All posts by Martina Gamboa

12 year olds “then and now” a too-true meme category

Perspectives & History of Adolescence

About a month ago I went with my 12 year old sister and two cousins (14 and 10) to Six Flags. We take a standard selfie, all smiling, and I send the photo to a friend letting her know how much fun we’re having. In conversation when she asks how old they are she is baffled at the fact that they’re not between 18 and 22. Since this day, and so far in my student teaching placement around middle schoolers, I’ve had this burning question:

Why do pre-teens and teens not look like our idea of pre-teens and teens? More specifically black and brown pre-teens and teens.

The MVP passage I chose on p.274 bottom left portion brings up the point but I personally feel like the authors of this piece didn’t go as in-depth as I would have liked or at least enough to more sufficiently answer my question. I understand that this article emphasizes the changes in our world has changed the “ages” at when adolescences begins and ends. But, what I most wonder, sparked by experience and then this passage, is why this is so prevalent in black and brown communities in the US? I don’t understand why the authors would bring up such a specific and important point with such precision and then not refer back to it in the same detail in the larger subdivision that talks about puberty.

Although commonly seen as a meme-worthy joke, this shift has had implications that aren’t humorous at all. Aside from a simple age mix up in a photo, this has often been the cause of violence from law enforcement towards these minors. I see in my school how pre-teen students are spoken to so sternly and strongly because of growth spurts that make them look like adults when maybe they’re just 11 and 12 year olds goofing around.

I need a lot more information and this article leaves me with more questions than answers.

Meme compilation comparing teens from now to teens from before
“Insights on Adolescence From a Life Course Perspective” (2011) p.274

 

Pass the mic

Observing to Learn and Learning to Observe

So often we hear commentary on giving a voice to the voiceless but I think this passage so eloquently emphasizes the true meaning of the photo voice project while also reminding us of a daily practice we should be enacting. The idea of “passing the microphone” is one of the best ways to hear the plethora of voices yearning to not only tell their story but be heard as well. There is always something we can do to metaphorically pass the mic to someone who isn’t being heard enough and get the larger group to hear them out. It’s not about us telling their story and speaking for them, but recognizing that they themselves have voices and can speak their own truth sincerely and better than we ever could.

We as educators and global citizens moving about in this world can either “take away the noise and other obstacles that impede the environment in which students are trying to use their voices…” or amplify their voice by simply passing them the mic.

Immigrant Youth Use Photovoice to Counter Racism and Discrimination (2017) Roxas et. al. p.27-28

What happens when the social-media-comment-section-fight occurs in real life?

Urban Adolescents

I had to put down the article multiple times while reading it because I so deeply felt the pain behind each and every word. Dumas’ words not only educated and shared knowledge but also evoked a sadness and rage that he so incessantly calls out for. This passage in particular deems the MVP status, although every paragraph in this article could also attain it, because it made me recall many social media fights with so-called “devil’s advocates” who tried to justify violence, evil, and deliberate malignant action against Black people and then challenged me as an aspiring educator to materialize it in the real world and point blank confronted me as to what I would do about it. The issue here is that Black suffering, because of antiblackness, often times is met with people validating and defending the right to make Black people suffer. It’s hard enough being Black in an antiblack society, but to add on top the burden of having to constantly justify why you deserve basic humanity in light of deathly violence is incredibly difficult to go through every single day. But unfortunately, it’s not just about the larger violent incidents, it is also about the microagressions that Black and brown people face day in and day out and how that effects them as well.

I think that the questions posed in this paragraph must be asked because it’s not a matter of if we will encounter it in a classroom setting but when. Yes, please, call me out and hold me accountable because I will be the adult in the room, I will be responsible for my actions and for what I allow in my classroom. At first I thought that Dumas’ call to end schooling as we know it was slightly extreme but now, I think it’s the only possible way to move forward and against antiblackness.

M. Dumas (2018) Beginning and ending with Black suffering: A meditation on and against racial justice in education. p.32