So, I just finished writing a response to Mintz's Preface to Huck's Raft and how it relates to Youth Services. In it, Mintz discusses ways to "reconnect children to a broader range of adult mentors and to expand their opportunities to participate in activities that they and society find truly meaningful". Well, as I was looking at YALSA's blog and there I found a post regarding civic engagement for teens, specifically related to events surrounding both political conventions being held over the past 2 weeks. This is a perfect way to expand opportunities for teens to get involved in activities that broaden their experiences and break down some of the "age-appropriate" barriers between what teens should or should not be doing. In this case, civic participation by the young is an important issue that doesn't often get a lot of attention. No matter that they can't vote yet. They will soon be able to, and they should be developing opinions on things that affect their lives.
The blog posting goes to great lengths to discuss how they approached getting teens to be more civicly minded. The main examples included developing reading lists, as well as content creation by teens which can mean anything from a Teen Fashion apprenticeship to developing digital content through videos of their political beliefs. One of the critical ideas here was the partnering with another organization to help in areas where the Library may either not have the resources or the expertise to carry out an activity completely from start to finish. By hosting all or most of the components of these activities, the Library still makes itself indispensible in making the connections young people need to learn new skills, deepen understanding of things they have learned in school, build on emerging abilities like reading and comprehension, and develop many of the social skills needed to succeed in the worlds of politics and work. And I think these activities sound fun too!
This definitely bridges some of those gaps that Mintz mentioned earlier regarding "age-appropriate" activities for teens, but I still can't help but feel there's something we're not talking about. Are there any risks involved in exposing these young people to things they may not have had access to in the past? Should their parents know what they are doing? How do we protect ourselves in the rare chance that something goes wrong, assuming that we are not at fault with a given troublesome situation?
First, let me say that this is a terrific start. I liked the connective threads between the Huck's Raft preface and the YALSA blog.
ReplyDeleteI am curious to hear more about the risks to which you refer? Would this be some sort of exposure to something online?
Looking forward to seeing more this semester from you.