Real Everyday Living (Youth Encouraging Youth To Stay In School).
Posted by realeverydayliving on November 18, 2007
It’s not a secret that there is a breakdown in our nation’s educational system at the primary (elementary) and secondary (high school) levels. This was discussed as early as the 1980s when news reporter Tom Brokaw/ NBC aired the program “A Nation At Risk”. There were the usual round of congressional hearings and promises to the minority community and then …nothing. Fast forward 2007 and the problems have only gotten worse. The problem wasn’t created by any one group and it won’t be resolved by any single group. Parents, politicians, community leaders and others have a fair share of concern.
Real Everyday Living Magazine believes that the primary issue is one of encouragement for young people. I’m JD Cartwright the blogger for the magazine and I can tell you personally that students will rise to the level of expectation. Our youth particularly minority youth are caught up in the middle of a very dangerous political game played by the news media and in many cases nationally recognized minority leadership. When was the last time you heard positive news about say the Black or Latino communities? I know. A couple of months ago MSNBC and the United States Department of Education did a story detailing that for the first time in American history Blacks in the South were attending college on par with their percentages of the population. This was a major achievement for a minority community, did it get the recognition it deserved? Of course not. Young people are caught up in a “if it bleeds it leads” news mentality. I can tell you as a minority (Black Male-Houston Texas) that although the situation is dire, we can recover from this with the effective leadership within our cities. Real Everyday Living has declared WAR ON HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATES!!!We are hoping to work with the City of Houston’s leadership to raise an army of volunteers to work with our youth and encourage them to not only stay in school but rather to go on to college. Our Magazine will be dedicated to profiling the stories of teens and young adults, featuring education, careers, music, art, dance and so much more.
realeverydayliving said
I think that we all agree that more must be done, my main concern is that issue of how minority youth see themselves based upon the almighty television, and music. I agree that there is (although you stopped short of saying it) a type of conspiracy in regards to reporting stories on Blacks and Latinos. However people must simply start demanding that the media treat them and their communities better. They have to make it known that unless it happens they will direct their economic resources elsewhere.
Thanks,
Good videos too.
JD said
I think that it’s a matter of responsibility. Parents have got to be more responsible and not continue to wait on the government to do something. I remember a case about a year or so ago wherein the parents of a girl that had been lured out of her home by a predator and assulted sued MySpace for damages. The courts through out the case, but it just goes to show how people are blaming everybody else for what they need to be doing.
T. Williams said
I’m sitting here with my friend and I say parents should expect the government to help becuase these politicians are the ones that are making all of the promises. Put me in office and this or that is what I’m going to do they all say. Parents must be more responsible but so should our leaders.