Hear Us Out: Commentary by Youth on School and Society. Speaking Out.

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Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, MI.
Carnegie Corp. of New York, NY.
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, IL.
Mott (C.S.) Foundation, Flint, MI.
Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Lab. at Brown Univ., Providence, RI.

Academic Achievement; Adolescents; Disadvantaged Youth; Diversity (Student); Minority Groups; Secondary Education; Student Attitudes; Urban Areas; Urban Youth; Writing Workshops

This publication presents essays written by seven young, urban, minority students participating in an intensive writing workshop given by What Kids Can Do in collaboration with the Margins to Mainstream project. The goal of the workshop was to coach students to create short essays suitable for use as a newspaper column, radio commentary, or college essay. The essays, which speak of the youths' struggles, inspirations, challenges, and triumphs include: "My Sequel to 'Baby Boy'" (Kellon Innocent); "Naki and I Start School" (Maharai Lowe); "How a Family Turns" (Misty Wilson); "What Really Matters? A Student's Perspective on Schooling" (Christine Mendoza); "Doing the Math for the American Dream" (Nick Jackson); "Fire, Water, Family: Moving Past Fear into the Future" (Cleopatra Counts); and "The Will To Work and Where We Find It" (Bosung Kim). The final paper, "Afterword" (Kathleen Kushman), describes the process of writing these essays during the writing workshop, explaining that for most of the participants, the process demystified the act of writing for publication and allowed students to see that their own lives could yield important points for others. (SM)

2002

ED461699