Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

Is This The Most Important School Subject?

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The most important school subject
Image courtesy of Heinz

I was the odd one out. Actually, I was part of the odd two out. I didn’t like it at the time but looking back, it was one of the best things that could have happened to me.

You see, when I chose what subjects to study at secondary school (the UK version of high school), I wanted to pick CDT. This stood for Craft, Design & Technology and it covered things like woodwork, graphic design, etc. The thing is, they couldn’t fit it in the timetable based on all the other subjects I was studying. The only choice I had was Food Technology – AKA Home Economics.

This wasn’t a subject that guys chose, proven by the fact that I was one of only two guys in a class of 20-30. Whenever I mentioned to friends that I had Food Tech next, I’d always qualify it by saying “I had to do it – they couldn’t fit CDT in the schedule”. I’ll admit – I was embarrassed at having to study a “girlie” subject.

Looking back, this is a little weird. I was never a macho guy and enjoyed helping my Mum bake stuff when I was younger. My friends also weren’t the kind of people to do a Nelson. This didn’t stop me from wanting to make sure everyone knew it wasn’t my choice though. It also seemed like Food Technology wasn’t a subject that was worth studying or one that would be fun.

How wrong I was.

Looking back at everything I learned at school, I think I’ve probably needed to know – and have used – every single thing I learned in Food Tech. It therefore makes me wonder why this isn’t mandatory learning in all schools, especially given the obesity problem worldwide.

I moved out of home when I was 17, but thanks to the knowledge gained in Food Tech I knew how to prepare meals.

I knew which foods to eat regularly and which to have in moderation.

I knew about food hygiene.

I knew you put uncooked meat on the bottom shelf of the fridge.

I knew you used different chopping boards when cutting up meat, fish and vegetables.

And I knew nutritional information, like baked beans on toast being a good source of HBV (High Biological Value) protein.

At this point, every American reading this (like my wife!) is saying “Baked beans on toast? What?!” It’s a British delicacy and trust me – it’s delicious. Baked beans have Low Biological Value protein and toast has LBV protein as well, but put them together and voila – you have High Biological Value Protein.

My point here is that without studying food tech, I’d have thought beans on toast had no great nutritional value, whereas it’s actually a really healthy, quick and easy-to-make meal. I wouldn’t have known what kinds of vitamins are in what types of food. And I wouldn’t have learned how to prepare meals so that even when cooking 5 or 6 different things at the same time, they finish cooking at the same time so I can serve them all hot together.

These are skills and knowledge that most students today simply don’t have, even though they’re precisely the kind of life lessons schools should be preparing youth for. I love maths and found simultaneous equations simple. There’s not a single time in my 31 years of life though where I’ve needed to know how to work out what x and y are, if both 3x + 7y and 5x – 16y equal 83.

The global economy is changing and the jobs market for youth is different now than when I left school. I’m sure it’ll have changed drastically again in 20 years time. No matter what job skills youth will need in the future though, there’s one thing I can guarantee they’ll need to do – eat. And eat healthily.

So as youth workers, let’s do our part by teaching youth the importance of knowing how to cook and food nutrition – it could literally save their life.

(n.b. x = 23 and y = 2 in case you’re wondering. Which, unless you’re geeky like me, you probably aren’t.)

Question: What other subjects do you think should be made obligatory in schools? Let us know in the comments below.

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How To Create Youth That Are The Right Kind Of Pathetic

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Youth work empathy sympathy
Use empathy to help your youth define necessity

The photo to the right, and various others similar to it, have been doing the rounds this holiday season.

The main reason for a photo like this is to create strong, visceral feelings. These photos are meant to make us realize our own excess in comparison to so many people’s impoverishment. They’re designed to make you feel something – most likely guilt.

When viewing them in their most altruistic light, they might effect some change in your life, through your giving and/or spending habits. They’re designed to evoke sympathy for the poor, starving children in the picture. To guilt you into action.

And they often work.

How many telethons, photo campaigns and commercials have we seen in the geographical North with just such images on them? Millions of dollars are raised each year through these methods.

Surely if they worked as a long term solution to the problem, we would have seen them once and that would have been enough.

But every year, you see the same telethon, every Red Nose Day, every BBC Children in Need campaign the same images and stories are shared, tears are shed and money is raised. Only to be done again in another 12 short months.

It’s very easy to see the same thing with our youth. Parents say ‘eat your peas – there are starving children in Africa’ or we take our youth on a mission trip or community service trip and see them cry and come home radically changed for a few weeks, or best case scenario a few months, but gradually over time they slip back into their ‘old ways’ until the next trip.

I am generalizing a little – there are some youth that are so profoundly changed during their time abroad or just by reading a story that they make a decision and make a real difference in the lives of others. But for the majority, the former is much more likely to reflect their true experiences.

This is because those images and experiences create sympathy rather than empathy. We need to focus on helping our youth develop empathy. There are many people who see sympathy and empathy as synonyms.

However, sympathy actually relates to the heart feelings about something, and we all know (looking back on our ‘lifelong loves’ when we were 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23…..) that the heart is fickle. When you feel sympathy, you feel bad for someone else, but you aren’t able to really ‘experience’ their pain on any level that is going to cause you to change your behavior for the long term. When we show these images to youth it’s a shock, and when the shock wears off they’re left with their old habits that they fall back into.

Empathy means that you get it in your head, you can see yourself in their situation and understand how truly awful it is, you understand the feelings on an intellectual level and therefore are able to internalize the feelings, and use them to effect change.

