Detention and Demerits: Letting Youth Lead the Charge
Both "At Our Best: Building Youth-Adult Partnerships in Schools" by Gretchen Brion-Meisels et al. and Kristy Luk et al.'s article, "Why Couldn't That Have Been Me?: Reflections on Confronting Adultism in Education Organizing Spaces" stress the importance of youth voices and challenge adults to rethink their roles in education. However, they both miss the boat on addressing the systemic barriers that really hold us back.
Both articles do a great job of highlighting how vital it is to empower young people. "At Our Best" emphasizes how youth-adult partnerships enhance engagement, showing that when students feel heard, they are more invested in their learning. Luk et al. tackle adultism—essentially how adults can stifle youth voices—and they make a strong case for genuine collaboration. This resonates with me because when youth and adults actually team up, learning gets way more interesting and impactful.
That said, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: systemic barriers. Both articles skim over these issues, which is a major oversight. Reading both pieces reminded me of my old classmates Tasha and Brianna. Tasha, who is Black, often cracked jokes and spoke out in class—just like Brianna, who is white. Yet Tasha consistently got detention while Brianna only received a demerit. It was frustrating to see how differently they were treated for the same behavior. When students feel they’re treated unfairly, it wrecks their trust in adults and makes them less likely to engage. Because of her experience, Tasha was constantly in trouble at home and missed a lot of class getting sent to the principal's office for her outbursts.
Luk et al. share personal stories about the emotional toll of adultism, but they don’t dig into the broader systemic factors contributing to this issue. Economic disparities and racial inequities shape young people’s experiences in profound ways. By ignoring these complexities, both pieces risk making the challenges seem way too simple. Without addressing these systemic barriers, the push for youth empowerment and collaboration can feel more like a nice idea than a plan of action.
Reflecting on both "At Our Best" and "Why Couldn't That Have Been Me?", I appreciate their insights, but they definitely need to tackle systemic barriers head-on. If we want to create meaningful youth-adult partnerships, we have to confront these inequalities and work towards a space where every student can thrive. It’s time for youth voices to be heard and valued—because they have a lot to say!
Symone, your example got to me maybe because of the term demerit. This past summer, we had a situation in which students were not allowed to use their phones while in a community meeting because students were working on an evaluation. Well to make the long story short, one of the students was caught using their phone and punished for it in front of everyone. When talked to about the situation the authority figure said they knew they shouldn't have received it, but the student was being used as "the example" even though about 30% of the students were also using their phone and did not get penalized for it. This goes to show that even when adults try to implement equal systems they can still lead to barriers & have flaws.
ReplyDeleteIt is SO annoying when someone is used as an example, especially when they are pciked out of a group doing the exact same thing!
DeleteThanks for this reflection, Symone and for your super insightful critique.
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