Youth News

Raised By Women 

“Raised by Women” was a hit with a Portland Oregon 11^th grade African-American literature class. Linda Christensen used the poem by Kelly Norman Ellis to help her students celebrate their homes and heritage. They also used it to build relationships with each other.

Christensen read the poem to the class twice. Then she asked “Who were you raised by-- mother, father, coaches, church, neighbors, musicians, civil rights activists?” The students noticed that each stanza had a repeating line. But it dealt with a different subject: food, hair, appearance, choices, music, attitude and professions.

The students brainstormed other categories they could use to write a similar poem. Ellis used home language rather than Standard English. So the teacher encouraged her students to do the same. If their home language was Spanish, she encouraged them to incorporate it.

            Each student read their poem in class. Students took notes on what the poem told them about their classmates. They especially liked Jessica’s repeating line “I wasn’t raised by my daddy.” This was true of most of the 30 students. Destinee wrote: “I learned that I have something in common with every single person in this room. We have all been through a lot of the same things. I learned that most of us weren’t raised by our dads.”

Info from Rethinking Schools
1001 E. Keefe, Milwaukee WI 53212

Send your Story to Just Like a Girl: A Manifesta! 

Just Like a Girl, from GirlChild Press is intended to be a rough and tumble, sassy, wickedly clever kick-ass anthology. It will highlight clever girls, funny girls, girls who don’t ask for permission and girls who take up as much room as they damn well like. She is the girl who knows that girl/woman does not equal weak.

            This girl doesn’t have to be a super hero. But she has hit a few balls out of the park, cursed out a couple trash-talking construction workers, and took a few racist, homophobic, misogynistic folks to task. Ultimately, she knows how to pick herself up and brush herself off. off. off.

            She’s a feminist. 2nd Wave. 3rd Wave. No Wave. She has read the Patriot Act. She recognizes that people’s lives fall apart, but with time and some Elmer’s glue it all works itself out. She’s an urban girl. A country girl. She seriously ponders what are the SAT scores of girls grinding in music videos.  She is the girl in the music video.

            She has the perfect plan on how to break up with a partner, and how not to lose her cool when her 38 triple D bra snaps at a party. She is a cashier at WALMART. the second chair flute in her 8th grade band. She marches on Washington. She has 6,000 friends on myspace.com. She still hides the tattoo that she got at senior beach week from her mother.  She writes for herself, her sister, for the girls still not born.

            Just Like a Girl will be a travelogue for the bumpy, powerful, action packed world of girlhood. Tell a secret. Reveal a lie Go tell it on the mountain.

Deadline: September 30, 2007

New writers welcome. You may submit up to three essays / short stories, no longer than 3,000 words each. Type your name on each page. Sci-fi is encouraged!

Send to girlchildpress@aol.com or Michelle Sewell, GirlChild Press, PO Box 93, Hyattsville, MD 20781.

Email subject should be Just Like a Girl. Attachments should be titled with your name.

Please include a brief bio and a mailing address. Contributors will receive a copy of the anthology and the opportunity to read at the official Spring 2008 booksigning.

Making the DREAM Act a Reality

 Pending federal legislation known as the DREAM Act would provide immigration relief to immigrant students. Many immigrant youth have no way of becoming legal residents. And many states deny them access to college. The DREAM ACT encourages states to provide in-state tuition. And it opens a path to citizenship for undocumented youth. Last year it got Senate approval. Now it awaits action in the House of Representatives.

An Idaho Legislature bill would enable undocumented Idaho kids to pay in-state college tuition rates. Idaho out-of-state tuition is $12,000 and in-state is $5,000.

            Getting the DREAM Act passed is a top priority for the Idaho Community Action Network (ICAN). In  2005, ICAN created a Speakers Bureau of immigrant youth leaders. The Bureau trained youth to reach people who know little about the lives of immigrants. They learned how to speak with media. In a single month they gave 30 presentations to grassroots organizations, high schools and colleges. In Feb. 2006 they held a statewide conference and training at Albertson College.  30 students developed a plan to make the DREAM Act a reality.

            In Spring 2006, the ICAN Speaker’s Bureau organized college faculty and student governments to write and pass resolutions supporting the DREAM Act. They won resolution after resolution: Boise State University, Idaho State University, Lewis and Clark State College, University of Idaho, Albertson College of Idaho, College of Southern Idaho. Then ICAN organized a regional meeting with 150 participants from Oregon and Idaho. Immigrant rights activists made the connection between the DREAM Act and immigration reform.

            The national debate on immigration and the DREAM Act has stalled. But ICAN’s work continues. ICAN drafted legislation, House Bill 220, the Idaho Student Investment Act. It would allow many students to pay in-state tuition regardless of immigration status, as long as they meet a new set of requirements.

 ~ ICAN  208-385-9146,

3450 Hill Rd, Boise ID 83703.

Venezuela Invests in Education

 Instead of giving student loans, the Venezuelan government gave out 13,500 grants to college students in the 2006 academic year. The grants were worth $47 million combined.

The government’s student loan program wanted to reduce the interest on student loans to 3%. But President Chavez said, “No, higher education cannot be paid. It’s our duty to make it free, it’s a constitutional provision.”  Chavez also insisted that the program not rely on internet applications because “poor people don’t have access to the internet.”

In the 1990’s when the World Bank controlled Venezuela’s student loans, interest rates reached 58%. Under this new grant program, former students also benefit.  Their debt is being forgiven. One student said, “They’re now treating education like an investment in the country, rather than like a bank.”

~www.venezuelanalysis.com