YDev2020

  How do the readings this week change your ideas about PLAY? What resonates with you from these texts? After doing the readings and reviewing some of my classmates blogs, I really enjoyed this discussion of play. "Play is not disguised learning; play IS learning." This quote really stuck out to me as you commonly see or hear the stigma that revolves around a statement like this. Where some individuals believe learning must be a conformed, highly structured environment. I agree with Henry Jenkins that that is simply not true. This really resonated with me after the past few years of watching or observing my nephew and niece learn and grow. What may work for one in the classroom does not work for the other. Through play my niece learns well through her creative side, my nephew learns well through observation and building. However, they have learned a lot more through many different aspects of their daily play. The readings this week have changed my ideas about play through the

"They said they knew at every moment of their lives they were not White, but they felt that White people did not know they were White." This quote from, Locating Yourself for Your Students by Priya Parmar and Shirley Steinberg heavily caught my attention.  Was there a time I realized I was white? Was there a time I realized other children didn't look like me?  I never can remember a time that I realized I was white, as the reading says. I don't remember being a young child and thinking "you look different than me." The only difference I noticed when I was a kid was a very few things.. 1. If you were a boy or a girl because at that age you would hear "boys are icky" "girls have cooties" 2. If I liked to play with you Another quote that I resonated with was.. "Our students began to write and perform passionately about the recovery of their own ethnic identities, ant their struggles as young women and men of color living in a male-dom

 THE "PRE".. The word care prior to these readings/viewings, I always just thought of it as having the best interest in the individual. Wanting to see them better their current situation/life, wanting to see them grow as a person, wanting them to have the best foot forward for their future. Along with this care has always reminded me of the word time. Because in reality, if you don't spend the time to invest in your relationship with that person, take the time to maintain and grow that relationships with that person do you actually care? Actions speak louder than words, and being someone who cares or claims to care is someone who will not stop showing up.          THE "POST".. After watching and reading, I realized I have somewhat of a path that resembles some of what they said. However, I have forgot or missed out on some key points of the word care and its meaning in youth spaces. Value their opinions, their concerns, their questions and allow them to be heard

Think of how many communities are impacted everyday, now think of how many children in those communities are affected? They are being heavily weighed on by strong social forces that contribute to the oppression within their communities. For youth development spaces and workers to be able to truly understand, advocate and influence these children in a positive way it is not only essential but required to take these social forces into account.                           Just as the article mentioned that the youth doesn't only endure a physical toxin but a mental toxin. We all endure these of all ages, but it is important to learn how to recognize these mental toxins, so that we can remove them from our environments and ultimately our life. Although, it is much easier too spot a physical toxin it can become easier to recognize a mental toxin such as oppression and poverty as the article mentioned. Recognition is a huge part of the problem though. People, adults, youth, all endure oppr

               "The kids are playing games -- they are  leading  games, and they are laughing and learning. Everyone knows each other's names. And I saw the coach pull a kid aside and ask how his grandmother was feeling now that she is out of the hospital. I was a competitive basketball player in high school. Our practices didn't look like this at all. I remember being yelled at by my coaches, and we did a lot of challenging and repetitive drills, over and over until we 'got it right.' I thought sports were for people who could grit through the pain, and come out on top. The wrestling program is so different" Hearing about a high school practice in such a relaxed tone compared to my high school practices felt weird or out of place. This was not my normal and was far from it. However, it is comforting to know that a high school wrestling program can have such a culture where the student-athletes can be productive in an athlete lead and low stress environment. T

Discussing a lot of topics with people can be very difficult or intimidating at times. Racism is one that is definitely in that category. It's a hard topic in that sense of fear and worry of using the wrong terms. It can be hard to grasp that the fact that someone could be so poorly mistreated in this world because of their skin color. Racism has divided the nation today of those individuals that support Black Lives Matter and those who do not. And let me say this, while everyone is entitled to their own opinions BLACK LIVES DO MATTER . They are people, they are humans, they have feelings and goals just as others and they deserve to be treated better.         Thinking about my education on race and racial identity, it was very lacked. I saw a glimpse of it my freshman year of college in a sociology class. My sophomore year I did not see much, but it wasn't until my junior year of college where my classrooms really started bringing it to light. FNED and a number of social work c