Guest Opinion Essay Archives | Page 67 of 78

Race, Class, Culture And Perceived Entitlements

Bear with me. I’m trying to make sense of a series of writings spread before me that speak to how race, class...

The Quality Conundrum

Conventional wisdom says the quality of youth work programs rests in no small measure on the quality of the program staff. But...

The New Isolationists?

I have heard it all too often in youth program circles: “The United States should focus on the challenges right here between...

Drive-By Journalism

To grasp the appalling meanness of the American Automobile Association’s latest media attack on teenagers, consider the tragedy of Travis Bosse. He...

America’s Overpaid Promise

The February edition of Youth Today arrived one recent day, and as I do every year with this particular issue, I flipped...

What Part of Mediocre Don’t We Get?

We hear it all the time. We hear it from the podium and the pulpit, from policymakers and pundits: Children are...

Secret to Success: Deliver Meaning

Accomplishment. Beauty. Community. Creation. Duty. Those are five of the 15 “meanings” identified in a hot new business book about the bottom-line...

Forget Hip-Hop; Get YCC

A civil war is brewing in youth work force development centers. It pits many veteran youth workers against a younger crowd that...

MySpace.com Menaces Teens? C’mon!

Many parents think their children are safe in one of our most hallowed institutions, until they discover its dark side: violence, sexual...

Age of Aquarius Meets Era of Accountability

I recently participated in back-to-back meetings about outcomes of community schools and after-school programs. At each event, leaders in the field gathered...

Private Pays, but Not for Kids

The business section of The New York Times ran a feature story in August titled, “A Business Built on the Troubles of...

France Could Learn From U.S. Youth Riots

Last month’s youth riots in France raised many important questions, including what that country must do to tackle chronic youth alienation and...

Medellin’s Murdered Children … and Ours

“Just light sprinkles,” the pilot rasped as my flight from Medellin, Colombia, descended through Miami’s murky skies. “In a few hours, it’ll...

Wanted: Bipartisan Leadership

By Karen Pittman I thought nothing could be more sobering than the photos and stories that continue to pour forth from...

Message in a Bottle

Sometimes you have to cross the ocean to get a clearer picture of what is happening in your own country. I just...

Getting Out of Our Funk

I’m in a funk. I’ll bet you are, too. Those of us who value young people, who give our all in the...

Aged Out of After-School

As youth workers, we face similar challenges when it comes to keeping older teens enrolled in our programs. By the time our...

Abstinence Ed: Why the Fuss?

To abstain or not to abstain – that is a question many young people are asking themselves. Most adults and youth, and...

Psychologists, Mental Health and Youth Development

Many professional groups comprise the tapestry of what Youth Today readers call “youth work”: Educators, health professionals, managers with MBAs, sociologists and...