“Why are you in such a hurry to grow up?” It or some variation of it is the end of many debates on Youth Rights. It’s a simple way for an ageist to wriggle out of the tight spot in which they have been placed on the issues. “Just enjoy your childhood.” Anybody who has…
We dismiss ageism as a far-fetch claim of rebellious youth. But just as with Racism and Sexism, we must look beyond imposed stereotypes. We must look to what is real, what is around us.
As NYRA continues to grow, we feel that it is necessary to publish more documents and guides for youth, particularly students. A recent project that Stefan Muller and I have taken on is developing a “Student Rights Handbook” where we list all of the rights that students have at schools and any limitations on those…
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dustin Manuel, one of NYRA’s former board directors from the 2000-2001 term. Manuel recently had a story he written many years ago about youth rights published in a collection of stories he wrote. Manuel wrote the story during the fall of his junior year in 2001 while he…
NYRA-Orange County is engaged in a campaign to get both political parties to support a lower voting age. They are starting with the California Democratic Party (CDP), where they have several contacts. As of April 6, the chapter was planning to attend the CDP’s convention in Sacramento in order to make lowering the voting age…
Since February, 2006, Adam King, one of the leaders in NYRA’s chapter formation, has worked extensively to convince the Buncombe County Board of Education to add a student advisor to the board. This position would initially be non-voting, and the student would not be allowed to sit in on closed sessions that deal with personnel…
Last year’s NYRAthon was an overwhelming success. Chapters and individuals engaged in friendly competition to see who could raise the most money, which resulted in a relatively significant influx of money. This money was what allowed NYRA to hire its Executive Director to work full time. If NYRA is ever to become the viable organization…
As reported in my last blog entry, I have been actively working to create a position on my local school board for students. I was expecting to speak at the March board meeting, but I was informed a few days before the meeting that it had been postponed until the meeting on Monday, April 3,…
NYRA just released a fascinating new study that Mike Males put together that makes a very convincing case that a large part of the reason for high traffic deaths among teens is not simply due to their age, but because of their poverty level. This is an angle of the issue that to my knowledge…
I’m probably grossly taking this guy’s comment the wrong way, but either way, I’m tired, so it got me going. On a message board I frequent, this guy talked about stuff that annoys him at the movie theatre. Light hearted enough, as his posts usually are. Among his complaints, however, was a remark about how…
