Announcements
First, business. Final blogs for the course are due tonight, July 1, 2011 by 11:59 PM AZMST. Your extra credit assignments need to be posted/emailed to be by 11:59 PM tonight as well. I will have your final blog posts and extra credit graded by Tuesday, July 5 and posted on Blackboard. Final grades will be entered by Tuesday, July 5th as well.
A Final Note
It's the last day of class! I wanted to thank you all for a fun, interesting, and informative summer session. It's been a pleasure working with all of you. I have enjoyed reading your blogs getting a chance to see how you were impacted by the material and how it related to your own experiences of youth & justice. I do realize that the summer sessions are shorter, more concentrated versions of regular semesters, and that made it difficult at times to balance how much material we needed to get through with trying to cover the topics you all expressed interest in. It is my hope that you were able to draw some valuable insight into problems and issues facing youth and that you learned something new about the various problems and issues affecting youth here in the U.S. and around the globe. Many of these issues we covered are interconnected, and it became clear throughout the semester that many of you picked up of these connections, writing about them very candidly and clearly.
One thing I am troubled by when teaching courses like this is the ideas that may be communicated about the negative aspects of youth experiences. While many of the issues facing youth that we covered are very serious and can have long-term impacts on youth that echo into their adult lives, it is not my intention to paint a picture of youth that is completely "gloom & doom." Rather, I hope that with some of the examples we've covered (The Skid Row Kids documentaries, the Invisible Children advocacy efforts, the Glenn Mills Schools, etc.) you can also see the extraordinary resilience, strength, and perseverance of these kids through some very difficult circumstances. Many youth have such amazing potential, and are capable of so much. It is my hope that the course was able to highlight some of the barriers youth face to achieving their potential and have inspired you in turn to encourage, mentor, and nurture the youth in your own lives in any small way you can. Below is a clip from the PS22 youth Choir of Staten Island, NY. This class of 5th graders, along with their enthusiastic music teacher, have done some amazing performances around New York and the country. It's one of my favorite examples of the passion and talent that can be encouraged in youth.
Enjoy, and my best wishes to all of you in your future endeavors! I would like to extend a special congratulations to those of you who are graduating this semester, you should be proud of completing such a major accomplishment!
