LAST BLOG

Link to the article:

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2557/Youth-Development-Programs.html

I took inspiration from Emmas blog! I for some reason really enjoyed reading this article. This article really represents what a youth worker should be. I'm going to take some quotes that I thought were cool from the text and talk about them a bit. 

"Until the mid-1800s, children were viewed as miniature adults who, without strict guidance from their families, would follow their natural inclination toward aggression, stubbornness, sinfulness, and idleness to their doom." I liked those quote because it shows since the 1800s how much youth has progressed. Youth has progressed a tremendous amount, now they're speaking for what they believe in and really changing the way the world works. Kids then often had to conform to the  social norm and were frowned upon whenever they spoke up. 

"Youth development programs seek to improve the lives of children and adolescents by meeting their basic physical, developmental, and social needs and by helping them to build the competencies needed to become successful adults." Agreed with Emma on this one! As a youth worker this is something you should strive for. Your years of being a youth can be incredibly hard. But, if you can be a role model that kids look up to then you can change their entire life. This is what all youth workers/teachers should be striving to do.

"Schools are viewed as a critical component of community-based youth development efforts. Of particular interest are efforts to provide youth development activities in school buildings during nonschool hours. Such activities range from educational enrichment, career exploration and development, and social and recreational opportunities. Four basic models of school-based youth development programs have been identified." I found his paragraph in the way they use Youth Educated Programs in School. I found this to be interesting because they're doing activities in school that could benefit them tremendously in the future. Social and recreational can help a kid tremendously that might be struggling to be able to interact. For me, it's great to see that schools are focusing on things other then reading out of a text book and boring a student to death. Career exploration is important as well because it helps the youth think more about what they want to do in the future.