Week 5, Blog #3 Reflection

1) What were some of your initial expectations about this class? How were your initial expectations confirmed or how did they change over the course of the semester?

Initially, I thought this class would be about the issues that adolescents face that may cause The course started in week #1 discussing juvenile incarceration, which was what I was expecting, but other topics such as the rights to education and fair labor practices, even the domestic violence patterns broadened my scope of youth and justice to more than the wrong-doings of adolescents but also the wrong-doings TOWARDS adolescents.

2) Given the various topics we've covered in the class, explain what you think is the most pressing issue facing youth today. Why is this particular issue such a major one?

I think the most pressing issues facing youth today is gang violence and its ties to the sale of drugs.  Kids being raised in the inner cities are especially vulnerable.  The perceptions of having wealth and a "family" seem to fill a gap of many children who suffer from poverty  or a lack of a structured, loving home environment.  This issue is such a major one because so many children in this day and age live in single family homes where parents are struggling to make ends meet.

3) Going back to the initial blog post question:(how old is 15?) How has your understanding of youth development changed (if at all)? What ideas have been confirmed for you? What ideas were new?

I feel I have had a wonderful childhood and a wonderful life, to the point I feel like I been living in a bubble. Many of the issues of extreme poverty, struggling for an education, even for the necessities of food and clothing, I have not had to endure.  I didn't realize there were so many children having to struggle, being abused, taken advantage of and also neglected. I was saddened many times by the videos, especially the domestic violence video and the videos of the child soldiers being abducted in Africa. There needs to be so much more advocacy on a global level for the rights of children.

My Thoughts:
This course had an intense level of assignments, and I also realize that they were condensed into 5 weeks which made it more difficult.  However, learning through videos was a wonderful approach to the class. I don't think I would have grasped the intensity and depth of the issues we studied each week without having the pictures!