Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Necessary Clarity

Monday's cooking club forced me to reflect on my technique for teaching advocacy. I noticed that while the young people were engaged they didn't have the proper "advocacy lens" to look through (they couldn't see the real failures of a system that facilitates one in every three children [31.7%] ages 2-19 being overweight or obese). Thus, the educator must impart to them the knowledge to "see" an issue, desire change, and strategize for it like an advocate.

Essentially I didn't introduce the students to the appalling nutrition statistics, I didn't ask them to define the issue (why do these statistics exist?), I didn't prompt a conversation about who is affected (who wins and who loses?), and we didn't ask ourselves about the main causes of the issue. Having heard their satisfaction with the status quo, their short-term understanding must be supplemented with some view the possible improvements that could be made with some passion, research, and strategy. 

Any strategy I foresee will be most immediately seen during the time to generate solutions to the issue. Through helpful team activities these young people can critically imagine a new landscape of food offerings. This imagining could then be the launching point for their seeing the issue anew. Solutions must be considered in the same breath as the problems.

Working with these young people to develop their lens, creating momentuum for their growing community, and imparting skills (i.e. community mapping, critical questioning) will put them in a strong position to grow as advocates and healthy kids.

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