When this happens with our youth, rather than just feeling bad, they can understand what kinds of commonalities they share with the other person. They’re able to ‘walk a mile in their shoes’ and when they do this it causes long term change to their behaviors.

When you’re able to help a youth see that the child or teen in the picture likes the same sports or plays the same games as they do but is also suffering from the loss of their mother to HIV, you can help them develop empathy. By helping them identify their own feelings of deepest loss, relate that back to how this youth might be feeling and help them create an action plan to make a change.

Activities like the 30-hour famine can help create empathy because youth get to truly feel what hunger feels like. Is it the same as the famine that is actually going on in many places around the world? No, of course not. But it will begin to provide an intellectual understanding of what hunger is, rather than just an emotional response to a photo.

Question: Do you think empathy is important in youth work, or is sympathy enough? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

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Why ‘Because’ Just Isn’t Good Enough…

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Don’t give foggy answers to your youth

Anyone who has been around children since the age of 18 months or so, knows that they often want to know ‘Why?’  This is no different in our work with youth.

Youth often want to know ‘Why?’ It might be basic, such as ‘Why are we doing this game?’ or it might be weighted, complex and messy like ‘Why is there suffering in the world?’ And, as with the last question, you may not know the answer.  You may have an idea, or a belief or a feeling but you don’t know for sure.

As I’ve mentioned before, youth have a built in BS-radar, they can spot you blowing them off or making something up, so just don’t do it. The best thing you can do is give them your honest opinion, or guide them to where they can find out more information about something if it’s not your area of expertise.

But ‘because’ and other fluffy answers aren’t good enough. Not in today’s youth work climate.

Youth are hungry for answers and want to know truth. This article about the Barna Group’s study highlights how much youth want to search out the truth, and will leave your organization (in the article’s case, the church) if you’re not providing those answers satisfactorily.

We cannot give the ‘Because I said so’ answers to youth anymore. We have to make an effort to educate, empower and equip youth to find the answers for themselves, providing a safe environment for exploration of their beliefs and feelings on a subject.

Question: How do you answer ‘Why?’ questions in  your youth work? Share your experiences in the comments below.

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Create Youth Programs That Help Youth Consume Less

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Today is ‘Black Friday’ in the US. The day after Thanksgiving when everyone lines up for hours to buy their Christmas gifts and take advantage of discounts and sales.

While there’s nothing wrong with any of these things, it does highlight the consumer society that most youth in more economically developed countries are growing up in.

How about in your youth programs? Are you helping your youth to identify changes they can make that will set them apart from their peers, and help them develop a less consumer-focused approach to their lives?

Here are a few little ways you can help your youth consume less during your youth programs.

  1. Offer recycling bins for cans, bottles and paper
  2. Give the youth a budget to plan an activity and teach them how to research getting the best prices and how to scale back their plans based on their budget
  3. Have technology-limited sessions by creating activities and session plans that don’t need expensive devices to make them happen
  4. Plan activities and sessions that focus on creating empathy in your youth by looking at the conditions of youth living in less-economically developed countries

Question: What other ideas do you have? Create a conversation in the comments below.

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Youth Unemployment – Does It Matter?

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Youth unemployment - does it matter?
Are youth being hung out to dry as well?

Since the credit crunch hit in 2007/08, unemployment has been going up, or plateauing at already high levels. Youth unemployment though has been much higher compared to the national average unemployment rate – about double the rate for adults.

In the US, youth unemployment is 18% vs a national rate of 9%. In the UK, youth unemployment is 23% vs a national rate of 8%. Ireland’s youth unemployment rate is 27% while Spain’s rate is almost 45%.

The thing is, does youth unemployment matter? By this I mean – should we care more about youth that are unemployed than about people of other ages that are unemployed? Isn’t this just ageism against young people in reverse? My answers are yes, yes, no.

Why do I think youth unemployment matters more?

They’re unable to gain skills – an adult who’s been laid off will likely have a number of years of work experience and skills behind them to help them find another job. Young people entering the workforce don’t have that benefit, so it’s harder for them to gain the skills they need, meaning that…….

It’s harder for them to get a job longer term – not having workplace skills results in young people being less employable, making it more likely they’ll be unemployed longer term

Negative self-worth – it can be extremely demoralizing being turned down for jobs all the time, which can easily lead to young peoples’ self-worth being impacted. Never getting a job could understandably lead to young people saying “Why bother?”

Social mobility – if young people aren’t earning, they can’t afford to move out of home. This leads to an increase in the number of youth living with their parents still, on top of those who were already priced out of the housing market before the credit crunch

For me though, the biggest issue here is this – long-term societal issues. In the short term, youth unemployment is just as bad as adult unemployment – either way, someone’s out of work. The longer the youth unemployment rate stays high though, the less likely it is that they’ll be able to – or want to – join the workforce. Imagine how society will be affected over the coming decades if 1/5 of working age adults are deemed unemployable.

Tens of millions in the US alone would be on welfare, unable to or lacking motivation to get a job. Families will be living in sub-standard housing as they can’t afford any other option. Lack of money will impact on nutrition, their childrens’ education, crime and so many more factors.

Less employment would mean less money in the economy, resulting in employers that couldn’t afford to hire more workers even if they wanted to. Lower employment results in the government taking less in tax, meaning they have to make up the shortfall elsewhere, either through higher taxes on those who can get a job or by cutting spending – perhaps on services the unemployed rely on. As technology in business moves on, people unable to gain the skills needed for jobs would simply be left behind.

So, youth unemployment – does it matter? I think yes – how about you? Let us know in the comments below.

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