: school cuts that compromise their education. From one Facebook invitation to protest these cuts that pulled their injustice triggers, 18,000 students were moved to the streets with signs and their...

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Posted on Apr 29, 2010 - 05:45 PM by Ammerah Saidi

Freire’s “True Word” Conclusion—Or Beginning…

"You're the worst teacher ever!" The last words of a ninth grader I had kicked out during final presentations.

This same day, a student handed me a card in which she wrote, "Thanks for giving me the freedom to speak my mind."

The next day, two students threw me a little farewell party to end the semester--two students who hated my class a month ago.

The last day of class, a student thanked God he never had to have me again. "Now I can FINALLY get an 'A'!"

A semester of mixed reviews.

As part of their final project, my students had to identify a community problem and design an intervention to combat said problem. A majority of the students rose to the occasion and shined...

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Posted on Jan 31, 2010 - 05:46 PM by Ammerah Saidi

Remembering Hope & Joy

I am currently on vacation in Nicaragua, and while I have been doing a lot of thinking, I have not been doing very much writing, as is wont to happen from time to time. And with thinking inevitably comes questioning. So what better place to explore some of those questions than here?

I'll begin with a story. I spent the last four days on a small hostel/ranch/community center/aspiring eco-destination called Rancho Esperanza in the isolated fishing village of Jiquilillo. The owner of the ranch, Nato (Nate), was born in Maine and has been involved with the village for eleven years, living there full time for the last eight.

Six years ago Nate began an after school program for the youth of...

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Posted on Dec 27, 2009 - 11:41 AM by Jonah Canner

Welcome to Sage Wonderings

My name is Kris Sage, and I'm a 16-year-old college student living in Portland, OR. My experience with democratic education is comprised of three and a half years at a democratic school, The Village Free School, and attendance at various conferences. I've waited a long time to see a wide, coordinated movement between individuals interested in democratic education, and I see IDEA as building that kind of movement.

The thing you should know about my writing is that I consider myself a student. With any given situation, I seek to learn, understand, and explain. Hence the title -- Sage Wonderings. It's me, Kris Sage, wondering about things that have to do with life.

I have to confess to...

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Posted on Nov 18, 2009 - 09:31 AM by Kris Sage

A Boy and His Flag: Why Will Won’t Pledge

Will’s family has a number of gay friends. In recent years, Laura Phillips said, they’ve been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades and standing up for the rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors. They’ve been especially dismayed by the effort to take away the rights of homosexuals ” the right to marry, and the right to adopt. Given that, Will immediately saw a problem with the pledge of allegiance.

“I’ve always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all.”

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Posted on Nov 15, 2009 - 08:40 AM by Darren Schwindaman

Teens’ 12-screen theater project premieres

Searchlights will mark the VIP opening for a new movie complex in Petaluma tonight, but it will really be a celebration of the tenacity of seven teenage girls who shared a dream and made it come true.

If not for the “Superb Seven,” as the girls have dubbed themselves, Petaluma’s 55,000 or so residents would still have to trek to Rohnert Park or Novato to catch a film.

Through sheer will and charm, the girls lobbied local politicians, negotiated with theater owners, won support from Lucasfilm executives and ultimately persuaded a developer to build a theater as the anchor of a $100 million downtown redevelopment project that otherwise might not have gotten off the ground.

“If they didn’t believe in us in the beginning, they sure as hell believe us now,” said one of the teens, 16-year-old Ashley Ditmer.

The girls—Noëlle Bisson, Elizabeth Comstock, Ditmer, Liza Hall, Sarah Marcia, Taylor Norman and Madison Webb—are all 16, except Comstock, who is 15.

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Posted on Oct 20, 2009 - 08:34 AM by Melia Dicker

14-year-old invents surgical technique

Tony Hansberry II isn(tm)t waiting to finish medical school to contribute to improved medical care. He has already developed a stitching technique that can be used to reduce surgical complications, as well as the chance of error among less experienced surgeons.

•I(tm)ve always had a passion for medicine,• he said in a recent interview. “The project I did was, basically, the comparison of novel laparoscopic instruments in doing a hysterectomy repair.”

By the way, Hansberry is a 14-year-old high school freshman.

In April, the brilliant teen presented his findings at a medical conference at the University of Florida before an audience of doctors and board-certified surgeons.

Hansberry attends Darnell-Cookman, a special medical magnet school that allows him to take advanced classes in medicine. Students at the school master suturing in eighth grade.

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Posted on Oct 20, 2009 - 07:57 AM by Melia Dicker