Increasingly, youth are criminalized in public education, which has aims at control and conformity starts them early into the prison model. Ceving Soling , director of The War on Kids, discusses how schooling contributes to the deviance of young people in American society.
Here's a clip
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Pay to play, kids
This link is to an article about an issue that has bothered me for a while: unpaid college internships.
After being in charge with personally overseeing an extremely disappointing internship myself, I have been critical of qui bono when undergrads land these gigs. From what I saw, the one I was involved in helped out the place far more than students by having bodies to keep the place open and do menial low-level administrative tasks. Take that to the interview, kid!
Sure, I understand that experience counts, and that having someone to write you a recommendation is important. Still, having to do it for free PLUS pay for school is shitty -- especially when the take-away is so very little.
Who is quality controlling these things? Young people put their hopes and efforts in these. They deserve better.
Also, who decided that low-paying fields like Social Work should require this type of financial gouging? Within a society that views financial independence as the gatekeeper of adulthood, being weighed down by debt has huge implications for who is able to be a full member of our society, It also shapes our future political climate, as being financial hardship can lessen empathy and fuel conservatism, and also cut into families' ability to take care of children and not send them into the military.
This needs to be looked at much further!
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My response to comment on the link:
Hm. I would argue that paying to work for free for a job that might or might not provide you the credentials to land an space in the job market (more like a job bodega these days) would not be better than learning theory. To start, I guess, you are losing a lot less money in the class. Not getting paid for an internship AND having to pay for school is problematic on many levels.
Also, who is to say that internships will open the doors to a career? While it is sweet that you have a good situation, Ashley, a lot of internships give interns little guidance, menial tasks, and little assistance in getting their foot in the door. Why are young people putting up with it? Maybe because, in true neoliberalist form, they are once again being told that they are the problem, and that they need to retool themselves. What needs to be retooled is our profit-driven system that has allowed jobs to go overseas, workers' rights to be eroded, and public education to be corporatized and inaccessible to the public. It's not enough to create job-ready people. No matter how much money people are willing to invest in themselves, if you want to get a job, there first needs to be jobs.
Why are young people having to pay so much money to have a shot at being part of the adult working world? Why are they doing it? How will the immense debt that they carry with them from school shape their later lives? And the lengthening of adolescence continues...
After being in charge with personally overseeing an extremely disappointing internship myself, I have been critical of qui bono when undergrads land these gigs. From what I saw, the one I was involved in helped out the place far more than students by having bodies to keep the place open and do menial low-level administrative tasks. Take that to the interview, kid!
Sure, I understand that experience counts, and that having someone to write you a recommendation is important. Still, having to do it for free PLUS pay for school is shitty -- especially when the take-away is so very little.
Who is quality controlling these things? Young people put their hopes and efforts in these. They deserve better.
Also, who decided that low-paying fields like Social Work should require this type of financial gouging? Within a society that views financial independence as the gatekeeper of adulthood, being weighed down by debt has huge implications for who is able to be a full member of our society, It also shapes our future political climate, as being financial hardship can lessen empathy and fuel conservatism, and also cut into families' ability to take care of children and not send them into the military.
This needs to be looked at much further!
--
My response to comment on the link:
Hm. I would argue that paying to work for free for a job that might or might not provide you the credentials to land an space in the job market (more like a job bodega these days) would not be better than learning theory. To start, I guess, you are losing a lot less money in the class. Not getting paid for an internship AND having to pay for school is problematic on many levels.
Also, who is to say that internships will open the doors to a career? While it is sweet that you have a good situation, Ashley, a lot of internships give interns little guidance, menial tasks, and little assistance in getting their foot in the door. Why are young people putting up with it? Maybe because, in true neoliberalist form, they are once again being told that they are the problem, and that they need to retool themselves. What needs to be retooled is our profit-driven system that has allowed jobs to go overseas, workers' rights to be eroded, and public education to be corporatized and inaccessible to the public. It's not enough to create job-ready people. No matter how much money people are willing to invest in themselves, if you want to get a job, there first needs to be jobs.
Why are young people having to pay so much money to have a shot at being part of the adult working world? Why are they doing it? How will the immense debt that they carry with them from school shape their later lives? And the lengthening of adolescence continues...
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