Hi Tree,<div><br></div><div>I share your concerns about schools focusing on test scores and kids not spending time enjoying cloud-gazing and such. Interestingly, I see those problems as quite opposite to young folks getting involved in public life, whereas you see them closely aligned.</div>
<div><br></div><div>For one thing, I don't think most adults are all that much more qualified for public decision-making than teenagers. I'm not saying that most adults are unintelligent; just that "decision-making ability" is not something I see as particularly correlated with "being adult." Sure, I have lots more facts in my head and more stories to tell, which are all very valuable. But adults can also get set in our ways, and a fresh, youthful perspective can shake things up and get us unstuck.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I'm sad to think of kids being pushed to be overachievers, get high test scores, and rush through school into work. And somehow, at the same time, "talking to adults about important matters" feels more akin to "cloud-gazing" than any of that! Being on the board of an institute does sounds pretty intense, but I would have loved to be on the board of my church as a teenager, for example, and in retrospect I still think I would have been a good addition.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div>Justin</div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">P.S. You made the same typo as Ashley -- but I assume you both meant Jane Goodall!</div>
<div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 9:27 PM, Tree Fitzpatrick <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:therese.fitzpatrick@gmail.com">therese.fitzpatrick@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
There are many things off kilter in human culture. One thing that I think is off kilter is that adult humans now routinely encourage non-adult humans to participate in things like 'public decision making'. Where did we get the assumption that a young person has the capacity of a fully evolved adult human to make informed decisions that might have long term consequences on the child, other children, the community, the culture, etc? Children are not yet adult. <br>
<br>We encourage children to 'awaken' to adulthood far too early.<br><br>I am appalled that many now take it for granted that children (a non-adult is still a child) should sit on something like the Board of Directors of something like the Jane Goddall Institute (whatever that is, I imagine Ashley meant Jane Goddall).<br>
<br>This is a major flaw, I think, in evolving culture and it has endlessly complex repercussions.<br><br>Children's job is to be children, to developo their own personhood fully so that they will one day take a place in adult community. Children awaken to adult considerations much too early. TElevision has been a huge culprit in this regard and now, of course, the internet.<br>
<br>A child's main work is being a child. It's just not right to cavalierly get youth input into decisioins that children cannot, just cannot, really know. A twelve year old, a sixteen year old, is not mature enough to make complex public decisions and it is wrong to ask them to: asking children to participate in grown up life as peers with the adults dishonors children<br>
<br>I get my main attitudes about children from having sent my child to a Waldorf School and having been a student of Rudolf STeiner for over twenty years. Much of what is wrong with human culture can be traced to the practice of stunting youthful inner development under the guise of awakening children too early to adult concerns. This is why we now have an education system in USA that is focussed on test scores instead of the inner development of children. There is a story in today's NYTImes about how publishers are publishing less picture books and how parents pressure four years olds to listen to long stories and skip picture books so they will have better test scores later. . . this dynamic is connected to including youth in public decisinmaking.<br>
<br>I know this is a very popular trend and I know Ashely Cooper is deeply invested in the world and I know she is a good caring person intent on making positive contributions in the world.<br><br>I get to have my opinion, yes? I am worried about the millions of humans who are children today who are not cloud-gazing and spending their summers hunting rocks and birds' nests and who are told, when they are twelve, that they can contribute to public decisions. Grown up humans have a duty to children: to let them be children. Otherwise what we are creating is an army of humans who are not fully developed humans who will make good wage slaves for the elite billionaires running the tea part movement. Thinking caring loving people should not participate in pushing children into the adult arena while children.<div>
<div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 6:51 PM, ashley cooper <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mail.easilyamazed@gmail.com" target="_blank">mail.easilyamazed@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left:1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex">
Hello Open Space friends,<br><br>I have fallen off of the OSlist for awhile, but I wanted to share with you a talk from a recent TEDx event that I hosted, <a href="http://www.tedxnextgenerationasheville.com/" target="_blank">TEDxNextGenerationAsheville</a>. This event was all about spotlighting the ideas of young people and giving them a public stage from which to share and be heard. It was also an invitation for there to be more collaboration between youth and adults. Chase Pickering spoke about the role of youth in leadership and how young people can contribute to public decision-making and serve on Board of Directors (which he did with the Jane Goddall Institute). If you are in a position to invite a youth to serve on your board of directors or advisory board or encourage the clients you work with, please consider Chase's advice!<br>
<br><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27IJpZVP1qs" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27IJpZVP1qs</a><br><br>You can also watch Birke Baehr's talk about the food we eat. He is an 11 year old who is passionate about food and whose talk has gone viral and been viewed over 200,000 times in less than 2 weeks. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7Id9caYw-Y" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7Id9caYw-Y</a><br>
<br>Sending fondest regards from Asheville, NC, USA,<br><font color="#888888">Ashley<br></font><br>P.s. If you would like to respond to me personally, please send it to <a href="mailto:easilyamazed@gmail.com" target="_blank">easilyamazed@gmail.com</a> . I have not been checking this account regularly. Thank you.<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br></div></div>-- <br>Love rays,<br>Tree Fitzpatrick (check out my new address)<br><br><br>. . . the great and incalculable grace of love, which says, with Augustine, "I want you to be," without being able to give any particular reason for such supreme and unsurpassable affirmation. -- Hannah Arendt<br>
<br>2175 Kittredge St Apt 615<br>Berkeley, CA 94704<br>510-665-4825<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
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