Climate change is starting to become a problem and I’m not strictly speaking to the melting ice caps or extreme weather—it’s creating a problem for teachers too. The debate about integrating climate change into class curriculums is one that is (no pun intended) starting to heat up. That’s why the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has launched a new initiative to support the teaching of climate change in classrooms.
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The following originally aired on KCBS
By: Dereke Williams
Some days when my knees are giving me a lot of pain I’ll look over at my shadow doing a slow pigeon toed wobble down the street, and I just think to myself how gross and unhealthy I look.
My mom taught me how to love me for me. I remember she once told me, “You’re fat simple as that, and until you’re ready to put in the hard work to change, you might as well be the cutest fat boy in the game.”
Some people in my life worry that if I accept myself the way I am, that it means I don’t want to change, but what they don’t understand is that the only way I can lose weight is to do it from a place of strength, not shame.
I’m accepting myself for who I am now, not what I wish to be or who I may become in the future, keeping in mind that wherever I go, my shadow will be there. Except now when see it, my shadow doesn’t have a negative hold on me. Instead I smile to myself and think, what a fat black beautiful bowlegged young man.
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As a black person I take pride in who I am and the color of my skin, that is why black history month means a lot to me.
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I was born in Santa Monica on May 9th 1996. I was raised in Palmdale, which is a valley 45 minutes away from Los Angeles. After my parents divorced when I was 8, my dad moved to Lancaster, which is a town that is merged into Palmdale.
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There is a new social networking program being launched online, this new program is none other than Google+. Read more...
Most people look forward to Valentine’s Day, but for me it’s the most dreaded day of the year, other than going to the dentist. Read more...
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A group of sixth graders shared their stories with Youth Radio about getting suspended from school, and whether they thought it was a fair and a meaningful punishment. They Skyped with us from their classroom in Oakland, CA.
Listen to their stories above.
Their teacher Ms. M., who preferred her name not be mentioned, shared some thoughts after listening to her students speak. “I’m just surprised at some of the situations that my students have gotten themselves into... I feel like in my classroom these students are very respectful to me, they’re generally not behavior problems. None of these students have been sent to the office by me this year,” she said.
In general, she senses from students that suspension is not seen as a punishment. It’s the opposite. “That definitely is the feeling among kids - suspension is a time to take off or play around, a break from school... It depends on what is going on at home. If you have a parent that cares a lot about their child getting suspended, then the kid is going to be at home doing chores, and doing their homework. Other kids come back to school and say, ‘I was at Six Flags when I was suspended,’ or ‘I was watching tv,’ or ‘I was playing video games when I was suspended,’” she said.
Read more... The following originally aired on KQED-FM.
By: Derek Williams
I’m so bowlegged that my older brother says I look like I’ve been riding a bull since the day I was born. I stand five foot seven and weigh 380 pounds.
Some days when my knees are giving me a lot of pain I’ll look over at my shadow doing a slow pigeon toed wobble down the street, and I just think to myself how gross and unhealthy I look.
Being overweight is something I’ve dealt with my whole life. Names like doughboy and fatty used to really get to me. But even when kids weren’t being mean, I felt isolated. In the 3rd grade my class took a field trip for Chinese New Year to the Empire Buffet. Chinese food is my favorite, and I was so excited, but then came the bad news…we had to walk eight blocks to the restaurant. Sweaty and out of breath, I eventually stopped to sit on a fire hydrant. I remember the look on some of my classmates' faces when they had to stop and wait for me. I had never felt worse in my life.
I’ve come a long way since then and have my mom to thank for a lot of that. I remember she once told me, “You’re fat simple as that, and until you’re ready to put in the hard work to change, you might as well be the cutest fat boy in the game.”
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In last week’s State of the Union address, President Obama proposed something radical, that dropping out of high school no longer be allowed. But that might be complicated. Every school district has tried numerous solutions to the dropout dilemma without success. The problem prompted Russell Rumberger to write a book called Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It.
Rumberger is director of the California Dropout Research Project, and he currently serves as provost in the Office of the President at the University of California. He recently talked about his theory that high schools need to promote alternatives to college – and that some people might be better served not getting a higher education at all. KALW's Ben Trefny sat down with Youth Radio’s Robyn Gee to discuss this idea of education.
This story was produced by Youth Radio with support from the New Options Project and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
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