Catch da Flava youth radio February 19th - School Experiences
For the February 19th live show of the Catch da Flava youth radio program, our hosts Kylie, Thalia, and Meredith explored issues that youth experience in schools that can affect mental, physical, and social health and wellness. We focused mainly on high school issues and experiences, but we did briefly touch on some issues experienced in earlier school years also.
All of us had moved to a different school at some point during our high school years, so we started our discussion off with a comparison of the different experiences between the different schools we attended, such as the differences between public school, Catholic school, and private or specialized schools. All three of us felt that in our experiences with Catholic schools, religion played a very large part in all aspects of education and general student life, and quite frequently it crossed the line of being relied on and used as reasoning for decision-making far too often.
We also discussed school uniforms and dress codes, and how that can impact students. We talked about how clothing can be a source of bullying in schools, so sometimes school uniforms can actually be a helpful aspect of school life for students, as they take away the difference in clothing from student to student that can create divisions and make certain students targets for bullying. We also looked at the down sides of uniforms and dress codes, which can often disproportionately affect girls in schools, as dress codes seem to target girls' clothing much more harshly than boys'. Reasoning for disciplinary action and/or removing girls from class due to dress code violations will often cite the girls and their clothing as being a "distraction" to the male students, taking any responsibility off the boys for their behaviour, and prioritizing the education of the male students over the education and well-being of the girls.
Our discussion then moved to the topic of disciplinary action and conflict resolution in schools. We talked about how conflicts are resolved in schools by teachers and administrators, and how that process is often unfair and can be more punishment-based than rehabilitative or actually concerned with genuine resolution and making the situation better for all involved moving forward. We discussed how racism and other types of prejudice can come into play in disciplinary action in schools, especially with positions like School Resource Officers (essentially police officers in schools who use legal punishment as a means of behaviour control and conflict resolution) that often perpetuate the school to prison pipeline, especially for racialized and otherwise discriminated-against "minority" students.
This was a good opportunity for the youth to speak about their own experiences with school, issues and challenges they have faced navigating their school life, and to discuss their true feelings about the topic without feeling like their concerns are falling on deaf ears as they often do at school, and without feeling like they may be disciplined for their comments and feelings.
All of us had moved to a different school at some point during our high school years, so we started our discussion off with a comparison of the different experiences between the different schools we attended, such as the differences between public school, Catholic school, and private or specialized schools. All three of us felt that in our experiences with Catholic schools, religion played a very large part in all aspects of education and general student life, and quite frequently it crossed the line of being relied on and used as reasoning for decision-making far too often.
We also discussed school uniforms and dress codes, and how that can impact students. We talked about how clothing can be a source of bullying in schools, so sometimes school uniforms can actually be a helpful aspect of school life for students, as they take away the difference in clothing from student to student that can create divisions and make certain students targets for bullying. We also looked at the down sides of uniforms and dress codes, which can often disproportionately affect girls in schools, as dress codes seem to target girls' clothing much more harshly than boys'. Reasoning for disciplinary action and/or removing girls from class due to dress code violations will often cite the girls and their clothing as being a "distraction" to the male students, taking any responsibility off the boys for their behaviour, and prioritizing the education of the male students over the education and well-being of the girls.
Our discussion then moved to the topic of disciplinary action and conflict resolution in schools. We talked about how conflicts are resolved in schools by teachers and administrators, and how that process is often unfair and can be more punishment-based than rehabilitative or actually concerned with genuine resolution and making the situation better for all involved moving forward. We discussed how racism and other types of prejudice can come into play in disciplinary action in schools, especially with positions like School Resource Officers (essentially police officers in schools who use legal punishment as a means of behaviour control and conflict resolution) that often perpetuate the school to prison pipeline, especially for racialized and otherwise discriminated-against "minority" students.
This was a good opportunity for the youth to speak about their own experiences with school, issues and challenges they have faced navigating their school life, and to discuss their true feelings about the topic without feeling like their concerns are falling on deaf ears as they often do at school, and without feeling like they may be disciplined for their comments and feelings.
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