The Freire Project

“Africa will only remain when it realizes that the future remains with the youths.”—Oby Ezekwesili

Throughout our near-50 years as a free country, all indications that Youth play a part in sustaining and safeguarding the fundamental foundations of our democratic experiment have been validated time and time again. And there’s little doubt that the concern for the future of young people is of top priority with elected officials.

Joe and I were so informed by Claude's work, what a intellectual heritage he has left us.

Working with "at risk" Urban Youth in schools I am constantly struck by the amount of strength they display in a world that so often (and so deeply) abandons them. For one thing love and compassion are not easy to hold on to, particularly in difficult times, yet I have seen so many youth who have been pushed so far yet retain dignity and care as core values. As Giroux, Joe, Shirley and many others note this is not the story of teens we see in the press. In the media they seem to exist as only victims or victimizers or recipients of someones saving. These two links (one from this weeks NYT ) speak of so much more, of quiet bodily harm and quiet strength.

I was browsing the web a few days ago when I ran across the following headline: "16yr old gets life in prison for killing her pimp." Perhaps my considerable awareness of the way the internet works--Shock and Awe = Traffic--was what led to initial skepticism; but once I clicked the YouTube video link, all ambiguity vacated.

[warning: this entry may spoil the new Saw VI movie for you]

I caught the latest film in the Saw series this weekend – Saw VI. I liked it – well I appreciated it, at least. For those unfamiliar with Saw, I would recommend you watch the previous Saw films before you watch the latest feature – the story will make a lot more sense this way. I couldn’t help but feel that for many people at the theatre, the story seemed disconnected or lacked cohesiveness. Unless one is simply a fan of horror film gore or bizarre and intense jaw-clenching torture scenes, the story and background to the Saw characters are necessary to enjoying the film.

http://www.wesh.com/education/21386667/detail.html

I am so not impressed with Duncan's assessment of teaching.  I agree that most schools/faculties of education are falling short...but not because of his short-sighted, ignorant assessment.  Duncan contends that the "cash cows" of universities, teacher prep programs, are not preparing teachers to enter the classroom, that new teachers do not know how to "manage" their students.

There has been a broad and comprehensive media blockade on any news related to five Cubans unjustly charged and convicted in Miami in 1998, who have been held since then in US prisons for... ,essentially, fighting illegal and nefarious acts within the Miami Cuban community against Cuba.

If you meet anyone who denies knowing a thing about soaps on tv, I think they are lying.  Soaps are the middle class dirty little secret.  Soaps somehow engage the viewer in the best and worst of life.  But alas, I come not to praise the soap, but to expose it.  It is obvious that soaps reflect a notion of the middle/upper class in North American society...the repetitive themes of romance, death, quest, riches, poverty...these come honestly from the notion of plot in fiction.  What I find compelling, is that even in 2009, the dominant discourse makes no apology for existing...in fact, if you aren't in that discourse, you are not compensated for your marginalization, and with each piano riff, the non-belonging viewer is sentenced to more exi

 The theme for this year’s Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA) annual conference, held from October 8 to 10 at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, could not have been more apropos. Phrased as “The Power of Nonviolence,” it compelled me to think about the ways in which Nonviolence theory and praxis could be brought to bear in the search for solutions to one of Africa’s most intractable puzzles, the case of Zimbabwe. No sooner had the conference ended and we had all returned to our respective bases than Zimbabwe shot up onto the world headlines once again.

Today's CNN Headline:

Justice stands by refusal to give interracial couple license to wed 

CNN, predictably, is not outraged (just reporting the facts), which, according to the interviewed justice, are:

When I set about to write this blog I was initially going to write about the role of hip-hop culture and MTV on urban youth.  While brainstorming a title for my blog the Dire Straits song, “Money for Nothing,” came to mind because I thought I could use its refrain as a catchy title.  The problem, however, was that I remembered the chorus, “I want my MTV,” but little else.  I knew that the song had been a big hit in the 80s and vividly recalled listening to it over and over again on the radio back in the day, so I looked up the song lyrics to try to trigger the context of the song and was aghast at what I found.