This essay is about age-based curfew laws, a proposal that they should be abolished. I even unleashed the full power of Mike Males (who is, as you may know, a sociologist) and his coauthored study on the effectiveness in age-based curfews. Also doubleplusungood. Age-based curfew laws in the United States should be abolished. There is…
We’ve all had the feeling at some point. We’ve all seen a sign or been told something by a store employee, parent or school administrator that was just such an ageist injustice that it couldn’t go unchallenged. Even the least argumentative youth rights supporters must have felt the need to challenge a small ageist injustice…
Here are two essays I wrote for my English class last semester. The first is about “Involuntary Volunteering,” the practice in some high schools (and middle and elementary schools as well, which is actually worse) requiring students to complete a certain amount community service in order to graduate. (Community service graduation requirements, or for the Orwellians out there, comserve gradreqs. Doubleplusungood.) Since this was to be an evaluation essay, all I could really say was that they stunk, but the implication is, they shouldn’t be allowed either.
The second is about age-based curfew laws, a proposal that they should be abolished. I even unleashed the full power of Mike Males (who is, as you may know, a sociologist) and his coauthored study on the effectiveness in age-based curfews. Also doubleplusungood.
A thread in the NYRA forums about gym reminded me of some experiences of mine in PE class, and indeed in all sports going back to when I was quite young. In elementary school we had these raucous soccer games during recess. One part of the playground had a very small field set up with…
NYRA’s annual meeting will be held in Berkeley, California on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006. NYRA’s annual election will start on July 5, 2006, and it will end on the day of the annual meeting. If anyone who is interested in attending the annual meeting needs a place to sleep at night, they should contact Pamela…
A great deal has been written about youth rights theory, and about educational theory that is pertinent to youth rights. Authors such as John Holt, Richard Farson, and
This past spring, New York City Councilmember Gale Brewer introduced a bill to lower the voting age to sixteen for municipal elections. About a dozen NYRA members were present when the bill was introduced, and a few spoke at Brewer’s press conference. At a recent meeting, NYRA’s New York City chapter agreed that the voting…
I would like to commend Al Aynsley-Green, the Children’s Commissioner of England, for stating that youth are “capable of voting and want to do so.” He goes on to say: “…16-year-olds should be involved very much in the democratic process.” “They’ve got important things to say and they understand how the adult world works.” This…
Over on the Freechild Blog, Adam writes about this awesome Gandhi quote, then quickly goes off on a tangent about Laura Bush: For instance, Mr. Bush’s wife Laura has spent the last two years being concerned about America’s youth. From the beginning, her initiative focused on the problems young people face. In a rather traditional…
I almost feel like I’ve betrayed the unwritten code of grassroot orgs everywhere. A week ago, I pushed a resolution across NYRA Berkeley Execs. To request and encourage donations of $1 from all membership, once a month. Execs would be everything short of required to donate $5. I posted this to the NYRA Berkeley e-tree,…
