Youthwise #2

Youthwise is a collage of sound bytes that will be dropped over the next month. These voices are gathered and curated from interviews I conducted from 1993-96 with the first student cohort of Bank Street College’s Liberty Partnership (aka Liberty Leads) which continues nearly 40 years and 1,700 lives later.  I was its founding Director. Fern Khan,Dean of Continuing Education at the time, was its Guardian Angel.

The voices of young people matter. They can possess the trenchancy of lived insight and authentic wisdom. Something our tests and assessments rarely yield. As educators we are often occupied with intervening, reporting, measuring, designing, teaching, and speaking to young people. Perhaps it is a moment in history when we need to listen. And to act with them. When we are wise and humble enough to let go of the need to control, if we truly believe what an educated citizen can become.