{"id":161052,"date":"2023-10-26T14:21:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T21:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161052"},"modified":"2023-11-01T12:03:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T19:03:23","slug":"review-of-why-arent-we-doing-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161052","title":{"rendered":"Review of Why Aren\u2019t We Doing This"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review of Why Aren\u2019t We Doing This<\/strong><\/h1>\n

By Anthony Bernier | October 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adults love<\/em> writing so-called \u201cnon-fiction\u201d books about young people. The most popular of these books indulge cliched and unsupported claims based on moral panics-of-the-week. This week\u2019s panic is about \u201cthe teenage brain\u201d and depression. The next week it\u2019s about overindulging an energy drink, a new social network application, or teen mental health. Such moral panics historically reach back to the morally corrupting influence of AM radio.<\/p>\n

In 2022, a popular example was You Are Your Own Best Teacher<\/em>, <\/strong>by Claire Nader, claiming youth to be helpless apathetic victims to the always nefarious \u201ctyranny of peer groups.\u201d Authors of these titles receive lucrative, immediate, and un-scrutinized national notoriety. Few such authors\u2019 claims or opinions percolate from anything more than a handful of instances – from psychologist or social worker caseloads or a journalist\u2019s random field observations. Fewer still actually include<\/em> young people in their assessments.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Why Aren\u2019t We Doing This: Collaborating with Minors in Major Ways<\/em>, \"\"<\/a><\/strong>pushes back on such books lining the nation\u2019s library shelves, with the direct question of its title. Co-authored by the intergenerational team of 19-year-old youth advocate, Denise Webb, and veteran radical youth advocate, Wendy Schaetzel Lesko, they invert the legacy cliches found in conventional and popular non-fiction about today\u2019s young people.<\/p>\n

Scrutinizing over 80 interviews with a wide array of highly involved youth service providers and<\/em> young people, Webb and Lesko present a vision of youth as something other than innocent & hapless victims or marauding criminals.<\/p>\n

They answer their title\u2019s question.<\/p>\n

Webb and Lesko imagine young people as already capable, active, and contributing agents in many nonprofit organizations and governmental institutions. Their findings urge the rest of us to see young people this way, too, as intergenerational collaborators.<\/p>\n

In an inspiringly accessible narrative voice, Why Aren\u2019t We Doing This <\/em>\u2013 <\/strong>teaches the topics and addresses the concerns skeptics simply accept to justify why incorporating young people is just too hard.<\/p>\n

Webb and Lesko illustrate how it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

Their well laid-out Table of Contents usher readers through six logical arguments and strategies for disrupting legacies that exclude youth through inducting and infusing youth into the operational and strategic fabric of our organizations. Along the way Why Aren\u2019t We Doing This <\/em><\/strong>shares real-world insights from their interviews as well as offers practical resources, such as the \u201cLadder of Real Vs. Token Youth Participation,\u201d to help guide organizations away from superficial manipulations of young people through to genuine influence and power enhancing collaborations.<\/p>\n

While Why Aren\u2019t We Doing This <\/em><\/strong>inherently criticizes conventional \u201cyouth development\u201d theory\u2019s outdated indoctrinations and \u201ccolonialist\u201d aspirations, something long overdue(!), this reader would like to have seen a more direct confrontation. This, however, perhaps says more about my own agenda than the authors\u2019. I would also have appreciated a bibliography of the resources the authors drew from in mounting this important guide.<\/p>\n

That said, as someone who teaches youth service professionals, I particularly appreciate the detailed content about appropriate on-boarding, coaching, and co-piloting techniques leading to authentic youth influence building.<\/p>\n

Youth advocates, political activists and campaign strategists, social workers, teachers, and civic officials of all kinds will find Why Aren\u2019t We Doing This <\/em><\/strong>an indispensable and practical guide to acknowledging how, as the Forward reads, young peoples\u2019 lives \u201chave value NOW.\u201d [emphasis in original]<\/p>\n

Order your copy here: <\/span><\/p>\n

Order your copy here:
\nhttps:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Arent-Doing-Collaborating-Minors-Major\/dp\/B0CJ49HL5S<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review of Why Aren\u2019t We Doing This By Anthony Bernier | October 2023 Adults love writing so-called \u201cnon-fiction\u201d books about young people. The most popular of these books indulge cliched and unsupported claims based on moral panics-of-the-week. This week\u2019s panic is about \u201cthe teenage brain\u201d and depression. The next week it\u2019s about overindulging an energy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161052"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161059,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161052\/revisions\/161059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}