Juvenile Injustice
Great post the other day from NYRA Board of Advisors member, Robert Epstein: Juvenile Injustice: The Scandal in Pennsylvania Is the Tip of an Ugly Iceberg
The delay between the inarguable and the acted-upon
A closeted youth rights supporter, and professor at MIT, Scott Aaronson, has made a bold attempt to come out of the closet by debating the absurd position of youth rights opponents. Specifically pointing out the lack of a credible argument against lowering the voting age. His post is impressive as he is well acquainted with…
Voices Unheard – A This I Believe essay
Last semester, I was assigned a This I Believe essay. This I Believe essays are short essays people write on their beliefs (duh) that are read on Sundays on National Public Radio. I submitted my essay to be reviewed for reading, but alas, it got rejected. Apparently they get a lot of essays about youth…
Common Knowledge
Did you know that there are no kids out sledding in the snow we got in the past couple of days? Did you know that once spring is here, you’ll be hard pressed to find a single child out riding a bike or playing soccer? Kids today have no interest in the outdoors. Instead they’d…
Childhood Intelligence
Recently, I’ve been giving some thought to the capabilities of the human mind and the meaning of intelligence. The common perception is that human intelligence grows as we age, that young children start off stupid and it is adults’ job, through the various institutions of education, to implant the right “knowledge” into children’s brains until they’re intelligent like us. I think that’s very, very far from the truth.
Florida Students Can Speak Out Against Discrimination
The Florida Commission on Human Relations is holding a contest inviting high school students in Florida to submit 25-second public service announcements about discrimination. The winning PSAs will be used to raise awareness of discrimination in Florida, and the winners will receive media attention. The public service announcements can be about age discrimination, so this…
Anti-Age Discrimination Campaign in High Gear
NYRA is renewing its efforts to combat age discrimination against youth in business. We had many successes this past fall in getting businesses to change discriminatory policies, so we’re revving up this campaign again and are hoping to achieve an even higher level of success in the coming months. NYRA is aggressively going after businesses…
Middle School NYRA Chapter Works to Lower Voting Age
One of NYRA’s newest chapters, NYRA-Nanuet: Teen Suffrage Organization, is based out of a middle school in New York, and is NYRA’s only currently active middle school-based chapter. The chapter’s primary goal, according to chapter president Jackie Ferro, is to lower the voting age to 16. NYRA-Nanuet already has about 25 members, and has garnered…
NYRA to Weigh In on Supreme Court Cases
NYRA is looking into filing or joining an amicus curiae, or friend of the court, brief in a U.S. Supreme Court case, Redding v. Stafford, in which a 13-year-old female middle school student was strip searched for ibuprofen. In 2003, middle school student Savana Redding was strip searched for ibuprofen on the basis of a…
Youth Criminalized, Controlled & Commoditized Says Giroux
A great new commentary from Henry Giroux about the criminalization of youth and the conspicuous absence of concern for youth in our growing economic crisis and recovery efforts. A good read. Some of the juciest bits: Increasingly, children seem to have no standing in the public sphere as citizens and as such are denied any…
